Peter A. Brunt and the Social History of the Late Roman Republic

The paper analyses the work of Peter A. Brunt, Camden Professor at Oxford (1970-1982) and a very prominent figure in the study of the social history of the Roman Republic. I explore his conception of history—social history in particular—in addition to assessing his main contributions on the Late Republic, which addressed social conflicts and violence, as well as the optimates-populares confrontation and the so-called ‘Roman revolution’.