ROMAN CONCEPTS OF LEADERSHIP

What makes a leader?Who has power in society, and how do they wield it?These questions have gained urgency in contemporary society, and, as so often, that resonates in historical research.Of course, it is hardly a new question.Roman expressions of power have regularly been placed against modern politics.But recently research on ancient Roman leadership has branched out beyond traditional subjects of analysismost obviously emperors and political leaders in the (late) Roman Republic.The three books under reviewall of them highly relevant in their own rightfocus on figures whose role has not been so much analysed in terms of leadership up to now.In doing so, these volumes both help us understand the figures who are central to the books more clearly and show how leadership is a useful concept to explore beyond an analysis of powerful men (though powerful men still feature heavily).In different ways these books highlight the importance of placing ancient studies in a wider perspective; an essential step to take in times when the relevance of Graeco-Roman studies is no longer self-evident.The book in which the concept of leadership is most explicitly explored is Cicero, Paul and Seneca as Transformational Leaders in their Letter Writing.Comparative Readings.Rather than a conventional commentary, the volume aims to 'offer the reader a set of letters written by Cicero, Paul and Seneca, which have been selected against Transformational Leadership theory' (p. 1).Fundamentally, it notices how important leadership studies have become in a range of disciplines (such as cultural and social studies, and the social sciences) and wants to bring Classics into the debate.It aims to do so not only by showing how 'Transformational Leaders theory provides fresh lenses for reading and interpreting our source texts' but also how 'analysing Cicero, Paul and Seneca's letter writing : : : adds new and productive sources to the (modern) leadership discourse and modern leadership studies'