More provincials whining

[mcbishop]

To be fair, the Francis Pryor programmes are really rather good (watch them with an open mind when you get a chance to see them: he is well worth listening to). He is not really a member of the 'Romans are fascist militarists' school of thinking (there is more than an element of tease in what he says) which, to be honest, I have been listening to for more years than I care to mention (and I have had to listen to some real anti-Roman cretins in my professional career, if you can call what I do a 'career'). A lot of it goes back to Roman archaeologists having discovered 'new archaeology' (which those of us who have actually studied any prehistory can tell you was old in the 1970s). It is sloppy academic thinking and does little to elucidate the past for either scholars or the general public (which is, after all, what it's all about). Even better is the assumption that if you study the Roman army, you too are a fascist militaristic pig (that one regularly comes out too). Those of us working in the field just grin at each other 'cos we've heard it all before and can recognise it for what it is: BS. You cannot study things Roman without adopting a holistic approach: citizens with provincials, military with civil, and (shock horror) literature with history.<br>
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Not that I feel strongly about such things, you understand... ;-)<br>
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Mike Bishop <p></p><i></i>