Spheres of Control

In Spheres of Control, Fred K. Drogula argues that understanding Roman historiography makes it possible to identify and remove many of the most common errors, anachronisms, and fictions that appear in narrative traditions of Roman history. He also argues that--once any erroneous material is removed from traditional accounts--the remaining information not only maps easily onto the new historical framework, but doing so creates a more logical and cohesive reconstruction of Rome's early development and resolves many problems that scholars have identified with the existing narrative tradition. Drogula shows that a new reconstruction of the development of government in early Rome can be found by removing material from the traditional narratives that is likely to be erroneous and by recontextualizing the material that remains into a framework based on archaeological discoveries and new readings of ancient texts.