‘Republican Italy’, ‘integration’ and ‘economy’ have been at the centre of Saskia Roselaar's research since her Leiden PhD, published as Public Land in the Roman Republic. A Social and Economic History of Ager Publicus in Italy, 396–89 BC (2010). This comprehensive and insightful new volume offers a synthetic treatment of these themes. Furthermore, by associating ‘economic revolution’ (here meaning ‘economic boom’) with the history of Republican Italy, without explicitly citing Rome in the title of the book, R. claims that Rome's support was necessary but perhaps not sufficient to explain Italy's economic expansion, and its social and cultural integration before the advent of the Principate. In R.'s account, the Italian economy evolved alongside Rome's for most of the Middle Republic. After the Hannibalic war, however, the increasingly interventionist policies conducted by Rome (politically, militarily and economically) inevitably led to regional conflicts and eventually to the Social War. Departing from traditional accounts that stress Italian economic decline in this period, this book attempts to understand how Italy's economic revolution operated.

The book is divided into five chapters, each neatly sub-headed, and a general conclusion. Ch. 1 gives an outline of not only the differences but also the ties between Romans and Italians from the perspective of ethnicity, culture, language, economy and the military. In her view, for most of this period the Italian economy worked as an interconnected network of local economies. Also addressed, notwithstanding the general debates surrounding such models as ‘creolisation’ or ‘Romanisation’, is the role played by Rome in allowing Italians to gain access to new legal and financial institutions, including benefits from business opportunities driven into Italy by Roman expansion. R. tackles particular issues such as the foundation of Roman colonies and their contacts with non-Romans. These were mediated by migration and mobility policies, sanctuaries and their commercial functions, regular markets and fairs, and finally social partnerships. In ch. 3, R. cogently argues that, excepting regional and legal differences among towns and peoples, Italian traders and businessmen profited from Rome's successful territorial expansion overseas and as a result, their economies grew rapidly. One clear example is the wine and olive-oil production and commercialisation which benefited Italian elites as much as wealthy Romans. In R.'s view, the ‘economic Romanisation’ (a term coined for the occasion) of Italians evolved much quicker than their cultural and social integration. Ch. 4 stresses the slow spread of Roman coinage in Italy, suggesting it was progressively adopted in many Italian towns for mere practical reasons (e.g. to pay for military wages) as well as facilitating their increasing involvement in Roman affairs during the second century b.c. In her opinion, the expansion of the Italian economy in this period was not entirely dependent upon monetisation. Interestingly, R. also remarks how abusive Rome became in its progressive appropriation of Italian economic networks, abandoning its traditional ‘laissez-faire’ policies towards the Italian economy. In ch. 5, R. examines the economic disadvantages most Italians experienced from not being Roman citizens during the Middle Republic. According to R., it was only when Roman citizenship began to have real economic implications that it became worth fighting for such a privilege (leading to the Social War). In the conclusion, R. develops a model of ‘economic Romanisation’ for Italy spanning the Middle and Late Republic. According to her interpretation, it was no accident that the expansive economic boom individual Italian towns and their inhabitants experienced in this period coincided with Roman territorial expansion overseas and, more importantly, Italy's gradual economic integration under the aegis of Rome.

The study might have benefited from more detailed maps, charts and pictures, particularly where the archaeological and numismatic evidence is debated. The discussion would also have have been enriched by engagement with the arguments of F. Carlà-Uhink's The ‘Birth’ of Italy. The Institutionalization of Italy as a Region, 3rd–1st century BCE (2017). Overall, the historical relevance of this book lies in its success in highlighting Italy's economic (r)evolution despite Rome's extraordinary success in its territorial expansion overseas. This volume suggests that not even significant regional asymmetries and Rome's increasing power overshadowed Italian agency in this economic boom.