Abstract
This chapter shows the relevance of Carlo Sigionio’s reconstruction of Roman colonial practices for the history and theory of settler colonialism. It discusses how Sigonio’s analysis of Roman colonization as a vehicle of social emancipation implicitly criticized Venetian colonial strategies in the Eastern Mediterranean, and sketches its impact on European visions of overseas colonialism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, highlighting English and Dutch examples of settler colonialism between Batavia (Jakarta) and Savannah, Georgia. For Sigonio, the Roman colony could be characterized as a well-ordered agrarian landscape concerned with protecting the property claims and political rights of a clearly defined community of citizen–farmers. With his detailed study of Roman colonial law and practice, Sigonio showed that there was a historical foundation for settler colonialism to work effectively. His reconstruction of the Roman settler colony made it possible to conceive of a colonial utopia as a concrete colonial practice.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | The Renaissance of Roman Colonization |
Subtitle of host publication | Carlo Sigonio and the Making of Legal Colonial Discourse |
Editors | Jeremia Pelgrom, Arthur Weststeijn |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Chapter | 1 |
Pages | 1-24 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780198850960 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2020 |
Keywords
- Roman history
- settler colonialism
- Carlo Sigonio
- history of Venice
- classical scholarship
- Dutch empire
- British empire