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| Title: Sub Umbra Foederis Aequi Secondary Title: Phoenix Volume: 44 Pages: 345-69 Type: Journal Article Year: 1990Winter Abstract: Baronowski examines the treaty system used by Rome in Republican times. He is particularly interested in classifying the types of treaties, focusing on the difference between aequum (equal) and inquum (unequal) treaties. He argues that whereas treaties were initially either equal or unequal in nature,
the growth in Rome's power eventually rendered all treaties unequal. Specifically, he sees a connection between the equal treaty and the later Roman classification of an ally as amica.
Baronowski argues that the difference between an equal and an unequal treaty has for modern scholars hinged on the inclusion of a 'majesty clause'. A majesty clause, while it necessitates that the other signatory of a treaty with Rome acknowledge Rome's superiority and thus renders a treaty unequal, is not the sole gauge by which a treat could be rendered unequal.
It was Rome's tendency to treat all allies as subordinates. In particular, this plays out with Rome and her Italian allies, who were always treated as subordinates because of Roman supremacy in Italy.
In the following pages of the article, Barnowski outlines the various other ways by which a treaty could be rendered unequal. He goes through many primary sources, using philological argumentation to support his thesis. He ends with an important note that the Roman tendency to blur the lines between types of treaties, in particular in treating allies as subordinates regardless of the degree of the treaty, makes elaborate classifications of the types of treaties unwarranted. |