Bradley Jordan

• Jordan, Bradley (2025). Gubernatorial authority and local jurisdiction in the Roman Republican East and early Spanish America. In James, Dylan & Harrison, Stephen (Ed.), Theorising Comparative History for the Ancient Mediterranean: Asking New Questions of Old Evidence. Liverpool University Press. ISSN 9781835537497. p. 179–203. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper will explore the initial management of local legal jurisdiction in Roman Asia Minor during the late Republic through soft comparison with Spanish Mesoamerica in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries CE. Both regimes presided over a patchwork of Indigenous communities holding varying privileges granted by the central authorities, with distinctive, epichoric cultural and legal heritages, which had not necessarily been administered as a single unit under earlier regimes. By contrast with Roman Asia, Spanish America is extensively and exhaustively documented. Central archives related to the viceroyalties in Mexico City and in Lima furnish detailed accounts of gubernatorial, judicial, and financial transactions from the mid-sixteenth century onwards. Countless smaller regional archives provide a rich array of evidence for interactions between Indigenous petitioners, litigants, and elites, and Spanish administrators. Consequently, this paper serves as a test case for how soft comparison can shed new light on the tension between gubernatorial authority and local jurisdiction in the provinces of the late Roman Republic.

• Jordan, Bradley (2024). Negotiating the Failure of Roman Hegemony: The Experience of Allied Rulers During the Civil Wars (49-30 BCE). In Westall, Richard & Cornwell, Hannah (Ed.), New Perspectives on the Roman civil wars of 49-30 BCE. Bloomsbury Academic. ISSN 9781350272460. p. 95–116. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper addresses how allied rulers experienced the breakdown of the Roman state during the period 49–30 BCE. Starting from the position that the concept of amicitia presents the most appropriate framework for understanding the relationship between allies and Rome, it demonstrates how the outbreak of civil strife posed a dilemma for allies, who increasingly appealed to personal ties of amicitia as a rationale for (in)action. The paper then highlights changes in Roman approaches to allied rulers, arguing that M. Antonius abandoned long-standing Roman practice favouring dynastic continuity in allied kingdoms, preferring personally loyal appointees. Finally, it explores how allies responded to the pressures of civil war with new strategies, intensifying their attempts to cultivate a relationship with powerful Roman imperatores. Consequently, the breakdown of the Roman state encouraged allied rulers to rely on personal contacts with important individuals within the Roman state, culminating finally in the Princeps.

• Jordan, Bradley (2023). Civic Archives and Roman Rule: Spatial Aspects of Roman Hegemony in Asia Minor from Republic to Empire. In Garcia, Antonio Lopez (Eds.), Running Rome and its Empire: The Places of Roman Governance. Routledge. ISSN 9781003320869. p. 197–215. doi: 10.4324/b23090-12. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter analyses how the advent of Roman hegemony affected the administrative topography of provincial communities, with particular attention to archives and archival spaces. The arrival of Roman magistrates and the emergence of provincial government drastically affected power dynamics in the provinces, introducing new authorities, administrative practices, and priorities. This chapter elucidates this key issue through a case-study of the Greek-speaking communities of provincia Asia. Specifically, it analyses how the advent of Roman power affected the organisation of civic archives; the display of archival documents publicly; and the type of documents archived in Greek-speaking communities. Overall, this chapter will address the question of what impact the Roman state had on the administration of archival spaces.

• Jordan, Bradley (2023). The Cities of Western Asia Minor and Rome: Local Agency in the Construction of Empire (133-44 BCE). Dialogues d'Histoire Ancienne. ISSN 2108-1433. p. 49–77. doi: 10.3917/dha.hs26.0049. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper investigates how, during the late Republic, discourses of Roman administration impacted the agency of poleis in western Asia Minor and how these communities responded to Roman hegemony. I argue that the diversity of Roman administrative languages hindered the development of a single framework for managing relations with cities. In response, poleis innovated: while honorific decrees remained an important means of establishing reciprocal relationships with individual Romans, managing local attitudes became more significant as Roman rule developed. Local agents helped to construct empire by framing Roman discourses for internal audiences.

• Jordan, Bradley (2023). The Revenues of Asia and the Evolution of the Res Publica. In Helm, Marian & Roselaar, Saskia (Ed.), Spoils in the Roman Republic: Boon and Bane. Franz Steiner Verlag. ISSN 9783515133692. Full text in Research Archive

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• Jordan, Bradley (2024). The magister equitum in the Roman Republic The Evolution of an Extraordinary Magistracy. De Gruyter Brill. ISBN 9783111338583. 183 p. Full text in Research Archive
• Jordan, Bradley (2023). Imperial Power, Provincial Government, and the Emergence of Roman Asia, 133 BCE-14 CE. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198887065. 304 p. Full text in Research Archive

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• Jordan, Bradley (2023). The Role of the Auspices in the Roman Republic. The Classical Review. ISSN 0009-840X. doi: 10.1017/S0009840X23001373. Full text in Research Archive

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