Editing Ronald Syme (section)

== Major works ==
The work for which Syme is chiefly remembered, ''[[The Roman Revolution]]'' (1939), is widely considered a masterly and controversial analysis of Roman political life in the period following the 44 BCE assassination of [[Julius Caesar]]. Inspired by the rise of [[Fascism|fascist]] regimes in Germany and Italy, and following [[Tacitus]] in both literary style and pessimistic insight, the work challenged prevailing attitudes concerning the last years of the [[Roman Republic]]. Syme's main conclusion was that the structure of the Republic and its [[Senate of the Roman Republic|Senate]] were inadequate for the needs of Roman rule; [[Augustus]] merely did what was necessary to restore order in public life, but was a dictatorial figure whose true nature was cloaked by the [[panegyrics]] written to honour him in his last years and after his death. "The Roman constitution", Syme wrote, "was a screen and a sham"; [[Caesar Augustus|Octavian]]'s supposed restoration of the Republic was a pretence on which he had built a monarchy based on personal relationships and the ambition of Rome's political families.  In ''The Roman Revolution'' Syme first used, with dazzling effect, the [[historical method]] of [[prosopography]]—tracing the linkages of kinship, marriage, and shared interest among the various leading families of republican and [[Roman Principate|imperial Rome]].  By stressing prosopographical analysis, Syme rejected the force of ideas in politics, dismissing most such invocations of constitutional and political principle as nothing more than "political catchwords".  In this bleak cynicism about political ideas and political life, ''The Roman Revolution'' strongly resembled another controversial historical masterwork, ''[[The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III]]'', published in 1930 by the specialist in eighteenth-century British political history, Sir [[Lewis B. Namier]].

Syme's next great work was his definitive two-volume biography of [[Tacitus]] (1958), his favourite among the ancient historians. The work's forty-five chapters and ninety-five appendices make up the most complete [[Tacitean studies|study of Tacitus]] yet produced, backed by an exhaustive treatment of the historical and political background—the Empire's first century—of his life.  Syme blended biographical investigation, historical narrative and interpretation, and literary analysis to produce what may be the single most thorough study of a major historian ever published.{{Citation needed|date= October 2009}}

In 1958, Oxford University Press published ''Colonial Élites. Rome, Spain and the Americas'', which presents the three lectures that Syme offered at [[McMaster University]] in [[Ontario]] in January 1958 as part of the [[Whidden Lectures]]. Syme compares the three empires that have endured for the longest periods of time in Western History: [[Roman Empire|Rome]], [[Spanish Empire|Spain]], and [[British Empire|Britain]]. Syme considers that the duration of an Empire links directly to the character of the men who are in charge of the imperial administration, in particular that of the colonies. In his own words, the "strength and vitality of an empire is frequently due to the new aristocracy from the periphery". This book is currently out of print.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://lasfloresdelmarinero.blogspot.com/2010/05/colonial-elites-rome-spain-and-americas.html |title= Colonial Élites. Rome, Spain and the Americas – Sir Ronald Syme |publisher= Francisco Vázquez |access-date= 15 May 2010 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://archive.today/20120630023402/http://lasfloresdelmarinero.blogspot.com/2010/05/colonial-elites-rome-spain-and-americas.html |archive-date= 30 June 2012 |df= dmy-all }}</ref>

Syme's biography of [[Sallust]] (1964), based on his [[Sather Lectures]] at the [[University of California]], is also regarded<ref>{{cite journal |last=Earl |first= D. C. |title= Sallust by Ronald Syme |journal=[[The Journal of Roman Studies]] |pages= 232–240 |volume= 55 |date=1965 |doi= 10.2307/297442 |jstor= 297442 |s2cid= 161240896 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Sumner |first= G. V. |title= Sallust by Ronald Syme |journal=[[Phoenix (classics journal)|Phoenix]] |pages= 240–244 |volume= 19 |issue=1 |date=September 1965 |doi= 10.2307/1086288 |jstor= 1086288 }}</ref> as authoritative. His four books and numerous essays on the ''[[Historia Augusta]]'', including the publication ''Emperors and Biography: Studies in the Historia Augusta,''<ref>{{Cite book|last=Syme|first=Sir Ronald|title=Emperors and Biography: Studies in the Historia Augusta|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1971|language=English}}</ref> firmly established the fraudulent nature of that work; he famously dubbed the anonymous author "a rogue grammarian".<ref>''Emperors and Biography'' (Oxford, 1971), p. 263.</ref> Allen M. Ward stated in ''The Classical World'', Vol. 65, No. 3 (Nov., 1971), pp. 100–101, that: "No one interested in the H.A. or Roman history of the third century A.D. can ignore this book."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ward|first=Alan M.|date=1971|title=Emperors and Biography. Studies in the Historia Augusta by Ronald Syme|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/i403772|journal=The Classical World|volume=65|pages=100–101|doi=10.2307/4347597 |jstor=4347597 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> On the content of the book itself, Peter White writes: "Syme recovers portions, though miserably small portions, of the true history of the emperors from Severus Alexander to Diocletian. There are still other essays that escape this enumeration. Among them are two of the best in the book, an investigation of the patterns by which personal names have been faked and an expose of the procedures by which the biographer concocted the first five lives of pretenders and heirs apparent."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=White|first=Peter|date=1972|title=Emperors and Biography: Studies in the Historia Augusta by Ronald Syme|url=https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/77/4/1101/54648?redirectedFrom=fulltext|journal=The American Historical Review|volume=77|pages=1101–1102|doi=10.2307/1859532 |jstor=1859532 |via=Oxford Academic|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Syme gives 10 ways to decipher fictitious names in a chapter called 'Bogus Names'. He states: IX. Perverted names. One example is clear. Using Suetonius, the author changed 'Mummia' to 'Memmia' (Alex. 20. 3, cf. above). That is a mere trifle in the devices of the HA. If an author is anxious to be plausible, he may try to convey an impression of novelty (and hence of authenticity) by names that look original because different. Thus 'Avulnius' and 'Murrentius' (Aur. 13. I). One trick is to modify the shape of familiar names. Several instances have been detected. As consul in 258, the HA produces 'Nemmius Fuscus' (or 'Memmius Fuscus').<ref>{{Cite book|last=Syme|first=Sir Ronald|title=Emperors and Biography: Studies in the Historia Augusta|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1971|pages=8|language=English}}</ref> Regarding the HA authors' identity, Syme states: "From time to time the deceiver lowers the mask. For example, when scourging the follies and fraudulence of other biographers (whom he invents), notably 'Adius Junius Cordus'. The prime revelation occurs in the exordium of the ''Vita Aureliani''. The Prefect of the City, after friendly and encouraging discourse on the high themes of history and veracity, tells the author to write as his fancy dictates. All the classical historians were liars, and he can join their company with a clear conscience..."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Syme|first=Sir Ronald|title=Emperors and Biography: Studies in the Historia Augusta|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1971|pages=14|language=English}}</ref> – "Well then, write as you will. You will be safe in saying whatever you wish, since you will have as comrades in falsehood those authors whom we admire for the style of their histories."(Aur. 2. 2)

His ''History in Ovid'' (1978) places the great Roman poet [[Ovid]] firmly in his social context.

Syme's ''The Augustan Aristocracy'' (1986) traces the prominent families under Augustus as a sequel to ''The Roman Revolution''.  Syme examined how and why Augustus promoted bankrupt [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]] families and new politicians simultaneously to forge a coalition in government that would back his agenda for a new Rome.

A posthumous work (edited for publication by [[Anthony Birley]]), ''Anatolica'' (1995), is devoted to [[Strabo]] and deals with the geography of southern Armenia and mainly eastern parts of Asia Minor. His shorter works are collected in the seven volumes of ''Roman Papers'' (1979–1991), the first two volumes of which are edited by [[Ernst Badian]], and the remainder by Anthony Birley.

Syme's doctoral students at the University of Oxford included [[Barbara Levick]] (whose thesis in the mid-1950s dealt with Roman colonies in south Asia Minor), and [[Miriam T. Griffin]] (1968), whose thesis was entitled ''Seneca: the statesman and the writer''.