Christopher Smith gives a working paper on 'Roman Kingship and concepts of power'

This paper is an introduction to a three year project (funded by the Leverhulme Trust) to study the archaic Roman kings (mid-8^th to late 6^th century BC).  The intentions of the paper are:

1.   To lay out the specific methodological problem of dealing with this evidence

2.   To propose three distinct ways of working with the evidence

3.    To give an example of how this might work in practice

4.  To encourage a discussion as to the extent to which the study of archaic Roman kingship can contribute to broader conversations about the nature of power and specifically sovereignty.

As such the paper is an overview more than a final statement of any specific part of the project, but I hope may elicit a conversation about method and the potential specific relevance of archaic Italy to more current questions