I don’t have writer’s block. I haven’t really since I started this blog. Good thing. I used to hate to write. Now it is a happy place. I’ve got a new problem. I can’t find an organizational structure that lets me be concise. My instincts towards completeness keep driving up my word count. I need 40,000 words. 50,000 MAX. That seems impossible. The file I have now that is supposed to be my short version with just four chapters is already at 11,000 and I’m not done with chapter 1, not by half. This is a structure problem. I need some framework that lets me know what NOT to include. Something that lets me throw out the damn kitchen sink if it is stopping me from building the house.
My strategy for fixing this problem is first to write about it here. (Better than moaning and avoiding and feeling sorry for myself) It is an intellectual challenge after all. And then second, to look at other writer’s short organizational principles.
Right now I found the hard copy version of this on my bookself:
So how could I imitate that?
Coins and the Economy
Coins and Exempla
Coins and Empire
Coins and the Enemy
OR
Money
Monuments
Mutinies
Mobility
These are no-chronological but hell chronology hasn’t been working for me. Let’s play these out a little further.
Money
what motivates the state to strike?
At first she doesn’t!
Early State expenditures – Via Appia? and Aes Grave with the Maritime Defense Network
Distribution of Booty – Currency bars, Gold Donatives
S.C. issues – Caepio Piso and Faustus
Small Change Problem, Bay of Naples
when does coinage change?
spendibility, you make what is familiar to those you pay!
debasement lower weight standards of the quadrigati –> introduction of denarius (c. 211BCE)
Retariffing and new accounting Systems, correlated to increased creativity in the designs (c. 140s BCE)
is quantification possible?
Old debate: dies-to-coins
Lockyear’s different approach
Monuments
Juno Moneta and the importance of exempla in Roman Culture
Our Myths,Their History – Numa, Brutus
individuals, families, and the state
Minucii, Marcii, Aemilii, Marcell(in)us
Wait a second… that’s not really true…
a god-given empire and the ‘just’ war
Wolf and Twins, Roma, Genio Pop Rom,
Appropriating symbols of the enemy: falcata, torque, elephant, kneeling barbarian, Macedonian shield
Mutinies
who revolts and why
Capua during Hannibalic War, Social War, Sicilian Slave Rebellion
the enemy within?
Sulla and the Marians
The dominance of Pompey
responding to rebellion
Conquering by a place? Sicily, Spain, etc…
After Catiline, coins of 62 BCE
Rejecting Autocracy 75 coins and broken diadem imagery in late 50s
Mobilization
Manpower: recruitment and colonization: Narbo, Quinarii
Popular Politics
Grain refs, Ludi refs, Voting Refs
More
did anyone ever look at the coins?
when to question the dates assigned to coins
how to find relevant evidence for your own work
Hmm. Okay enough time outlining on the blog. I’m still pessimistic but less so.
Liv Mariah Yarrow 