Samuel P. Huntington and the Roman Colonization of Spain

Abstract

Samuel P. Huntington, in his crucial as well as debated book Who Are We? (2004), to support the view that 'settlers' have always exerted a stronger cultural impact than 'immigrants', adduces the conservative nature of culture in Roman Spain and quotes Ronald Syme's Colonial Elites. Rome, Spain and the Americas (1958). The main historiographic problem - the nature of 'romanization' - is an open one; nevertheless, it is interesting to notice the role of the Roman precedent' in the American political scientist's reflections.