摘要：Greek and Roman sources from the late Republic, early Principate and beyond report a commission having been sent from Rome to Greece in order to study their laws to help the Romans in reforming their constitution. These are mainly Livy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and, rather later, Sextus Pomponius; yet, no evidence from the 5th century B.C. can be found to back up their assertions. This paper will explore the evidence and the historiographical reception of these matters to determine whether a new interpretation is possible. It will re-examine previous historiographical arguments, trends in scholarship and debates drawing on a range of sources. Based on the analysis of these, this paper posits that Rome’s reported commission to Greece was, in fact, a very real possibility, rather than just a convenient historical fiction, but that the evidence remains inconclusive and divisive.
