Chapter 8, 'Valerius Antias and the Palimpsest of History' (pp. 75-89) starts from the premise that the Valerii had been elaborating their ancestral story long before Valerius Antias took up his pen in the first century BC. Wiseman looks for 'the Valerian element in twelve well-known episodes of early Roman history' (p. 78): (1) the treaty of Romulus and T. Tatius (pp. 78f.); (2) the calling of Numa (p. 79); (3) the avenging of Lucretia (p. 80); (4) the conspiracy against Tarquin (pp. 80-82); (5) Tarquin's field (pp. 82f.); (6) Horatius Cocles (p. 83); (7) Cloelia (p. 84); (8) the coming of the Claudii (pp. 84f.); (9) the first dictator (p. 85); (10) the battle of Lake Regillus (pp. 85-87); (11) the secession (p. 87); and (12) Coriolanus (pp. 87f.). It is plain that each of these stories was rewritten so as to provide a starring role for a member of the patrician Valerii. However, Wiseman finds enough shared elements and other chronological clues to conclude that they are the work of one author, who was operating 'between the exposure of the Catilinarians in December 63 [story 4] and Cicero's rewriting of the Brutus in 46 [story 11]' (p. 89). None of these twelve stories features in the surviving fragments of Antias:
'But who else could the Valerian annalist have been? Muenzer was surely right to assume that it was Valerius Antias who contributed this particular element to the palimpsest of history' (p. 89).
Wiseman applies similar detective work to the histories of the Minucii (Chapter 9, 'The Minucii and their Monument', pp. 90-105) and the Aemilii (Chapter 10, 'Rome and the Resplendent Aemilii', pp. 106-20). His familiarity with the topographical development of the city of Rome in the Middle and Late Republics is an especially strong feature of these analyses. The Minucian monument turns out to be a family tomb of fifth or fourth century BC date (pp. 91-94, 102), which was nonetheless variously interpreted (as tomb, honorific monument, altar and shrine) by later generations and commentators, who connected it especially with the career of L. Minucius the reputed praefectus annonae ('prefect of the grain supply') of 440/39. Wiseman feels that Licinius Macer, the anti-Sullan tribune of 73, was probably responsible for making L. Minucius an anachronistic praefectus annonae (p. 100), whereas he was perhaps a merchant caught up in the late fourth century elaboration of distinguished ancestries for members of the new plebeian elite (p. 104). Incidentally, recognition of this latter process throws doubt on whether the names in the early fasti are as authentic as Broughton thought them to be (pp. 98f., 105).
