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The object of this article is to review some aspects of the study of Roman history since the earliest works of Rostovtzeff, and to sketch out some promising themes for future research, above all as regards provincial or regional history, and the question of multilingualism; and furthermore the institutions of the city of Rome, and the evolution of imperial legislation.

The opening date of the grape harvest (banns harvest) is for long known as an important indicator to reconstruct past climate, specially concerning non- instrumental periods. Very famous, the longest banns harvest series in the world belongs to the municipal archives of Dijon (France, Burgundy), and covers, almost without hiatus, a period between 1385 and 1905. This series has been first compiled by Jules Lavalle in 1855 and then has been completed by Alfred Angot in 1883, until the year 1879. Since these works, the data have never been verificated again when the XIXth century critical criteria of compilation don't fit anymore with those of the XXIth century. Furthermore, if the project of Alfred Angot was to reconstruct a climate history, it was not the main idea of Jules Lavalle, who wrote at this time a history of Burgundy wine and certainly used data coming not only from Dijon but also from different localities on the Burgundy wine coast. It is known however that a gap of several days occur each year in the opening of the harvest from south to north on this coast, along wich Dijon is located at the extreme north. The new data series proposed here, elaborated according to more precise criteria (we just concentrate on the documentation concerning Dijon), gives 132 differences with the ancient, more or less appreciable. We gave also a special attention to all social changes that could induced variations of grape harvest opening on this long time. The anthropic constraint –so wine history in Dijon– has then been analyzed too, to be able to read with more details the variation of dates. It shows that for social reasons, the banns were certainly opened a little earlier respect to the perfect fruits's ripeness until the middle of the xvith century. In this first period, the grape harvest time on the all city's territory went on 13 days in average, finishing by the more prestigious vineyards and beginning by the little ones. The declaration of the first bann –the date given in the series– was then certainly brought forward respect to the entire maturity, wich was reserved for the best vineyards. From the xviith to the xviiith century, the opening date was obviously well synchronized with the general maturity of fruits on the entire territory of the city. The gap between the opening of the banns and the end of the grape harvest was then just of three days or less. In the XIXth century appears a come back to some more precocity to obtain a bigger production. Nevertheless, if these observations allow to analyze with more precise details the variation of the opening dates in Dijon, the correlation rate (R = 0.630) between these dates and existing thermometric datas from 1676 to 1905 (april-september) confirms the high reliability of grape harvest dates to reconstruct past climate variabilities. In this field, the parallel remains obvious.

The Reunion policy of the French monarchy under Louis XIV concerned the borders of the big northeast quarter of the kingdom (Franche-Comté, Alsace, Lorraine). Beyond the demonstration of the power of king, one of the main objectives was to perfect the reassurance of this vast space. Actually, the Reunion worsened lands of Empire with among others the creation of the province of the Saar, little populated but important strategically. Unlike the province of Alsace, that of the Saar does not really cross of the military estate management; nevertheless, in spite of its short-lived character, the implementation of this new province facilitated the reimplantation of the Catholicism between the Saar and the Queich.

Creeping until 1945, the electrification of French Equatorial Africa, which started in 1910, experienced a relative development after the Second World War. It was realization of the metropolitan authorities' policy to modernize of the Overseas territories. At the basis of the electrification by the Federation, there was a synergy of institutional and entrepreneurial actors for activating the process. But the new policy did not put the various territories of the Federation on a equal footing. The Middle Congo, with Brazzaville as its, federal capital, was privileged. As a result, the hydroelectric power station was constructed in Djoué. The excessive priority granted to this development project generated frictions within the Federation. This led to a race for modernization, which encouraged clashes and lead to the building of another dam, that of Boali near Bangui, in order to alleviate the growing frustration of the Oubanguian Officials.

Arthur Girault, professor in law and dean of the faculty of law of Poitiers from 1923 till 1931, publishes in 1895 the first edition of his Principles of colonization and colonial legislation. The surprising editorial fate of a book, which will know five editions within half a century and will be of use to the training of thousand colonial administrators, justifies the interest which can be carried, today still, in the conceptions which the author develops. The article deals exclusively with the introductory part of a work which will decline gradually in five volumes. The comment of the author is to anchor the description of the colonial legislation in what he calls principles of colonization. It is a question of connecting the general problem of the colonization to that of the colonial legislation by showing that the type of colonization determines the institutional choices and the legal models. Arthur Girault builds his theory around three principles which send back to three forms of colonization that he believes to discern. The first principle, the subjection, is morally open to criticism, because it turns the back in the educational duty and of rise that the colonizer keeps towards the colonized country. The second principle, the autonomy, is for Girault a virtuous model. He admires England which is inspired by it for the organization of its empire, but he rejects its transposition for the French empire in the name of one supposed Latin genius. The third principle, the assimilation, expresses the preferences of Girault. It is also for him the point of outcome of a successful colonial policy, because it aims at uniting strictly the colony with its mother country by being inspired by republican ideal. For him, colonies integrating the homeland must be gradually subjected to the same rules as the mother country. But the author admits immediately in the successive editions of his work that this generous idea remains a distant target. The article shows how much Girault is wedded to the Lumière's heritage but also his hesitation to give to the protectorates and colonies the benefit of this doctrine. On the other hand, the scientistic ideology which characterizes the end of the XIXth century prints strongly Arthur Girault's ideas. Developed on a bottom of social Darwinism, its doctrine adheres to the main postulates of the positivism by betraying an almost blind confidence in the progress of the science and the history itself.