The Roman Empire (A Very Short Introduction)

The Roman Empire: A Very Short IntroductionVery Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide. The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology. Very Short Introductions available now: ANARCHISM Colin Ward CHOICE THEORY ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw Michael Allingham ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson Julia Annas CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead ANCIENT WARFARE CLASSICS Mary Beard and Harry Sidebottom John Henderson ANGLICANISM Mark Chapman CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon John Blair CONSCIOUSNESS Susan Blackmore ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia CONTEMPORARY ART ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn Julian Stallabrass ARCHITECTURE Continental Philosophy Andrew Ballantyne Simon Critchley ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes COSMOLOGY Peter Coles ART HISTORY Dana Arnold THE CRUSADES ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland Christopher Tyerman THE HISTORY OF CRYPTOGRAPHY ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin Fred Piper and Sean Murphy Atheism Julian Baggini DADA AND SURREALISM Augustine Henry Chadwick David Hopkins BARTHES Jonathan Culler Darwin Jonathan Howard THE BIBLE John Riches THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea Timothy Lim BRITISH POLITICS Democracy Bernard Crick Anthony Wright DESCARTES Tom Sorell Buddha Michael Carrithers DESIGN John Heskett BUDDHISM Damien Keown DINOSAURS David Norman BUDDHIST ETHICS DREAMING J. Allan Hobson Damien Keown DRUGS Leslie Iversen CAPITALISM James Fulcher THE EARTH Martin Redfern THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe EGYPTIAN MYTH Geraldine PinchEIGHTEENTH-CENTURY JUDAISM Norman Solomon BRITAIN Paul Langford Jung Anthony Stevens THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball KAFKA Ritchie Robertson EMOTION Dylan Evans KANT Roger Scruton EMPIRE Stephen Howe KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner ENGELS Terrell Carver THE KORAN Michael Cook Ethics Simon Blackburn LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews The European Union LITERARY THEORY John Pinder Jonathan Culler EVOLUTION LOCKE John Dunn Brian and Deborah Charlesworth LOGIC Graham Priest FASCISM Kevin Passmore MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner FEMINISM Margaret Walters THE MARQUIS DE SADE FOSSILS Keith Thomson John Phillips FOUCAULT Gary Gutting MARX Peter Singer THE FRENCH REVOLUTION MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers William Doyle MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope FREE WILL Thomas Pink MEDIEVAL BRITAIN Freud Anthony Storr John Gillingham and Ralph A. Griffiths Galileo Stillman Drake MODERN ART David Cottington Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh MODERN IRELAND Senia Pasˇe t a GLOBAL CATASTROPHES MOLECULES Philip Ball Bill McGuire MUSIC Nicholas Cook GLOBALIZATION Myth Robert A. Segal Manfred Steger NATIONALISM Steven Grosby GLOBAL WARMING Mark Maslin NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner HABERMAS NINETEENTH-CENTURY James Gordon Finlayson BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and HEGEL Peter Singer H. C. G. Matthew HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood NORTHERN IRELAND HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson Marc Mulholland HINDUISM Kim Knott PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close HISTORY John H. Arnold paul E. P. Sanders HOBBES Richard Tuck Philosophy Edward Craig HUMAN EVOLUTION Pphy of Bernard Wood law Raymond Wacks HUME A. J. Ayer PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden Samir Okasha Indian Philosophy PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards Sue Hamilton PLATO Julia Annas Intelligence Ian J. Deary POLITICS Kenneth Minogue ISLAM Malise Ruthven POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY JOURNALISM Ian Hargreaves David MillerPOSTCOLONIALISM SCHOPENHAUER Robert Young Christopher Janaway POSTMODERNISM SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer Christopher Butler SIKHISM Eleanor Nesbitt POSTSTRUCTURALISM SOCIAL AND CULTURAL Catherine Belsey ANTHROPOLOGY PREHISTORY Chris Gosden John Monaghan and Peter Just PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY SOCIALISM Michael Newman Catherine Osborne SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce Psychology Gillian Butler and Socrates C. C. W. Taylor Freda McManus THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR QUANTUM THEORY Helen Graham John Polkinghorne SPINOZA Roger Scruton THE RENAISSANCE STUART BRITAIN John Morrill Jerry Brotton TERRORISM Charles Townshend RENAISSANCE ART THEOLOGY David F. Ford Geraldine A. Johnson THE HISTORY OF TIME ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway Leofranc Holford-Strevens THE ROMAN EMPIRE TRAGEDY Adrian Poole Christopher Kelly THE TUDORS John Guy ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler TWENTIETH-CENTURY RUSSELL A. C. Grayling BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan RUSSIAN LITERATURE THE VIKINGS Julian D. Richards Catriona Kelly Wittgenstein A. C. Grayling THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman S. A. Smith THE WORLD TRADE SCHIZOPHRENIA ORGANIZATION Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone Amrita Narlikar Available soon: AFRICAN HISTORY HIV/AIDS Alan Whiteside John Parker and Richard Rathbone HUMAN MIGRATION CHAOS Leonard Smith Khalid Koser CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THE FIRST WORLD WAR Paul Wilkinson Michael Howard NEWTON Robert Iliffe EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn PSYCHIATRY Tom Burns FUNDAMENTALISM RACISM Ali Rattansi Malise Ruthven For more information visit our web site www.oup.co.uk/general/vsi/Christopher Kelly THE ROMAN EMPIRE A Very Short Introduction 13 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Christopher Kelly 2006 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published as a Very Short Introduction 2006 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 0–19–280391–3 978–0–19–280391–7 13579108642 Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk Printed in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press, Gosport, HantsContents Acknowledgements viii List of illustrations ix Introduction 1 1 Conquest 4 2 Imperial power 23 3 Collusion 42 4 History wars 61 5 Christians to the lions 78 6 Living and dying 95 7 Rome revisited 114 Map: The Roman world in the late 2nd century AD 136 Chronology 138 Further reading 141 Index 147Acknowledgements To George Miller whose idea this first was; to Mary Beard and John Henderson who gave such valuable advice at its inception; to Marsha Filion, Justin Pollard, and Helen Morales who helped it on its way; to Tony and Jan Leaver, Zachary Watts, Richard Flower, and Caroline Vout who greatly improved it; to James Thompson and Luciana O’Flaherty who saw it safely through to the end.List of illustrations 1 Arch of Titus 13 8 Theatre, Lepcis Magna, Alinari Archives, Florence inscription of Annobal Tapapius Rufus 53 2 Trajan’s Column 16 Professor David Mattingley © Ancient Art & Architecture Collection 9 Hunt mosiac of Magerius from Smirat, Tunisia 56 Deutsches Archäologisches3 Aerial view of Masada 18 Institut, Romewww.masada2000.org 10 Virgil and the Muses 4 Claudius and from Sousse, Tunisia 58 Britannia relief from © Roger Wood/Corbis Aphrodisias 27 Ashmoleon Museum, Oxford 11 Olympieion and the Acropolis 63 5 Apotheosis of Antoninus © Ancient Art & Architecture CollectionPius and Faustina 29 Deutsches Archäologisches 12 The Parthenon andInstitut, Rome Temple of Rome and Augustus 686 Nero and Agrippina, Museum of Classical relief from Archaeology, Cambridge, Aphrodisias 40 slide collection Ashmoleon Museum, Oxford 13 Arch of Hadrian with 7 Market place, Lepcis view through to Magna 52 Olympieion 77 © Peter M. Wilson/Corbis © Bildarchiv Foto Marburg