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Further Reading
136
Notes
139
Index
157
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acknowledgements
This book is dedicated to the memory of my uncle, Hugh Chapman,
who as an archaeologist and museum curator first inspired my
interest in the messy and fragmentary reality of the past, rather than
its polished and misleading representation. I have no idea what he
might have made of my take on the subject; this is an inadequate
substitute for all the conversations that we might have had.
As ever, my greatest debt of gratitude is to Anne, for putting up
once again with the agonies of book-writing and for helping to pull
me through them. I have as always been inspired by the ideas of
numerous colleagues, both through conversation and through their
publications, and particularly wish to mention Sue Alcock, Richard
Alston, Clifford Ando, Catharine Edwards, David Grewal, Richard
Hingley, Martin Jehne, David Mattingly, Jörg Rüpke, Nic Terrenato,
Tim Whitmarsh and Greg Woolf. I am grateful to the University of
Bristol for a year’s research leave in which to complete the work
and to recover from eight years’ worth of faculty administration,
to Gillian Clark for moral support, and to everyone on the ’Spill
for providing a regular distraction.
viii
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Timeline
BCE
754/753:
Traditional date of the foundation of Rome
509:
Expulsion of the kings and foundation of the
Republic
395:
The neighbouring city of Veii is captured
390:
Rome is sacked by the Gauls
341, 340–337,
327–304, 298–290: Wars against the Samnites and other Italian tribes
312:
Construction of the Via Appia from Rome to Capua
280–272:
War against Tarentum and the Greek king Pyrrhus
264–241:
First Punic War
227:
Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia established as Roman
provinces
219–202:
Second Punic War
215–205:
First Macedonian War
200–196:
Second Macedonian War
197:
Spain becomes a Roman province
192–188:
War against Antiochus of Syria
172–168:
Third Macedonian War
149–146:
Third Punic War
146:
War against the Achaean League; Macedonia and
Africa established as provinces
120/119:
New province of Gallia Narbonensis
91–88:
A significant number of the Italian allies revolt; the
Social War
73–71:
War against Spartacus’ slave revolt
58–50:
Caesar’s campaigns in Gaul
49:
Caesar crosses the Rubicon; defeats Pompey at
Pharsalus in 48
44:
Assassination of Caesar
31:
Octavian defeats Antony and Cleopatra at Actium
27:
Octavian becomes Augustus
CE
9:
Three legions ambushed and slaughtered in Germany
14:
Death of Augustus
43:
Claudius invades Britain
61:
Revolt of Boudicca
ix
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x
ThE Roman EmpiRE
66–70:
Jewish revolt and subsequent war
115–17:
Second Jewish revolt
122:
Construction of Hadrian’s Wall
167:
The Antonine Plague sweeps the empire
284–305:
Diocletian restores order after 50 years of political
upheaval, and divides the empire in two
312:
Constantine seizes power in the west and declares his
support of Christianity
361–63:
Pagan revival under Julian is cut short by his death
378:
A Roman army is defeated at Adrianople by the
Goths
395:
Empire permanently divided after the death of
Theodosius
410:
Sack of Rome by Alaric the Goth
439:
Carthage seized by the Vandals
476:
The last emperor in the west, Romulus Augustulus, is
deposed
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Introduction:
‘Empire Without End’
I place no limits on them of time or space; I have given them power without
boundaries.
(Virgil,
Aeneid
, I.278–9)
A millennium and a half after the end of the period of its unquestioned
dominance, Rome remains a significant presence in Western culture.
This is not only a matter of its continuing popularity as a setting for
pseudo-historical drama in film and television, an exotic world of
well-oiled gladiators, decadent emperors, seductive priestesses and
political intrigue tempered with violence.
1
Since the Renaissance,
Rome has had a prominent role in intellectual developments, in
debates about the organisation of the state and the conduct of its
foreign policy and about the nature and morality of encounters
between Europe and the rest of the world.
2
Rome is seen as the
greatest civilisation of the past, with a direct genetic and historical
connection to Europe and the West, and hence stands as both an
inspiration and a challenge to modernity. Even as the nineteenth
century congratulated itself on its unprecedented material power
– as Karl Marx put it in the
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