Imperialism, Power, and Identity

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Mattingly
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
Sexual Relations ◽  
Roman Imperialism ◽  
Roman Society ◽  
Classical Studies ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
Nuanced Understanding

Despite what history has taught us about imperialism's destructive effects on colonial societies, many classicists continue to emphasize disproportionately the civilizing and assimilative nature of the Roman Empire and to hold a generally favorable view of Rome's impact on its subject peoples. This book boldly challenges this view using insights from postcolonial studies of modern empires to offer a more nuanced understanding of Roman imperialism. Rejecting outdated notions about Romanization, the book focuses instead on the concept of identity to reveal a Roman society made up of far-flung populations whose experience of empire varied enormously. It examines the nature of power in Rome and the means by which the Roman state exploited the natural, mercantile, and human resources within its frontiers. The book draws on the author's own archaeological work in Britain, Jordan, and North Africa and covers a broad range of topics, including sexual relations and violence; census-taking and taxation; mining and pollution; land and labor; and art and iconography. The book shows how the lives of those under Rome's dominion were challenged, enhanced, or destroyed by the empire's power, and in doing so he redefines the meaning and significance of Rome in today's debates about globalization, power, and empire. This book advances a new agenda for classical studies, one that views Roman rule from the perspective of the ruled and not just the rulers. A new preface reflects on some of the reactions prompted by the initial publication of the book.

The Golden Aspects of Roman Imperialism in Film, 1914–2015

2018 ◽  
pp. 225-242
Author(s):  
Anise K. Strong
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
The United States ◽  
Roman Imperialism ◽  
Roman Society ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Status ◽  
Moral Problems ◽  
Imperial State ◽  
Historical Periods

The first of three chapters that address Rome’s complicated legacy as an imperial state is Strong’s survey of films that present imperialism as beneficial for Rome’s provincial subjects and other “barbarians,” spanning a century of filmmaking from 1914 to 2015. The films in question were produced by and for members of three imperial states during particular historical periods: Italy between World Wars I and II, the United Kingdom after World War II, and the United States after 9/11. Strong’s analysis treats three major arguments variously offered by these films to justify imperialism as producing golden-age conditions for subjects: the technology and order provided by “civilization,” the enlightened embrace of diverse peoples within one expansive community, and the masculine valor of its soldiers. These portrayals, as products of societies engaged in imperialistic behavior, tend to ignore the moral problems of slavery, repression of Christianity, and the status of women in Roman society. Films treated include Cabiria (1914), Scipio l’Africano (1937), The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979), Centurion (2010), The Eagle (2011), and The Last Legion (2007).

Roman Imperialism

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-114
Author(s):  
Paul J. Burton
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
North Sea ◽  
North Africa ◽  
System Level ◽  
State Behavior ◽  
Roman Imperialism ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Frontier Studies ◽  
Imperial State

Abstract Rome engaged in military and diplomatic expansionistic state behavior, which we now describe as ‘imperialism,’ since well before the appearance of ancient sources describing this activity. Over the course of at least 800 years, the Romans established and maintained a Mediterranean-wide empire from Spain to Syria (and sometimes farther east) and from the North Sea to North Africa. How and why they did this is a source of perennial scholarly controversy. Earlier debates over whether Rome was an aggressive or defensive imperial state have progressed to theoretically informed discussions of the extent to which system-level or discursive pressures shaped the Roman Empire. Roman imperialism studies now encompass such ancillary subfields as Roman frontier studies and Romanization.

The Olive Grove of Rome

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 111-135
Author(s):  
Jessica Biddlestone
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Olive Grove ◽  
Material Development ◽  
Central Tunisia

In 1892, the French resident general in Tunisia launched the first state-sponsored colonization effort in the Tunisian protectorate. Based on Paul Bourde’s study of ancient Roman agriculture, the colonization plan explicitly sought to remake Roman prosperity in central Tunisia by fostering the cultivation of olives. Examining Bourde’s study of the ancient past and his work as director of agriculture in Tunisia, this article explores the connections between the study of the Roman Empire and the development of colonialism in North Africa. In tracing this history, this article highlights how the study and use of Roman ruins in French Tunisia inspired an appreciation for the role that technology and material development played in supporting the spread of Roman civilization and culture.

Explaining the Epigraphic Habit in the Roman Empire: The Evidence of Epitaphs

1990 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 74-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Over Time

It is now notorious that the production of inscriptions in the Roman Empire was not constant over time, but rose over the first and second centuries A.D. and fell in the third. Ramsay MacMullen pointed this out more than five years ago, with conclusions more cautionary than explanatory: ‘history is not being written in the right way’, he said, for historians have deduced Rome's decline from evidence that–since it appears only epigraphically–has merely disappeared for its own reasons, or have sought general explanations of decline in theories political, economic, or even demographic in nature, none of which can, in turn, explain the disappearance of epigraphy itself. Why this epigraphic habit rose and fell MacMullen left open to question, although he did postulate control by a ‘sense of audience’. The purpose of this paper is to propose that this ‘sense of audience’ was not generalized or generic, but depended on a belief in the value of romanization, of which (as noted but not explained by MacMullen's article) the epigraphic habit is also a rough indicator. Epitaphs constitute the bulk of all provincial inscriptions and in form and number are (generally speaking) the consequence of a provincial imitation of characteristically Roman practices, an imitation that depended on the belief that Roman legal status and style were important, and that may indeed have ultimately depended, at least in North Africa, on the acquisition or prior possession of that status. Such status-based motivations for erecting an epitaph help to explain not only the chronological distribution of epitaphs but also the differences in the type and distribution of epitaphs in the western and eastern halves of the empire. They will be used here moreover to suggest an explanation for the epigraphic habit as a whole.

scholarly journals Magnetic Survey at the Roman Military Camp of el Benian in Mauretania Tingitana (Morocco): Results and Implications

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Francesco Martorella
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Geophysical Survey ◽  
Magnetic Survey ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Military Camp ◽  
Building Activity ◽  
Economic Studies

The topic of military settlements and the role of troops in the northern provinces of North Africa during the age of the Roman Empire has recently gained a strong interest in historical, archaeological, epigraphical, and economic studies. In particular, at Mauretania Tingitana (in the north-east area of modern-day Morocco), the presence of numerous military camps in the Early and Later Roman Empire has now been assessed. In this framework, the present work deals with the geophysical survey, by means of magnetometry, at the site of el Benian, where the largest military camp is located. In particular, the magnetic survey has highlighted the organization of the camp, almost totally unknown previously. The result of the magnetic survey has confirmed intense building activity over the centuries and made it possible to identify and characterize the structures typical of a military field.

Medical Writing in the Late Roman West

2018 ◽  
pp. 1012-1034
Author(s):  
Louise Cilliers
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Medical Writing ◽  
Medical Sciences ◽  
Large Group ◽  
Roman Society ◽  
Latin West ◽  
Caelius Aurelianus ◽  
Literary Output ◽  
Late Roman

After Galen, the Latin literary output of the medical sciences in the Latin West consisted of translations of earlier Greek works; new books based on Greek texts, and a large group of anonymous or pseudonymous texts. Elite western Roman society was essentially bilingual through ca 200 ce. The two chief translation centers of the era were North Africa and Ravenna. The most important authors in this period are Vindicianus, around 400 ce, his student Theodorus Priscianus, and Caelius Aurelianus, around 425 ce, who composed works largely based on Soranus the Methodist: each wrote works of recipes for general use, or specifically for female ailments. Cassius Felix, around 450 ce, wrote his Latin treatise for the use of medical students. The author Mustio composed a work of gynecology around 550 ce, for midwives, based on Soranus. Other regions produced writers, such as Marcellus of Bordeaux and Agnellus of Ravenna.

Mandate and the Management of Business in the Roman Empire

2020 ◽  
pp. 307-338
Author(s):  
Dennis P. Kehoe
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Financial Risk ◽  
Credit Market ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Roman Society ◽  
Major Form ◽  
Property Owners ◽  
Financial Transactions

This chapter examines the role that the contract of mandate (mandatum) and the related institution of “unauthorized administration” (negotia gesta) played in Roman economic life. Mandate represented a major form of agency in Roman society, but it presents problems of incentives because it was uncompensated: the agent might carry out significant tasks for the principal, or mandator; these tasks might involve considerable expense and even financial risk on the part of the agent, but the agent was not to profit from his service. On the basis of juridical evidence from the Digest and the Code of Justinian, I examine how mandate transformed a relationship that had its roots in upper-class Roman notions of friendship and reciprocity into a contractual form that remained useful as it provided property owners advantages with high-valued financial transactions, such as the purchase of property. In addition, it provided a useful way for Roman businesspeople to overcome problems of information in the credit market.

Paul

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry L. Sumney
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
Rhetorical Analysis ◽  
New Rhetoric ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Justification By Faith ◽  
Pauline Studies ◽  
Paul's Letters ◽  
The Church

Paul is one of the most important figures in the earliest church. Although he was not a follower during the ministry of Jesus, he came to be recognized as an apostle. Seemingly the most successful missionary of the church during its first few decades, his converts were mostly non-Jews. He was not the first to admit gentiles into the church, but his work among them and his understanding of how they participate as full members permanently shape the history of the church. Paul is also the author of the earliest extant writings from the church. He begins writing his letters to churches approximately twenty years before the earliest of the canonical Gospels was composed. He is, then, a valuable source of information about the situation and beliefs of the earliest churches. Pauline studies have experienced several important shifts since the middle of the 20th century, even as the work of F. C. Baur continues to exert extraordinary influence. The groundbreaking work of E. P. Sanders on 1st-century Judaism has affected nearly every aspect of Pauline studies. Sanders’s view of Judaism supported new discussions about Paul’s theology, particularly some growing doubts about identifying justification by faith as its center. J. C. Beker’s emphasis on the contextual nature of Paul’s theologizing and the importance of eschatology for Paul began a move to examine the theology of each letter individually before producing a theology of the whole corpus. Sanders’s work also made room for a reexamination of the relationship between Paul’s churches and the synagogue, with most scholars seeing a closer relationship than had been hypothesized previously. Other developments in Pauline studies include the recognition of a closer relationship between Paul’s theology and his ethical instructions. Studies of ancient letters discovered since the 1920s opened ways to analyze the structure and categorize Paul’s writings by comparing them with contemporaneous materials. New methodologies were also introduced, particularly in understanding the social and cultural context of the letters. Methods from anthropology and postcolonial studies have shifted understandings of Paul’s stance with respect to Greco-Roman culture and the Roman Empire, such that he is often seen to possess a more countercultural stance. The rise of narrative theology contributed to a new interest in investigating the way Paul uses Israel’s Scriptures in his argumentation. Finally, there has been a renewed interest in a rhetorical analysis of Paul’s letters, with some scholars using ancient rhetorical categories; others, the “new rhetoric”; and still others devising distinctive methodologies.

Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity, 350-450

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maijastina Kahlos
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Religious Dissent ◽  
Roman Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Roman

Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity reconsiders the religious history of the late Roman Empire, focusing on the shifting position of dissenting religious groups. The groups under consideration are non-Christians (‘pagans’) and deviant Christians (‘heretics’). The period from the mid-fourth century until the mid-fifth century CE witnessed a significant transformation of late Roman society and a gradual shift from the world of polytheistic religions into the Christian Empire. This book demonstrates that the narrative is much more nuanced than the simple Christian triumph over the classical world. It looks at everyday life, economic aspects, day-to-day practices, and conflicts of interest in the relations of religious groups. The book addresses two aspects: rhetoric and realities, and consequently delves into the interplay between the manifest ideologies and daily life found in late antique sources. We perceive constant flux between moderation and coercion that marked the relations of religious groups, both majorities and minorities, as well as the imperial government and religious communities. Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity is a detailed analysis of selected themes and a close reading of selected texts, tracing key elements and developments in the treatment of dissident religious groups. The book focuses on specific themes, such as the limits of imperial legislation and ecclesiastical control, the end of sacrifices, and the label of magic. It also examines the ways in which dissident religious groups were construed as religious outsiders in late Roman society.

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