Rome Empire Of Plunder

An interdisciplinary exploration of Roman cultural appropriation, offering new insights into the processes through which Rome made and remade itself.

Bringing together philologists, historians, and archaeologists, Rome, Empire of Plunder bridges disciplinary divides in pursuit of an interdisciplinary understanding of Roman cultural appropriation - approached not as a set of distinct practices but as a hydra-headed phenomenon through which Rome made and remade itself, as a Republic and as an Empire, on Italian soil and abroad. The studies gathered in this volume range from the literary thefts of the first Latin comic poets to the grand-scale spoliation of Egyptian obelisks by a succession of emperors, and from Hispania to Pergamon to Qasr Ibrim. Applying a range of theoretical perspectives on cultural appropriation, contributors probe the violent interactions and chance contingencies that sent cargo of all sorts into circulation around the Roman Mediterranean, causing recurrent distortions in their individual and aggregate meanings. The result is an innovative and nuanced investigation of Roman cultural appropriation and imperial power.

Bringing together philologists, historians, and archaeologists, 'Rome, empire of plunder' bridges disciplinary divides in pursuit of an interdisciplinary understanding of Roman cultural appropriation - approached not as a set of distinct practices but as a hydra-headed phenomenon through which Rome made and remade itself, as a Republic and as an Empire, on Italian soil and abroad. The studies gathered in this volume range from the literary thefts of the first Latin comic poets to the grand-scale spoliation of Egyptian obelisks by a succession of emperors, and from Hispania to Pergamon to Qasr Ibrim. Applying a range of theoretical perspectives on cultural appropriation, contributors probe the violent interactions and chance contingencies that sent cargo of all sorts into circulation around the Roman Mediterranean, causing recurrent distortions in their individual and aggregate meanings. The result is an innovative and nuanced investigation of Roman cultural appropriation and imperial power.

This study in the language of Roman imperialism provides a provocative new perspective on the Roman imperial project. It highlights the prominence of the language of mastery and slavery in Roman descriptions of the conquest and subjection of the provinces. More broadly, it explores how Roman writers turn to paradigmatic modes of dependency familiar from everyday life - not just slavery but also clientage and childhood - in order to describe their authority over, and responsibilities to, the subject population of the provinces. It traces the relative importance of these different models for the imperial project across almost three centuries of Latin literature, from the middle of the first century BCE to the beginning of the third century CE.

A spoof of politics in the context of ancient Rome The ancient Roman Empire was the greatest in the world. Its powerful army controlled most of Europe, England, the Middle East, Mediterranean and Egypt. Its architects and engineers built the most complex and advanced roads and aqueducts, temples and other grand structures that lasted for centuries. Its third emperor, Caligula, reigned for only four years, but left a legacy of unequaled ambition, extravagance, power, perversion and self-aggrandizement. This story tells the power struggle between the executive and legislative branches of government-the Emperor and the Roman Senate-that led to its downfall. It is told through the eyes of two strong Roman senators-Lindi Gramph and Dimit Romger-who spend their leisure time at the Senate baths at the Forum where the doorman Justus and bartender Magmus understand what's really happening. Some things never change, even in 2,000 years. A startling picture of political policymaking taking place in the Senate baths. -The Roman Times-Post An unconventional presentation of Emperor Caligula's power and perversion. -Mediterranean Review

This second edition examines all aspects of Roman history, and contains a new introduction, three new chapters and updated bibliographies.

The subject of Roman scandal has been recounted at various points in all histories of Rome, but not in one unified place. Roman scandal often depended on the social class, not to mention the sex, of the perpetrator and that of the victim. As we survey the thousand year history of Rome and its western rump state stumbling into final oblivion in 476, one notes that it ran on the fuel of extreme violence and brutality, such as most modern people in the West have not had to deal with, at least since Hitler was defeated in 1945. Romans were continuously at war with foreigners, against tribes beyond the pale, and with each other in civil strife, for centuries. When the ruling elite were not plundering abroad to fuel the empire, they were plotting and killing each other in the palace, the Senate, and the Forum. In fact, they often combined the two pursuits all at once. Plunder gave them wealth and slaves, and with wealth came leisure, and in their leisure the Romans chose to entertain themselves with blood spectacles. Men and women fought to the death as gladiators in the Colosseum and hippodrome, and wild animals were killed for fun. Surely the depravity and excess that took place under the emperors proves not that success and luxury assured the empire's destruction, as Livy feared, but that the empire could function well enough to last several centuries, despite moral and political anarchy at the very top. Historian of empire, Dr. Frank H. Wallis, makes a valuable contribution to Roman studies based on the ancient authorities, including Tacitus, Suetonius, Herodian, Livy, Plutarch, Zosimus, Ammianus, Dio, Eutropius, Zonares, Josephus.

This text draws on the literature, composed by the elite who conducted Roman foreign affairs. It shows that concepts of honour, competition for status and revenge drove Roman foreign policy.

How devastating viruses, pandemics, and other natural catastrophes swept through the far-flung Roman Empire and helped to bring down one of the mightiest civilizations of the ancient world Here is the monumental retelling of one of the most consequential chapters of human history: the fall of the Roman Empire. The Fate of Rome is the first book to examine the catastrophic role that climate change and infectious diseases played in the collapse of Rome’s power—a story of nature’s triumph over human ambition. Interweaving a grand historical narrative with cutting-edge climate science and genetic discoveries, Kyle Harper traces how the fate of Rome was decided not just by emperors, soldiers, and barbarians but also by volcanic eruptions, solar cycles, climate instability, and devastating viruses and bacteria. He takes readers from Rome’s pinnacle in the second century, when the empire seemed an invincible superpower, to its unraveling by the seventh century, when Rome was politically fragmented and materially depleted. Harper describes how the Romans were resilient in the face of enormous environmental stress, until the besieged empire could no longer withstand the combined challenges of a “little ice age” and recurrent outbreaks of bubonic plague. A poignant reflection on humanity’s intimate relationship with the environment, The Fate of Rome provides a sweeping account of how one of history’s greatest civilizations encountered and endured, yet ultimately succumbed to the cumulative burden of nature’s violence. The example of Rome is a timely reminder that climate change and germ evolution have shaped the world we inhabit—in ways that are surprising and profound.

In Sacred Plunder, David Perry argues that plundered relics, and narratives about them, played a central role in shaping the memorial legacy of the Fourth Crusade and the development of Venice’s civic identity in the thirteenth century. After the Fourth Crusade ended in 1204, the disputes over the memory and meaning of the conquest began. Many crusaders faced accusations of impiety, sacrilege, violence, and theft. In their own defense, they produced hagiographical narratives about the movement of relics—a medieval genre called translatio—that restated their own versions of events and shaped the memory of the crusade. The recipients of relics commissioned these unique texts in order to exempt both the objects and the people involved with their theft from broader scrutiny or criticism. Perry further demonstrates how these narratives became a focal point for cultural transformation and an argument for the creation of the new Venetian empire as the city moved from an era of mercantile expansion to one of imperial conquest in the thirteenth century.