The Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction Author: Christopher Kelly | Language: English | ISBN:
0192803913 | Format: PDF
The Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction Description
The Roman Empire was a remarkable achievement. It had a population of sixty million people spread across lands encircling the Mediterranean and stretching from northern England to the sun-baked banks of the Euphrates, and from the Rhine to the North African coast. It was, above all else, an empire of force--employing a mixture of violence, suppression, order, and tactical use of power to develop an astonishingly uniform culture.
Here, historian Christopher Kelly covers the history of the Empire from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius, describing the empire's formation, and its political, religious, cultural, and social structures. It looks at the daily lives of the Empire's people: both those in Rome as well as those living in its furthest colonies. Romans used astonishing logistical feats, political savvy, and military oppression to rule their vast empire. This Very Short Introduction examines how they "romanised" the cultures they conquered, imposing their own culture in order to subsume them completely. The book also looks at how the Roman Empire has been considered and depicted in more recent times, from the writings of Edward Gibbon to the Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator. It will prove a valuable introduction for readers interested in classical history.
- Paperback: 168 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press (September 14, 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0192803913
- ISBN-13: 978-0192803917
- Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.4 x 0.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
This really should be named A very short, selective and somewhat odd social history of The Roman Empire. If you are looking for a political/military history of the roman empire (hereafter RE) then go elsewhere. There is almost none to be found here. Whatever discussion there is of the emperors is only in the contexts of other subjects. Kelly does provide you with a chronology. Big deal. That I can get off the web.
What he gives us with is six chapters of social history (think sociology applied to an historical subject). That's okay but even there what he chooses to talk about and what he chooses to leave out is never really explained. There is next to nothing about slavery, the only discussion of women is in regards to birth rates (more on this later- that is one part of the book I found really useful) and no discussion of sexuality.
Even the stuff he does discuss is oddly focused and organized. His chapter on Christianity starts off with a discussion of gladiators and the arenas where they slaughtered the Christians. Kelly then segues into a discussion of the early Christian attitude toward martyrdom then veers into a reflection on how the RE shifted focus from torturing individual Christians to destroying their sacred texts.
Kelly muses that if only the RE had done that earlier they might have been able to squelch those pesky Christians (yes, I did write pesky and, yes, that usage is part of my war against Christmas). That is the extent of Kelly's discussion. I would have wanted to present something about how this minority creed managed to eventually challenge the established religious beliefs of the ruling classes throughout the RE. That might have been relevant to a social history of the RE.
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