The Language of Empire: Rome and the Idea of Empire from the Third Century BC to the Second Century AD [Hardcover]

John Richardson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521815010 | ISBN-13: 978-0521815017 | Publication Date: January 12, 2009 | Edition: 1

The Roman Empire has been an object of fascination for the past two millennia, and the story of how a small city in central Italy came to dominate the whole of the Mediterranean basin, most of modern Europe and the lands of Asia Minor and the Middle East, has often been told. It has provided the model for European empires from Charlemagne to Queen Victoria and beyond, and is still the basis of comparison for investigators of modern imperialisms. By an exhaustive investigation of the changing meanings of certain key words and their use in the substantial remains of Roman writings and in the structures of Roman political life, this 2008 book seeks to discover what the Romans themselves thought about their imperial power in the centuries in which they conquered the known world and formed the empire of the first and second centuries AD.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

This 2008 book examines the language and the institutions of the Romans during the period in which they conquered the known world and created their empire. Changes in the meaning of some key words enable us to bypass modern assumptions about empire and discover what the Romans themselves thought they were doing.

About the Author

John Richardson is Emeritus Professor of Classics, University of Edinburgh. He has written on Roman Spain: Hispaniae: Spain and the Development of Roman Imperialism 218-82 BC (1986); The Romans in Spain (1996) and Appian: Wars of the Romans in Iberia (2000), and has contributed articles on Roman imperialism and Roman provincial administration to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd edition, 1996) and the Cambridge Ancient History Volume IX (2nd edition, 1994).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 230 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (January 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521815010
• ISBN-13: 978-0521815017
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,182,965 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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