Roman imperialism

The Roman imperial army recorded the name and origin of each and every soldier in lists. The few surviving scraps of such lists as well as a significant number of inscriptions on stone and bronze (including military diplomas) provide a rich source for determining the ethnic composition of the Roman army. Yet, to which extent did military administrative procedures or individual feelings of ethnic identity determine the way in which soldiers' homes were registered, and how, therefore, can we make historical use of such indications? This contribution comments on recent interpretations of the relevant surviving data and explores its meaning in the wider context of the Roman Empire.

Augustus, it is generally held, reshaped the auxilia of the Roman army by replacing the traditional auxiliary forces by newly established, standardised and permanent formations named alae, cohortes, and cohortes equitatae. Together with the legions he then moved these forces to the outer provinces. However, there is no direct evidence for a single measure or coherent reform of Augustus’ to establish a unitary auxiliary system. The pertinent sources rather suggests that his measures consisted of reducing (but not completely replacing) traditional military structures in favour of formations that had been developed during the Late Republic. Thus, both old-style (viz. ‘irregular’ or ‘ad hoc’) contingents, paid and supplied by their tribes and communities from within provincial territory and from beyond, and new-style (viz. ‘regular’ or ‘professional’) auxiliary units that were paid and supplied by Rome and subjected to disciplina Augusta, continued to make up the auxilia of the Roman imperial army, albeit in revised orders of magnitude. The Augustan reorganization of the auxilia necessarily entailed a review and in many cases also adjustments of the existing relations between Rome and its subjects and allies. The present paper argues that in the light of the extant evidence this is most likely to have taken place in the aftermath of the battle of Actium. Service conditions, however, were changed only in 13 B.C.

This paper discusses new, revised, and neglected sources for imperial Rome's economic, diplomatic, and military activities in the Red Sea  basin and on the Indian West coast. It also explores Rome's military and diplomatic investment into the security of crucial trade routes as a means to further long distance trade in order to guarantee high levels of tax income.

What do we really know about Celtic religion? The aim of this paper is to explore the gravity of sociocultural change between the late Iron Age and the Roman period, and its consequences for local religions, attempting to identify possible "relics" of late Iron Age cults in the Principate. We recognise the development of new "hybrid" religions that have been taking up substance from Greek, Roman and "native" cultures over many centuries, a process that intensified after the Roman conquest.

Rome's acquisition of an empire east of the Aegean Sea between 201 - 64 BCE. The wars with Antiochus III of Syria, Mithridates VI of Pontus and Tigranes of Armenia, with a focus and analysis of the campaigns of Scipio Africanus, Sulla, Lucullus and Pompey.

The short reign of Gaius Iulius Verus Maximinus (235 – 238), later called the Thracian and the first of the so-called ‘barracks-emperors’, is sometimes considered to mark the beginning of the ‘Crisis of the Third Century’. His lowly background should have excluded him from ever becoming emperor and his violent accession to the throne ensured him an exceptionally bad press among both ancient and modern authors. Thus (to name only two), Herodian (6,8,1) styled him ‘a shepherd boy from the Thracians of the furthest interior’ and Michael Rostovtzeff described him as a ‘Thracian peasant’ and a ‘terrorist’. This contribution focuses on the latest stages of Maximinus’s career before he became emperor, and on structural developments that made his accession to the throne possible.

The Roman army as an institution and the Roman soldier as an individual could not have functioned without the written word. A few newly published finds from Primis / Qasr Ibrim in Lower Nubia as well as a number of other documents discussed in this paper illustrate the extent to which administrative paperwork and the soldiers’ (semi-)private correspondence contributed to the army’s functioning and governed the soldiers’ everyday lives as early as in the first decades of the new imperial army. Other evidence shows how the formal and symbolic qualities of imperial and official texts, and administrative documents served Roman soldiers from all types of units in their private documents and monuments as a means to demonstrate military identity.

Abstract
This article examines the longstanding rivalry of Rome and Parthia, which began as an unintended consequence of Crassus’ decisive defeat at Carrhae in 53 BCE. It synthesizes the accounts and opinions of numerous Graeco-Roman writers from the Augustan Age to late antiquity in order to help illustrate the new and interconnected post-Carrhae world and its legacy. The rivalry of the Romans and Parthians became a primary focus of their foreign policies and drastically expanded their perceptions of the world in which they interacted. Even after the fall of the Parthians to the rebellious Sassanid Persians in the 220s CE, the Romans continued to find their three-century-long rivalry with the Parthians of interest and relevant to the changing world of late antiquity.

proposed and with regard to what we might call an 'ahistorical' approach that explicitly places a material-culture studies perspective at the centre of analysis. This proposed approach interacts in a variety of fascinating ways with the direction that study of the early Roman expansion and Roman Italy has taken over the last two decades, both in terms of research topics and questions, and also in terms of the academic and disciplinary setting within which they have developed. In order to stimulate the debate from the perspective of 'the beginnings' of the expanding Roman world, I would like to reflect briefly here on some of these potential interactions as I see them.

Appian's Illyrian book (Illyrike) was originally intended to be just an appendix to his Macedonian book and today remains the only extant ancient work dealing with the early history of Illyricum which is preserved in its entirety. In this short work Appian puts together different local and regional histories in order to create a unified historical narrative and determines the historical and mythological coordinates of Illyricum inside the ancient world. This paper will discuss Illyrike in the context of the Roman construction of Illyricum as a provincial space, similar to some other regions in continental Europe such as, for example, Gaul or Britain. They were all firstly created through the needs of Roman political geography and later written into literary knowledge through the works of ancient history and ethnography. This paper will argue that Appian's Illyrike represented the final stage of the Roman construction of Illyricum from an imaginary to a provincial space, which was the point of its full coming of age as an integral part of the ancient world and the Roman Empire.

Earlier scholarship saw the worship of Silvanus in Dalmatia from two different perspectives. Firstly, as a continuance of the pre-Roman indigenous cult which became »recognized« as the italic deity Silvanus through the interpretatio Romana, and secondly, as a product of indigenous assimilation in Roman culture. This article reconsiders these opinions from a different perspective, making the point that we deal here with an entirely new cultural practice, rather than the survival of the pre-Roman traditions, or with the assimilation of the indigenous population into the Roman identity. It is argued that the worship of Silvanus was used as an interface for communication and display of identity of different provincial sub-cultural groups in the early imperial times. It was a new, inventive and multifaceted religious practice, which incorporated existing local traditions and visual aesthetics with global symbolics of Silvanus, bringing together distinct societies and including Dalmatian communities into the »global« world of Roman Empire.

Cults in public places for the ruler of the Roman Empire existed in countries beyond the confines of Italy and the provinces. Comparable to the kingdom of Herod the Great, these countries were ruled by allied and dependant kings and dynasts. The imperial cult in these realms was therefore a sign of political loyalty to Rome. A few very distant cases of imperial cult have also become known (e.g. in India and Southern Mesopotamia). Yet local expressions of political loyalty to Rome have not ranged high among modern explanations for their existence. The present paper argues that the surviving sources can indeed be understood to suggest that the imperial cult in these countries resulted from official agreements of political friendship (amicitia) with Rome.

Rome rapidly expanded in the Republican period, and conquered the entire Italian peninsula with its wide variety of city-states and tribes. The impact of Roman imperialism and expansionism on religious life in the newly incorporated areas has often been regarded as minimal, following the axiom of Roman ‘religious tolerance’. However, literary and epigraphic evidence points at the political and ideological importance of cult sites especially in conflict situations.
Moreover, during the period of conquest and political incorporation, incisive changes in religious practices as well as in the cult sites where these were performed, are documented all over the peninsula. The causality between Roman expansionism and these trends is much discussed, and the ‘religious Romanization’ of Italy is currently a key debate.

This volume explores the development of religious practices and cult places in the conquered Italic areas, and the role of Rome and its colonies in it. Rather than denying Roman impact and intentionality altogether, it assesses the potential influences of Roman expansionism on the sacred landscapes of ancient Italy in wide and variegated terms.

The studies brought together in this volume draw on different types of evidence and approaches, reflecting also the diversity of different national and disciplinary traditions and schools of thought that often have remained isolated in current debates. It presents important new evidence from the inland Italic areas, as well as synthetic discussions addressing key scholarly controversies, such as the agency of Roman magistrates and the role of Roman colonization in ritual change and votive practices. By focusing on the dynamic interaction between authorities, local communities and wider trends in Hellenistic societies, the volume opens new perspectives on religious change in Italy and its relationship to the rise of Rome.

BICS SUPPLEMENT 132 ISBN 978-1-905670-58-1 viii + 332 pp, colour and black and white images, index

http://store.london.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=1&deptid=158&catid=86&prodid=1219&searchresults=1

This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach combining research methods in history and political science to propose that the fundamental cause of Rome’s entry into and later domination of the Greek world was its reaction to a series of geopolitical developments in the Mediterranean region around the years 219 – 188 BCE. The thesis contends that the dominant paradigm in current scholarship on Roman imperialism assigns too much value to the internal structures of Roman society and consequently overlooks the importance of developments in the interstate system, in which the Roman state was a participant.

Following Alexander’s unexpected death in 323, his subordinates waged constant warfare for the next four decades to divide the spoils of his vast empire. By the 280s, these wars subsided, and an unstable balance of power emerged in the east Mediterranean, between the Antigonid, Ptolemaic and Seleucid dynasties.

This balance of power shattered seventy years later due to a sudden decline in Ptolemaic power, caused by a massive native uprising in Egypt, chronic domestic maladministration and a series of unfortunate coincidences. Ptolemaic collapse triggered what political scientists term a power-transition crisis, as it motivated the Antigonid and Seleucid rulers to launch aggressive wars with the aim of capturing Ptolemaic territory. Their aggression threatened the independence of minor Greek states, which attempted to recreate a tripolar balance of power in the region by appealing to Rome for intervention in the crisis.

With the Roman defeat of the two great dynasties and the collapse of the third, a new interstate system emerged in the Mediterranean: hegemony under the government of the Romans.

RESUMEN
Los veinte años que transcurren entre los mandos de Cayo Mario (114 a.C.) y Licinio Craso (93 a.C.) en la Ulterior, coincidente el de este último con el proconsulado de Tito Didio en la Citerior, representan un período de fuerte inestabilidad y disensión en las fronteras de las provincias hispanas. Se reflexiona sobre el desarrollo del último conflicto celtibérico-lusitano en el marco del imperialismo romano de finales del siglo II a.C., sus implicaciones territoriales y el ambivalente papel jugado por las poblaciones locales, cuyos apoyos y refracciones a las políticas de los magistrados romanos traducen la fractura y complejidad del momento, el doble lenguaje de guerra y paz que Roma se vio forzada a simultanear.

ABSTRACT
The twenty years extended between the commands of Caius Marius (114 BC) and Licinius Crassus (93 BC) at the Ulterior province, the former being contemporary to the proconsular rule of Titus Didius at the Citerior province, meant a period of high instability and dissension in the Hispanic frontiers. The development of the last Celtiberian-Lusitanian conflict within the Roman imperialism of the late second century BC is considered here, regarding its territorial implications and the ambivalent role played by the local populations. Their loyalties and rejections to the politics of the Roman magistrates show both the rupture and complexity of that time, the double speak on war and peace that Rome was forced to combine.

PALABRAS CLAVE
Celtíberos. Lusitanos. Ulterior. Citerior. Imperialismo romano. Fronteras. Bandolerismo. Auxiliares. Deditio de Alcántara. Cayo y Marco Mario. Tito Didio. Colenda. Tamusia.

KEYWORDS
Celtiberians. Lusitanias. Ulterior. Citerior. Roman imperialism. Frontiers. Bandolerism. Auxilia. Deditio of Alcántara. Gaius and Marcus Marius. Titis Didius. Colenda. Tamusia.

Roman colonization and expansionism in the Republican period, and its impact on ancient Italy, are intensely debated in current ancient historical and archaeological research. Traditional, diffusionist views from the late 19th and especially the 20th century have recently been heavily criticized, and many socio-economic and cultural developments in ancient Italy (e.g. ‘romanization’) have been disconnected from Roman conquest and expansionism. Although this development has been extremely important and salutary, in this paper it is argued that we should be careful not to throw away the baby with the bathwater. Very recent and ongoing research can be seen as pointing at real Roman impact in various spheres - if in different ways and places than traditionally assumed. Inverting the causal logic between new developments in ancient Italy and Roman colonization, it is argued that Roman expansionism actively targeted hotspots in socio-economic and cultural networks of special interest in ancient Italy. The privileged status of colonial communities then energized and redrew existing constellations, thus using, but also impacting on pre-existing configurations. Such a view stimulates us to rethink the primary incentives behind Roman colonization, and to investigate more intricate patterns of Roman agency.

Abstract: This article explores the battle scene on a small bronze plaque recovered during the excavation of the Great Altar of Pergamon, initially published in 1913 and subsequently lost. It argues that the most likely identification of the scene is the Battle of Magnesia, fought in 190 BC. The scene features Attalid cavalry riding to the rescue of distressed Roman legionaries, both fighting in opposition to Antiochus the Great’s heavy phalanx and Gallic cavalry. The heroics of the Attalid cavalry are central to the scene, and likely reflect a courtly narrative that gave Eumenes II and his small contingent outsized credit for the joint victory.

This dissertation discusses Roman imperialism and runic literacy. It employs an interdisciplinary terminology. By means of terms new to archaeology, the growth of a specialized language, a technolect, is traced until it enters the realm of literacy. The author argues that there is more than one way for literacy to appear in prehistoric cultures. The ’normal’ perception is that literacy grows out of a need to keep records of a growing economic surplus. The ’other’ way for a culture to become literate is that someone else forces literacy upon it. This has been the case in many parts of the world subject to Western imperialism. The onslaught of Roman imperialism caused the invention of runic literacy in Northern Europe during the Early Roman Iron Age. The invention of the runic script should thus be seen as a preemptive reaction to the threat of Westernization. A comparison is made with a number of Early Modern Period cases of newly invented scripts caused by the arrival of literate Westerners in West Africa. The invention and introduction of the runes may well have been a dictated shift in literacy, seeking to break away from Latin. A number of dictated shifts in literacy from Early Modern Period America and Modern Period Asia are studied in comparison. The interaction between Germanic and Roman affinities was accentuated by the Roman army’s recruitment of Germanic men. These came to dominate the Roman army. This gave rise to a Germanic kleptocracy, a criminal rule in the post-Roman world. The role of runic literacy changed in the post-Roman aftermath of the Migration and Vendel Periods as the kleptocratic elite found it increasingly difficult to support a lavish lifestyle that included runic literacy. As a result, there was a decline in runic literacy in Northern Europe until the economic revival of the Viking Period. By then, it was clear that the North was soon to be integrated into the Christian West.

Die Erinnerung an die römischen Legionen wird bis zum heutigen Tag vom Ruf der Unbesiegbarkeit, einer nahezu perfekten Organisation und strenger Disziplin geprägt, und noch immer scheint der Begriff «Imperium Romanum» in der allgemeinen Wahrnehmung mit diesen Kerntruppen des römischen Heeres untrennbar verbunden. Kein Hollywood Film, kein historischer Roman und kein Schulbuch zur Geschichte des Römischen Reiches, in dem der römische Legionär auf seinen prominenten Auftritt verzichten müsste, aber auch kaum ein Römermuseum auf dem Gebiet der ehemaligen Provinzen, das nicht auch Gegenstände ausstellt, die mit dem römischen Heer in Verbindung gebracht werden. Oft wird so der Eindruck geweckt, der römische Legionär sei allgegenwärtig gewesen, das Imperium Romanum der Kaiserzeit mithin ein durch und durch militarisierter Staat. Zu diesem Bild scheint auch der hohe Stellenwert militärischer Themen in der schriftlichen Überlieferung zu passen sowie die zahllosen bildlichen Darstellungen des römischen Kaisers, vor allem auf Münzen, aber auch als Statue oder in grossen und kleinen Reliefs, die den Herrscher in Rüstung als sieghaften Imperator zeigen. Dass der Kaiser auf die Soldaten als wesentliche Stütze seiner Macht angewiesen war, ist freilich eine längst bekannte Tatsache, die im dritten Jahrhundert schliesslich zur Herrschaft der sogenannten Soldatenkaiser führte. 1 Ferner brachte die Einrichtung eines stehenden Berufsheeres durch Augustus eine dauerhafte Belastung des Staatshaushaltes und die Entstehung neuer Strukturen und Prozesse in der staatlichen Verwaltung des Reiches. Die Steuern, die reichsweit in den Provinzen eingezogen wurden, dienten zu einem wesentlichen Teil dazu, dieses Heer zu unterhalten. Dieser Zusammenhang war allgemein bekannt und wurde in der antiken historischen Literatur auch mehrfach beschrieben. 2 Der gut bezeugte, nicht unerhebliche Einsatz von Soldaten in den verschiedensten Zweigen vor allem der Provinzverwaltung oder auch für bestimmte Sonderaufträge (oft technischer Natur) sowie nicht wenige Erstveröffentlichung. Dieser Beitrag entstand aus einem Vortrag, der am 20. Dezember 2007 im Rahmen der «Adventsgespräche» des Instituts für Alte Geschichte und Altertumskunde der Universität Graz zum Thema «Der Einfluss des Militärs auf antike Gesellschaften» gehalten wurde.

Das Römische Weltreich wurde durch sein Wirken während der Jahrhunderte seines Bestehens sowie durch die in den darauf folgenden Jahrhunderten daran wach gehaltene Erinnerung zur zentralen Epoche der europäischen Geschichte. Wer nach den Gründen für diesen einzigartigen Erfolg sucht, wird meist auch an das römische Heer denken, denn das Imperium Romanum entstand als eine Folge der überlegenen militärischen Macht Roms. Viele Jahrhunderte lang hat man das Geheimnis dieses Erfolgs (genauso wie die Erklärung für den Untergang des Reiches) deshalb im Militärischen zu ergründen versucht, nicht zuletzt um daraus Lehren für die Gegenwart zu ziehen. 1 Besonders deutlich zeigt sich das etwa an der ausserordentlich grossen Zahl von mittelalterlichen Abschriften der Epitoma Rei Militaris des spätantiken Autors Publius Vegetius Renatus. 2 Aber selbst als das Interesse an diesem Werk im Laufe des 16. Jahrhunderts abnahm, hielt die Suche nach Nützlichem und auf moderne Armeen Anwendbarem in den Schriften der antiken Autoren bis weit ins 19. Jahrhundert an 3 und noch immer lässt sich eine weit verbreitete Bewunderung für die militärischen Leistungen der römischen Legionen feststellen.

"Available evidence has thus far suggested that the actions of Vespasian and Titus with regard to the first Jewish revolt proceeded uninterrupted from conducting the campaign for the conquest of Judea to commemorating it appropriately, in grand manner. Such a run of events does not contradict any of the theories which have been suggested for the Flavian conduct after the conclusion of the war, be it imagined to have been guided by private dynastic requirements (Goodman 2007); by the needs of a state torn until recently by civil war (Yakobson forthcoming); or, finally, by routine protocol in the aftermath of great campaigns of conquest (Gambash 2013).
A newly discovered Flavian aureus, however, carrying the unique legend Iudaea recepta on its reverse, has been interpreted recently as undermining this assumed flow of events, presenting us with a brief moment of different Flavian policy, when a line of commemoration completely opposed to the one eventually adopted was considered and even initiated (Gambash, Gitler, and Cotton 2013). The coin presents Judea as a former province which had temporarily been lost to the empire and was now reintegrated into the provincial system. This would have been in line with Rome’s normal practice, which, in the aftermath of provincial unrest, sought to return as quickly as possible to the antequam situation (Gambash 2012). The suggested paper aims to reevaluate the circumstances in late 70 in light of the new coin and the policy it denotes, examining such aspects as the official status of Judea; the rank of its governor and the nature of its administration; the garrisoning of the province; and retributive measures taken against the Jews in the province and elsewhere.
"

Between the Battle of Mylae in 260 BC (when Rome defeated Carthage off the north coast of Sicily) and the Battle of Myonnesus in 190 (when Rome defeated the Seleucid navy off the west coast of Asia Minor) the Romans established naval domination over the whole Mediterranean. Scholars generally believe, for quite good reasons, that this process of naval aggrandizement began abruptly, the Romans having previously taken no interest in the sea. That after all is what Polybius quite clearly says.