Exploring how the professional Roman army developed from a small citizen militia, guarding a village on the banks of the Tiber, this text pays particular attention to the transitional period between the Republic and the Empire: the time of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Augustus. The author overcomes the traditional dichotomy between a historical view of the Republic and an archaeological approach to the Empire, by making the most of the archaeological evidence from the earlier years. This is reflected in the of specially prepared maps and diagrams, and in the details from Republican monuments and coins. This edition provides a comprehensive survey of the evolution and growth of the remarkable military enterprise of the Roman army.
The dream Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar shared of uniting Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East in a single community shuddered and then collapsed in the wars and disasters of the sixth century. Illegal migrations of peoples, religious wars, global pandemics, and the temptations of empire: Rome's end foreshadows our own crises and offers hints how to navigate them, if we will heed this story.
These 16 collected essays open with a contribution by Fergus Millar in which he defends the continuing significance of the study of Classics and argues for expanding the definition of what constitutes that field.
In this volume he also questions the dominant scholarly interpretation of politics in the Roman Republic, arguing that the Roman people, not the Senate, were the sovereign power in Republican Rome.
