The fate of Rome Harper, Kyle
2017., 20171002, 2017, 2017-10-30, Letnik:
2
eBook
A sweeping new history of how climate change and disease helped bring down the Roman Empire 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, 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.
Taking public space as her starting point, Amy Russell offers a fresh analysis of the ever-fluid public/private divide in Republican Rome. Built on the 'spatial turn' in Roman studies and ...incorporating textual and archaeological evidence, this book uncovers a rich variety of urban spaces. No space in Rome was solely or fully public. Some spaces were public but also political, sacred, or foreign; many apparently public spaces were saturated by the private, leaving grey areas and room for manipulation. Women, slaves, and non-citizens were broadly excluded from politics: how did they experience and help to shape its spaces? How did the building projects of Republican dynasts relate to the communal realm? From the Forum to the victory temples of the Campus Martius, culminating in Pompey's great theatre-portico-temple-garden-house complex, The Politics of Public Space in Republican Rome explores how space was marked, experienced, and defined by multiple actors and audiences.
Describes and integrates the contrasting histories of different parts of the empire. The Roman empire during the period framed by the accession of Septimus Severus in 193 and the rise of Diocletian ...in 284 has conventionally been regarded as one of 'crisis'. Between 235 and 284, at least eighteen men held the throne of the empire, for an average of less than three years, a reckoning which does not take into account all the relatives and lieutenants with whom those men shared power. Compared to the century between the accession of Nerva and the death of Commodus, this appears to be a period of near unintelligibility. The middle of the century also witnessed catastrophic, if temporary, ruptures in the territorial integrity of the empire.
Elite Romans periodically chose to limit or destroy the memory of a leading citizen who was deemed an unworthy member of the community. Sanctions against memory could lead to the removal or ...mutilation of portraits and public inscriptions. Harriet Flower provides the first chronological overview of the development of this Roman practice--an instruction to forget--from archaic times into the second century A.D. Flower explores Roman memory sanctions against the background of Greek and Hellenistic cultural influence and in the context of the wider Mediterranean world. Combining literary texts, inscriptions, coins, and material evidence, this richly illustrated study contributes to a deeper understanding of Roman political culture.
Rome Re-Imagined Hamilton, Louis I; Riccioni, Stefano
2012, 2012-06-21, 2011
eBook, Book
This collection examines the image of Rome through Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Persian descriptions of the eternal city. Placing the twelfth-century renaissance into a Mediterranean context. ...The city of Rome is revealed as a multi-vocal object of desire and a contested ideal.
This book examines the role of social networks in the formation of identity among sophists, philosophers and Christians in the early Roman Empire. Membership in each category was established and ...evaluated socially as well as discursively. From clashes over admission to classrooms and communion to construction of the group's history, integration into the social fabric of the community served as both an index of identity and a medium through which contests over status and authority were conducted. The juxtaposition of patterns of belonging in Second Sophistic and early Christian circles reveals a shared repertoire of technologies of self-definition, authorization and institutionalization and shows how each group manipulated and adapted those strategies to its own needs. This approach provides a more rounded view of the Second Sophistic and places the early Christian formation of 'orthodoxy' in a fresh context.
Comparing and contrasting speeches attributed to barbarian leaders by ancient Roman historians, this book offers a systematic examination of the ways in which those historians valorized foreigners ...and presented criticisms of their own society.
Freedmen occupied a complex and often problematic place in Roman society between slaves on the one hand and freeborn citizens on the other. Playing an extremely important role in the economic life of ...the Roman world, they were also a key instrument for replenishing and even increasing the size of the citizen body. This book presents an original synthesis, for the first time covering both Republic and Empire in a single volume. While providing up-to-date discussions of most significant aspects of the phenomenon, the book also offers a new understanding of the practice of manumission, its role in the organisation of slave labour and the Roman economy, as well as the deep-seated ideological concerns to which it gave rise. It locates the freedman in a broader social and economic context, explaining the remarkable popularity of manumission in the Roman world.
Focusing on the Triumviral period and the battle of Actium, this book offers a re-evaluation of Augustus' rise to power and its presentation in propaganda and ideology.
