The Language of Empire: Rome & the Idea of Empire from the Third Century BC to the Second Century AD

The Roman Empire has been an object of fascination for the past two millennia, & the story of how a small city in central Italy came to dominate the whole of the Mediterranean basin, most of modern Europe & the lands of Asia Minor & the Middle East, has often been told. It's provided the model for European empires from Charlemagne to Queen Victoria & beyond, & is still the basis of comparison for investigators of modern imperialisms. By an exhaustive investigation of the changing meanings of certain key words & their use in the substantial remains of Roman writings & 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 & formed the empire of the 1st & 2nd centuries. Preface List of Abbreviations Ideas of empire The beginnings: Hannibal to Sulla Cicero's empire: imperium populi Romani The Augustan empire: imperium Romanum After Augustus Conclusion: imperial presuppositions & patterns of empire Appendix 1: Cicero Analysis Appendix 2: Livy Appendix 3: Imperium & Provincia in Legal Writers Bibliography Index