Rome: An Empire's Story

by Greg Woolf

Overview

Rome in the archaic age was a minor satellite between the Etruscan and Greek world. This book traces the expansion of Roman influence first within Italy, then around the Mediterranean world and finally, at breakneck speed, deep into Europe, out to the Atlantic, along the edge of the Sahara and down the Red Sea. But there had been other empires that had expanded rapidily: what made Rome remarkable was that it managed to sustain its position for so long. Rome's Fall poses less of a mystery than its survival. Understanding how this happens involves understanding the building blocks of imperial society — slavery , cities , the economy — and also the chaotic narrative of growth, civil war, stability, near disaster and then a managed downsizing. Rome. An empire's story tells the story of Rome in chapters that alternate with examination of key features of Roman society. This new edition is based on the very latest research, including studies of climate change and ecology, and deals at greater length than the first edition did with the later Roman empire, and with the material culture of empire.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190687458
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/10/2021
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	512
Sales rank:	546,596
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Greg Woolf is the Ronald J. Mellor Chair in Ancient History at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of The Life and Death of Ancient Cities, Tales of the Barbarians, and Et Tu, Brute?.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Maps
Notes on Further Reading

1. The Whole Story
2. Empires of the Mind
3. Rulers of Italy
4. Imperial Ecology
5. Mediterranean Hegemony
6. Slavery and Empire
7. Crisis
8. At Heaven's Command?
9. The Generals
10. The Enjoyment of Empire
11. Emperors
12. Resourcing Empire
13. War
14. Imperial Identities
15. Recovery and Collapse
16. A Christian Empire
17. Things Fall Apart
18. The Roman Past and the Roman Future

Notes
Bibliography
Glossary of Technical Terms
Photographic Acknowledgements
Index

Editorial Reviews

Winner of the 2015 Robert Rhodes Prize for Books on Literature from the American Conference on Irish Studies

"This latest volume from Professor Greg Woolf is a marvelous synthesis of the scholarship of, primarily, the last four decades on Rome's imperial successes and failures, rendered in an approachable and affable style of writing that is imbued throughout with useful anecdotes, quotes from primary sources, and summaries of the major scholarly positions. Woolf draws together rather complex lines of inquiry from numerous fields (including ecological and socio-political disciplines) and pieces together a narrative that educates, and points the reader to new theoretical directions that can be used to further illuminate the study of the topic at hand. ... Woolf has produced a useful review of the positions on Roman imperialism, a tour-de-force summary of the evolution of Rome from city-state to center of imperial power, and a really good read." —New England Classical Journal

"In this passionately told exploration of the history of Rome, Woolf peers closely at what enabled Rome to resist defeats and capitalize on victories, and how it evolved to face new needs and new threats. With dazzling detail, Woolf retells the long story from Rome's birth in 753 B.C.E. to the republic, the empire, and the empire's fall" —Publishers Weekly

"Excellent...Understanding the history of Rome is not a simple task...for those already with such an interest, Woolf's book will be a joy to read. For those not yet intrigued by Rome, it may well set them on that path." —Adrian Goldsworthy, The National Interest

"Exceptionally interesting and provocative reading." —Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post

"Could [this] be the best single-volume introduction to the history of ancient Rome? It is conceptual yet avoids the pitfalls of overgeneralizing, a difficult balance to strike. It also has a superb (useful rather than exhaustive) bibliography. A good measure of books such as this is whether they induce you to read or order other books on the same topic and this one did. A sure thing to make my 'Best Books of 2012' list." —Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution

"This is a marvellous book. Woolf provides a sweeping history of Rome's rise and fall, and asks the big questions of why and how this happened. Better yet, he offers no simple or simplistic answers, but instead well considered discussion of the evidence and how we try to understand it." —Adrian Goldsworthy, author of How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower and Caesar: Life of a Colossus

"Explanations for how Rome came to bestride the Mediterranean world puzzled ancient no less than modern historians, and Woolf's attention to enduring preoccupations, as with the fall of the republic and its succession by the emperors, endows his treatment with debate-like liveliness...a fine foundation for further learning about the Roman Empire." —Booklist

"How a single-volume history of Rome could contain so much is beyond me. Ranging across time and space, and examining every facet of Roman civilization, it also places Rome's empire in the context of empires elsewhere, from China to Peru. Woolf has written what will surely establish itself as the definitive introduction to his subject." —Tom Holland, author of Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic and Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West

"Rome: An Empire's Story is a terrific piece of work. It covers a vast chronological sweep briskly, from a wide and revealing variety of perspectives, and with a dazzling intellectual verve. The reader repeatedly encounters shrewd and often unexpected insights all along the way. Greg Woolf has given us a real tour de force of a book." —Nathan Rosenstein, Professor of History at The Ohio State University and author of Rome and the Mediterranean, 290 to 146 BC

"How the Roman elite shaped an identity for itself and its many subjects is one theme of Greg Woolf's Rome: An Empire's Story, a remarkable work of synthesis that describes the rise, flourishing and decline of the Roman Empire...textbooks divide Roman history into the republican and imperial periods and fix the beginning of the empire proper to the age of Augustus. Not the least merit of Mr. Woolf's chronicle is its depiction of how misleading this division can be..." —Wall Street Journal

"Fifteen years ago, Greg Woolf published one of the best books ever written on the western Roman Empire (Becoming Roman). His new account of Rome's imperial history is hence something of an event....[a] grand new vision of the Roman empire." —Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher

In this passionately told exploration of the history of Rome, University of St. Andrews historian Woolf (editor, The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Roman World) peers closely at what enabled Rome to resist defeats and capitalize on victories, and how it evolved to face new needs and new threats. With dazzling detail, Woolf retells the long story from Rome’s birth in 753 B.C.E. to the republic, the empire, and the empire’s fall, not in the sixth century as is usually accepted, but in 711 when Muslims invaded Spain. As Woolf points out, complex forces were always at work. For example, in the final 100 years of the Republic, Roman literary and intellectual culture achieved its classic form amid bloody civil wars. The early Empire, by contrast, was at peace, with emperors focused on building projects and scaling back military expansion. The Roman Empire faded not only when outside forces invaded in the sixth and seventh centuries, but when internal strife tore it apart at the same time, borders shrank, and the empire collapsed back on itself. Woolf points out that western Christendom, Islam, and Byzantium were the empire’s heirs, each with its own imperial destiny. 31 b&w illus.; maps. Agent: Georgina Capel, Capel and Land (U.K.). (July)

Publishers Weekly