The Language of Empire: Rome and the Idea of Empire From the Third Century BC to the Second Century AD

232 Pages·2009·1.01 MB·English

by  John Richardson

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the language of empire
The Roman Empire has been an object of fascination for the past two
millennia, and the story of how a small city in central Italy came to
dominatethewholeoftheMediterraneanbasin,mostofmodernEurope
and the lands of Asia Minor and the Middle East has often been told.
IthasprovidedthemodelforEuropeanempiresfromCharlemagneto
Queen Victoria and beyond, and it is still the basis of comparison for
investigatorsofmodernimperialisms.Byanexhaustiveinvestigationof
thechangingmeaningsofcertainkeywordsandtheiruseinthesubstantial
remainsofRomanwritingsandinthestructuresofRomanpoliticallife,
thisbookseekstodiscoverwhattheRomansthemselvesthoughtabout
theirimperialpowerinthecenturiesinwhichtheyconqueredtheknown
worldandformedtheEmpireofthefirstandsecondcenturiesad.
John Richardson is Emeritus Professor of Classics, University of
Edinburgh. He has written on Roman Spain: Hispaniae: Spain and the
DevelopmentofRomanImperialism218–82bc(1986);TheRomansinSpain
(1996) and Appian: Wars of the Romans in Iberia (2000); and he has
contributedarticlesonRomanimperialismandRomanprovincialadmin-
istration to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd edition, 1996) and the
CambridgeAncientHistory,volumeix(2ndedition,1994).

THE LANGUAGE OF EMPIRE
Rome and the Idea of Empire from the Third
Century BC to the Second Century AD
JOHN RICHARDSON
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521815017
© John Richardson 2008
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the
provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part
may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2008
ISBN-13 978-0-511-46381-5 eBook (EBL)
ISBN-13 978-0-521-81501-7 hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy
of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication,
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
Contents
Preface pagevii
Listofabbreviations ix
1 Ideasofempire 1
2 Thebeginnings:HannibaltoSulla 10
3 Cicero’sempire:imperiumpopuliRomani 63
4 TheAugustanempire:imperiumRomanum 117
5 AfterAugustus 146
6 Conclusion:imperialpresuppositionsandpatternsofempire 182
Appendix1 Ciceroanalysis 195
Appendix2 Livy 204
Appendix3 Imperiumandprovinciainlegalwriters 206
Bibliography 211
Index 218
v

Preface
Theprocesswhichhasresultedinthisbookbeganmanydecadesagowhen,
asanundergraduatestudent,Ifoundmyselfaskingthequestion,‘Whatdid
theRomansthinktheyweredoingwhentheycreatedtheRomanEmpire?’
For many years this question lurked in the background of my thoughts
as I worked on Roman history more generally and on Roman Spain in
particular,notleastbecauseitwasnotcleartomehowsuchaquestionmight
beanswered.Whatfollowsis,Ihope,ifnotananswer,atleastacontribution
towardsone.ItemergednotleastfromaremarkmadeinpassingbyFergus
Millar,thattounderstandwhatimperiummeantitwouldbenecessarytoread
thewholeofLatinliterature.Ihavenotquitedonethat,butthedevelopment
ofaccessibledigitaltextshasmadepossiblethenextbestthing,thescanning
oflargequantitiesoftextstodiscoverthepassagesinwhichbothimperium
anditsstablemate,provincia,appeared.Ishouldgiveduerecognitiontothe
PackardHumanitiesInstituteandtheThesaurusLinguaeGraecaeprojectof
theUniversityofCalifornia,withoutwhoseexcellentproductionsthework
ofthisbookwouldhavetakenseverallifetimes.Ialsomention,honoriscausa,
twopiecesofsoftwarewhichhavebeenindispensable:thesearchprogram
Musaios,developedsince1992byDarlJ.DumontandRandallM.Smith;
and the database program, Idealist. These two enabled me to assemble a
databaseofseveralthousandsofpassagesfromancientauthors,whichwere
furtheranalysedwiththehelpofanExcelspreadsheet.Thismadepossiblea
fullerandmorecontextualisedexaminationofthewordsIwasinvestigating
than those to be found in such excellent lexica as the Thesaurus Linguae
LatinaeortheOxfordLatinDictionary.(Forafulleraccountofthemethods
used,seeRichardson(2005).)
Ithardlyneedstobesaidthatallcouldnotbeachievedevenbythemost
usefulsoftware.Overthemanyyearsthatthisbookhastakentocometo
fruitionIhavehadmuchassistance,notleastfromtheInstituteofClassical
Studies,UniversityofLondon,whereIheldaVisitingFellowshipin1998,
andtheCarnegieFundfortheUniversitiesofScotland,whichfundedmeat
thattime.Many,manyfriendsandcolleagueshaverenderedassistance,often,
Isuspect,morethantheyrealised.Icannotnamethemall,butwishtorecord
vii
viii Preface
especialthankstoCliffordAndo,DavidBreeze,T.CoreyBrennan,Michael
Crawford,thelatePeterDerow,CarlottaDionisotti,Jean-LouisFerrary,
Fritz-GregorHerrmann,JillHarries,LawrenceKeppie,thelateGeoffrey
Lewis, Andrew Lintott, Claude Nicolet, Jonathan Prag, Roy Pinkerton,
KeithRutter;tomytwosons,ThomasandMartin,forassistanceonmatters
statistical, legal and historical; to my late wife, Patricia, who encouraged
me even through her last illness; and to my wife, Joan, without whose
unflaggingsupportitwouldneverhavebeencompleted.Iamalsograteful
for permission to quote from Louis MacNeice, Collected Poems (London:
FaberandFaber,1979)intheepigraphtochapter6.
In the long process of writing this book, parts have been presented to
audiences in the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies (especially
chapter 3), the Impact of Empire group (especially chapter 4), the Royal
SocietyofEdinburgh,theUniversitiesofLeidenandManchester,Nijmegen
andStAndrews,andmanyothers,toallofwhomIgivemyheartiestthanks.