Rome : empire of the eagles / Neil Faulkner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Faulkner, Neil.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rome--History--Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.

Rome.

Rome (Empire).

History.

Physical Description:

xxxiii, 344 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Harlow, England ; New York : Pearson Longman, 2008.

Summary:

The Roman Empire is widely admired as a model of civilisation. In this compelling new study, Neil Faulkner argues that in fact it was a ruthless system of robbery and violence. War was used to enrich the state, the imperial ruling classes and favoured client groups. In the process millions of people were killed or enslaved.

Within the empire, the state and the landowning elite creamed off taxes and rents from the countryside to fund their army, their towns and their villas. The mass of people - slaves, serfs, poor peasants - were the victims of the exploitation that made the empire possible. This system, riddled with tension and latent conflict, contained the seeds of its own eventual collapse from the outset.

Contents:

1 The making of an imperial city-state, c. 750-367 BC 9

2 The rise of a superpower, 343-146 BC 46

3 The Roman revolution, 133-30 BC 102

4 The Pax Romana, 30 BC-AD 161 177

5 The decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire 230.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 319-331) and index.

ISBN:

9780582784956

0582784956

OCLC:

170035774