Examines the complex reaction of the Greek historian Polybius to the expansion of Roman power, embracing admiration and support tempered by detachment of different kinds, personal, cultural, patriotic and intellectual.

Written during his 16-year exile to Rome, Polybius' On Roman Imperialism attempts to explain why most of the inhabited world came under the domination of Rome within 53 years.

The Greek statesman Polybius (c.200–118 BC) wrote his account of the relentless growth of the Roman Empire in order to help his fellow countrymen understand how their world came to be dominated by Rome. Opening with the Punic War in 264 BC, he vividly records the critical stages of Roman expansion: its campaigns throughout the Mediterranean, the temporary setbacks inflicted by Hannibal and the final destruction of Carthage. An active participant of the politics of his time as well as a friend of many prominent Roman citizens, Polybius drew on many eyewitness accounts in writing this cornerstone work of history.

Addressing central problems in the development of Roman imperialism in the 3rd and 2nd century BC, topics in this volume include the author Polybius, the characteristics of Roman power and imperial ambition, and the mechanisms used by Rome in creating and sustaining an empire in the East.

"Smart and sophisticated. A work that is simultaneously a sensitive study of a major Greek historian and a probing analysis of the Greco-Roman society in which his history was produced."—John Marincola, author of Authority and Tradition in Ancient Historiography

Rome engaged in military and diplomatic expansionistic state behavior, which we now describe as ‘imperialism,’ since well before the appearance of ancient sources describing this activity. Over the course of at least 800 years, the Romans established and maintained a Mediterranean-wide empire from Spain to Syria (and sometimes farther east) and from the North Sea to North Africa. How and why they did this is a perennial source of scholarly controversy. Earlier debates over whether Rome was an aggressive or defensive imperial state have progressed to theoretically-informed discussions of the extent to which system-level or discursive pressures shaped the Roman Empire. Roman imperialism studies now encompass such ancillary subfields as Roman frontier studies and Romanization.

Between 327 and 70 B.C. the Romans expanded their empire throughout the Mediterranean world. This highly original study looks at Roman attitudes and behavior that lay behind their quest for power. How did Romans respond to warfare, year after year? How important were the material gains of military success--land, slaves, and other riches--commonly supposed to have been merely an incidental result? What value is there in the claim of the contemporary historian Polybius that the Romans were driven by a greater and greater ambition to expand their empire? The author answers these questions within an analytic framework, and comes to an interpretation of Roman imperialism that differs sharply from the conventional ones.

Andrew Erskine exomines the course nad nature of Roman Expansion, focusing on explanations, ancient adn modern, the impact of Roma rule on the subjed and the effect of empire on the imperial power. All these topics have crated fremedous amount of discussion among schloars, not least because the study of Roman imperialism has alwasys been informed by contemporary perceptions of international power relations. --

This broad-ranging reader on Roman imperialism brings together ancient documents in translation and a selection of the best recent scholarly essays, in order to introduce students to the major problems and controversies in studying this central aspect of Roman history. A broad-ranging reader on Roman imperialism, combining ancient documents in translation and a selection of the best recent scholarship on the subject. Introduces students to the major problems and controversies in the study of Roman imperialism. Examines diverse aspects of Roman imperialism, from the Romans’ motivations in acquiring an empire and their ideological justifications for imperial domination, to the complex political, economic, and cultural interactions between the Romans, their allies, and the subjected peoples. An introduction surveys modern work on Roman imperialism and provides the context of recent theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of empires in general. Includes notes with suggestions for further reading.