Empire and Ideology in the Graeco-Roman World
Selected Papers

This book explores how the Graeco-Roman world suffered from major power conflicts, imperial ambition, and ethnic, religious and racist strife.

Benjamin Isaac (Author)

9781107135895, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 August 2017

382 pages, 1 map
23.5 x 16 x 2.4 cm, 0.66 kg

'… anyone interested in imperialism, the Roman military, Graeco-Roman racism, and the Roman Near East will find much of value in this book. It is one of the strengths of this collection and Isaac’s work in general that it provokes important reappraisals of fundamental aspects of the ancient Mediterranean world.' Conor Whately, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Benjamin Isaac is one of the most distinguished historians of the ancient world, with a number of landmark monographs to his name. This volume collects most of his published articles and book chapters of the last two decades, many of which are not easy to access, and republishes them for the first time along with some brand new chapters. The focus is on Roman concepts of state and empire and mechanisms of control and integration. Isaac also discusses ethnic and cultural relationships in the Roman Empire and the limits of tolerance and integration, as well as attitudes to foreigners and minorities, including Jews. The book will appeal to scholars and students of ancient, imperial, and military history, as well as to those interested in the ancient history of problems which still resonate in today's societies.

Introduction
1. Roma Aeterna
2. Roman victory displayed: symbols, allegories, and personificiations?
3. Army and violence
4. Innovation and war
5. Core-periphery notions
6. Names: ethnic, geographic and administrative
7. Attitudes towards provincial intellectuals in the Roman Empire
8. Proto-racism in Graeco-Roman antiquity
9. The barbarian in Greek and Roman literature
10. Romans and nomads in the fourth century
11. A multi-cultural Mediterranean?
12. Latin in cities of the Roman Near East
13. Ancient antisemitism
14. Roman religious policy and the Bar Kokhba war
15. Jews, Christians and others in Palestine: the evidence from Eusebius
16. Roman organization in the Arabah in the fourth century AD
17. Hatra against Rome and Persia: from success to destruction.

Subject Areas: Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies [JFSL1], Judaism [HRJ], Military history [HBW], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], Literature & literary studies [D]