1.3 Imperialism
Imperialism is a term often discussed in relation to modern Western colonial history. Ancient Greek and Roman debates on power, military expansion, and cultural dominance have been used in the past to explain, support and even justify European colonialism across the globe and modern empires have made extensive use of images of Rome to shape popular perceptions. But what was the ancient perception of dominance? And what were the ways in which power and dominance were debated and visually presented in ancient Greece and Rome?
EPQ suggested questions
In your EPQ project you may want to focus on one of the following questions:
- What is imperialism? And how far do modern notions of imperialism differ from those developed in the ancient world?
- How far did Greek political thought on power change from the age of Pericles to the age of Alexander the Great?
- How far did Greek and Roman political thought on imperial dominion differ? And why?
- How were images of Emperors used for mass communication and visual propaganda in the Roman Provinces?
- What was the Imperial cult, and what purposes did it serve in the Roman Provinces?
- How far did the ideology of modern empire influence the development of the study of ancient Rome in the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries?
- Why was Mussolini interested in Roman imperial architecture and art – and how did he use them in constructing Fascist identity?
Sources: Greek debate on imperialism
- Xenophon, Poroi
- Thucydides (1.76.2)
- Demosthenes, First Philippic
- Demosthenes, On the Liberty of the Rhodians
- Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 5.84-116 (Melian Dialogue)
- Plutarch, Life of Alexander the Great
- Plutarch, Life of Pericles
Sources: Roman debate on imperialism
- Polybius, Histories: the origins and nature of the Roman state (book 6) and Romans being conscious about the origins of their power (1.63) Other relevant passages: 1.1.5-6; 1.3.6; 1.10.5 -1.11.3; 6.39.1-11; 6.50.3-6; 32.13.4-9
- Cicero, On the Manilian Law, 65-66
- Sallust, Catilinarian Conspiracy, 10
- Livy, History of Rome 10.46.2-7; 39.7.1-5
- Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 1.2.1-1.5.4; 10.33
- Tacitus, Agricola 30-34;
- Tacitus, Germania
Sources: the material culture of ancient Greek and Roman power
Architecture and sculpture
- Greece: Periclean transformations of the Acropolis.
- Greece: the sanctuary of Apollo at Delos and the Treasury of the Delian League.
- Rome: The Arch of Titus; Trajan’s Column.
- Rome: Statues of emperors (for example the Augustus of Prima Porta; the head of Claudius from Colchester)
- Rome (provinces): Arch of Augustus at Aosta (Italy); Arch of Carpentras (France); Arch d’Orange (France); Tropaeum Alpium, La Turbie (France).
- Rome (provinces): Sebasteion of Aphrodisias (Turkey) (open link)
Artefacts
- Cast of a coin depicting the emperor Hadrian (1.3 Hadrian coin).
- Fragmentary building stone from Milecastle 47, Hadrian’s Wall (1.3 Milecastle 47).
- Building inscription from Risingham, Northumberland (1.3 Risingham).
Inscriptions
- Attic Inscriptions Online (open link)
- Accounts of the sanctuary of Apollo on Delos in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (open link)
- Duillius's Victory Inscription, Rome, Capitoline Museums: Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, 65; Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, I.2. (opens link)
- Roman inscriptions from Hadrian’s Wall at the GNM (open link)
- Augustus, Res Gestae and the expansion of the Roman empire (open link)
References
Ancient thought on imperialism
- Salkever, S.G., 2009. The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Political Thought. Cambridge University Press.
- Samons, L.J., ed., 2007. The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles. Cambridge University Press.
- Samons, L.J., 1998. Athenian Democracy and Imperialism. Houghton Mifflin.
- Balot, R.K. ed., 2012. A Companion to Greek and Roman Political Thought. John Wiley & Sons.
- Cartledge, P., 2009. Ancient Greek Political Thought in Practice. Cambridge University Press.
- Erskine, A. (2010). Roman Imperialism. Edinburgh University Press
- Mara, G., 2009. ‘Thucydides and Political Thought’, in S.G. Salkever, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Political Thought, 96-125. Cambridge University Press.
- Smethurst, S.E., ‘Cicero and Roman Imperial Policy’, Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 83 (1953): 216-226.
- Derow, P., and Smith, C.J., and Yarrow, L.M., 2012. Imperialism, Cultural Politics, and Polybius. Oxford University Press.
- Romilly, J., 1963. Thucydides and Athenian Imperialism. Blackwell.
Athenian empire
- Hurwit, J.M. 2004. The Acropolis in the Age of Pericles. Cambridge University Press.
- Low, P. ed., 2008. Athenian Empire. Edinburgh University Press.
- Ma, J., and Papazakardas, N., and Parker, R., 2009. Interpreting the Athenian Empire. Duckworth.
- Mills, S., 1997. Theseus, Tragedy and the Athenian Empire. Oxford University Press.
- Tzanetou, A., 2012. City of Suppliants: Tragedy and the Athenian Empire. University of Texas Press.
- Camp, J., 2001. The Archaeology of Athens. Yale University Press.
- Gruen, E.S., 1984. The Hellenistic World and the Coming of Rome. 2 volumes. University of California Press.
- Habicht, C., 1999. Athens from Alexander to Antony. Harvard University Press.
- Osborne, Robin. "Archaeology and the Athenian Empire." Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-) 129 (1999): 319-32. doi:10.2307/284434.
- Perlman, S. "Panhellenism, the Polis and Imperialism." Historia: Zeitschrift Für Alte Geschichte 25, no. 1 (1976): 1-30.
Roman imperialism
- Champion, C.B. (ed.) Roman Imperialism: Readings and Sources. Blackwell Publishers.
- Badian, E., 1968. Roman Imperialism in the Late Republic. Oxford University Press.
- Baronowski, D.W., 2011. Polybius and Roman Imperialism. Bristol Classical Press.
- Burton, P.J., 2011. Friendship and Empire: Roman Diplomacy and Imperialism in the Middle Republic (353-146 BC). Cambridge University Press.
- Harris, W. V. (1985). War and Imperialism in Republican Rome, 327-70 BC. Oxford University Press.
- Lintott, A.W., ‘What Was the ‘Imperium Romanum’?’, Greece & Rome 28 (1981): 53-67.
- Morley, N., 2010. The Roman Empire: Roots of Imperialism. Pluto Press.
- North, J.A. ‘The Development of Roman Imperialism’, Journal of Roman Studies 71 (1981): 1-9.
- Sidebottom, H. ‘Roman Imperialism: The Changed Outward Trajectory of the Roman Empire’, Historia 54 (2005): 315-330.
- Eilers, C. ed., 2009. Diplomats and diplomacy in the Roman world (Vol. 304). Brill.
- Lintott, A.W., ‘Imperial Expansion and Moral Decline in the Roman Republic’, Historia 21 (1972): 626-638.
Imperial cult in the Roman provinces
- Beard, M, North, J and Price, S 1998 Religions of Rome (Vol 1), Oxford University Press. Chs 6 and 7
- Fishwick, D., 2004. The Imperial Cult in the Latin West: studies in the ruler cult of the western provinces of the Roman Empire (Vol. 147). Brill.
- Mattingly, D.J., 2013. Imperialism, Power, and Identity: Experiencing the Roman Empire. Princeton University Press.
- Mattingly, D.J., and Alcock, S.E., 1997. Dialogues in Roman Imperialism: Power, Discourse, and Discrepant Experience in the Roman Empire. Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplement.
- Noreña, C.F., 2011. Imperial Ideals in the Roman West: Representation, Circulation, Power. Cambridge University Press.
- Price, S.R. and Price, S.R., 1986. Rituals and power: the Roman imperial cult in Asia Minor. Cambridge University Press
- Rives, J.B., 2001. Imperial Cult and Native Tradition in Roman North Africa. The Classical Journal, 96(4), pp.425-436.
Visual manifestations of Roman imperialism
- Kinnee, L., 2018. The Greek and Roman Trophy. Routledge.
- Manders, E., 2012. Coining images of power: patterns in the representation of Roman emperors on imperial coinage, AD 193-284 (Vol. 15). Brill.
- Popkin, M.L., 2016. The Architecture of the Roman Triumph: Monuments, Memory, and Identity. Cambridge University Press.
- Scott, S., and Webster, J., 2003. Roman Imperialism and Provincial Art. Cambridge University Press.
- Rich, J. ‘Fear, Greed, and Glory: The Causes of Roman War Making in the Middle Republic’, in C.B. Champion (ed.), 2004. Roman Imperialism: Readings and Sources. Blackwell Publishers, 46-67.
Roman imperial portraiture, mass communication and visual propaganda in the Roman Provinces
- Start with the British Museum’s discussion of the bronze head of Hadrian from London (open link) and this discussion of propaganda in the Roman provinces (open link)
- Two excellent illustrated essays on Roman portrait sculpture at the Metropolitain Museum of Art (open link) and (open link).
- Ando, C., 2013. Imperial ideology and provincial loyalty in the Roman Empire Univ of California Press. Chapter 7 especially. E book.
- Elsner Art of the Roman Empire AD100- AD450. Oxford University Press. Ch 2 Art and Imperial Power
- Kalinsky, G (ed) 2007 Cambridge Companion to the Age of Augustus. Cambrige University Press. E-Book. Chapters 1 and 2
- Manders, E., 2012. Coining images of power: patterns in the representation of Roman emperors on imperial coinage, AD 193-284 (Vol. 15). Brill.
- Noreña, C.F., 2011. Imperial Ideals in the Roman West: Representation, Circulation, Power. Cambridge University Press.
- Walker, Susan 1991 Roman Art. British Museum Press.
- Zanker, P., 1990. The power of images in the age of Augustus. University of Michigan Press.
Mussolini, Fascism and Roman imperial architecture and art
- Aicher, P., 2000. Mussolini's forum and the myth of Augustan Rome. Classical Bulletin, 76(2), p.117-
- Arthurs, J 2013 Excavating Modernity: The Roman Past in Fascist Italy. Cornell University Press (E book)
- Harrison, T., 2008. ‘Ancient and Modern Imperialism’, Greece & Rome, 55.1: 1-22.
- Nelis, J., 2007. Constructing Fascist Identity: Benito Mussolini and the Myth of" Romanità". Classical World, pp.391-415
- Romer, John Lost Worlds Episode 5 (opens link: for Mussolini and Augustus start at minute 37).