Ancient Rome's Provinces: The History of the Foreign Lands Ruled by the Roman Empire in Antiquity
ISBN: 9781727442731
*Includes pictures
*Includes ancient accounts
*Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading
Ironically, the Roman Republic’s development from a city state into a world power that controlled large swathes of modern Italy, Gaul and Spain, as well as other parts of Europe is seen by many as being the direct result of Roman fear of the “Celtic Threat.” The sacking of Rome by the Gauls in 386 B.C. became indelibly imprinted into the Roman psyche, and with this fear came a desire to put as much distance as possible between the city of Rome and any potential enemy. The result was the gradual acquisition of buffer zones that became provinces of an empire that grew without any particular thought out or deliberate strategy of expansion.
It can be argued that Roman culture was, indeed, Graeco-Roman rather than Roman. It was the Greek language that served as the lingua franca in the Eastern Empire and much of the west including Italy. Many Greek intellectuals, including Galen, were based in Rome and the Roman aristocracy more and more came to embrace Greek literature and philosophy. Homer’s epics inspired Virgil’s Aeneid and Seneca wrote in Greek. Earlier, Scipio Africanus (236 – 183 B.C.), the epitome of the Roman martial hero, studied Greek philosophy and regarded Greek culture as the benchmark against which all others had to be judged. The Roman poet and philosopher Horace studied in Athens during the Principate and, in common with many of his class, saw that city as the intellectual center of the world.
*Includes ancient accounts
*Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading
Ironically, the Roman Republic’s development from a city state into a world power that controlled large swathes of modern Italy, Gaul and Spain, as well as other parts of Europe is seen by many as being the direct result of Roman fear of the “Celtic Threat.” The sacking of Rome by the Gauls in 386 B.C. became indelibly imprinted into the Roman psyche, and with this fear came a desire to put as much distance as possible between the city of Rome and any potential enemy. The result was the gradual acquisition of buffer zones that became provinces of an empire that grew without any particular thought out or deliberate strategy of expansion.
It can be argued that Roman culture was, indeed, Graeco-Roman rather than Roman. It was the Greek language that served as the lingua franca in the Eastern Empire and much of the west including Italy. Many Greek intellectuals, including Galen, were based in Rome and the Roman aristocracy more and more came to embrace Greek literature and philosophy. Homer’s epics inspired Virgil’s Aeneid and Seneca wrote in Greek. Earlier, Scipio Africanus (236 – 183 B.C.), the epitome of the Roman martial hero, studied Greek philosophy and regarded Greek culture as the benchmark against which all others had to be judged. The Roman poet and philosopher Horace studied in Athens during the Principate and, in common with many of his class, saw that city as the intellectual center of the world.