This volume provides a detailed examination of nearly 1,400 years of Roman history, from the foundation of the city in the eighth century BC until the evacuation of Roman troops from Alexandria in AD 642 in the face of the Arab conquests.
Drawing on a vast array of ancient texts written in Latin, Greek, Syriac, Armenian, and Arabic, and relying on a host of inscriptions, archaeological data, and the evidence from ancient art, architecture, and coinage, The Roman World from Romulus to Muhammad brings to the fore the men and women who chronicled the story of the city and its empire. Richly illustrated with 71 maps and 228 illustrations—including 20 in colour—and featuring a detailed glossary and suggestions for further reading, this volume examines a broad range of topics, including ancient climate change, literature, historiography, slavery, war and conquest, the development of Christianity, the Jewish revolts, and the role of powerful imperial women. The author also considers the development of Islam within a Roman historical context, examines the events that led to the formation of the post-Roman states in Western Europe, and contemplates aff airs on the imperial periphery in the Caucasus, Ethiopia, and the Arabian Peninsula.
Emphasising the voices of antiquity throughout, The Roman World from Romulus to Muhammad is an invaluable resource for students and scholars interested in the beguiling history of the world’s most famous empire.
Table of Contents:
List of figures; List of maps; Acknowledgments; Copyright notices; Note to the reader; Chapter OneThe origins of Rome; Chapter TwoThe early Republic, 509–280 BC; Chapter Three‘True athletes of warfare’: Rome, Carthage, and Pyrrhus, 280–225 BC; Chapter Four‘The empire of the world’: Rome, Greece, Macedonia, and Hannibal, 264–200 BC; Chapter Five‘Against our own Roman gods’: Rome and the Greek east, 200–146 BC; Chapter SixThe collapse of public order, 140–63 BC; Chapter SevenCoup, 63–30 BC; Chapter EightMonarchy and empire: Augustus, 30 BC–AD 14; Chapter NineFrom stability to chaos, AD 14–79; Chapter TenConsolidating the principate, AD 72–138; Chapter ElevenDecay, 138–235; Chapter TwelveThe empire transformed, 235–337; Chapter ThirteenDivision and collapse, 337–493; Chapter FourteenThe end of antiquity, 491–642; Glossary; Further reading; Index
About the Author :
Greg Fisher is a graduate of the University of Oxford, UK, and the author and editor of numerous works on the ancient world, including Between Empires (2011), Arabs and Empires Before Islam (2015), Hannibal and Scipio (2015), and Rome, Persia, and Arabia (Routledge 2020).
Review :
"Fisher...deserves great credit for having broken down the wall between Roman history, wrongly perceived as just the history of Greeks and Romans, and the history of all the peoples east of the empire, included the Arabs. Fisher thus masterfully succeeds in highlighting the universal rule that from the ashes of one empire, another is born." - Bryn Mawr Classical Review
"Though chapters follow a recognisably standard periodisation of Roman history, F. makes some distinctive choices within this framework...these choices underscore F.’s dynamic reorientation of the Roman Empire eastwards, and this makes for a provocative reframing of the evolution of Roman imperial power at the intersection of complex global networks." - The Classical Review
