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.
List of maps
Acknowledgments
Copyright notices
Note to the Reader
Chapter One The origins of Rome
Troy and Rome
Sources for Roman history
Rome, Italy, and the Mediterranean
Early Roman political life
Chapter Two The Early Republic, 509–280 BC
From monarchy to democracy
Experiments in government
Rome and her neighbours
Master of central Italy
Chapter Three ‘True athletes of warfare’: Rome, Carthage, and Pyrrhus, 280–225 BC
Masters of Italy: Rome, Tarentum, and Pyrrhus, 280–275 BC
War with Carthage, 264–241 BC
Chapter Four ‘The empire of the world’: Rome, Greece, Macedonia, and Hannibal, 241–200 BC
Between the wars, 241–220 BC
The outbreak of war, 219–218 BC
Annihilation, 218–216 BC
Total war
Spain
Rome, 202–200 BC
Chapter Five ‘Against our own Roman gods’: Rome and the Greek east, 200–146 BC
Rome and Greece, Greece and Rome
Rome and Macedonia
Rome, the Aetolians, and Antiochus
Masters of the Mediterranean
Hannibal, Rome, and Perseus
The Achaean League and the end of Carthage
‘They confirmed their power by terrorism’
Chapter Six The collapse of public order, 140–63 BC
The Gracchi: land reform and public violence in Rome
Marius, Jugurtha, and Caecilius Metellus
The Social War
Mithridates, Marius, Sulla, and the march on Rome
Sulla, Mithridates, and the Great Proscription
After Sulla: Mithridates and Lucullus
Caesar, Pompey—and Mithridates
A failing state
Chapter Seven Coup, 63–30 BC
The Catiline conspiracy
The First Triumvirate
Civil war
Dictator for life
Libertas
The Second Triumvirate, 43–36 BC
The final break, 36–31 BC
Actium
Chapter Eight Monarchy and empire: Augustus, 30 BC–AD 14
After Actium
The Actium memorials
Rome
The provinces
Augustan ideology
Army and empire
The Res Gestae of Augustus
After Augustus
Chapter Nine From stability to chaos, AD 14–79
Tiberius, Germanicus, Agrippina—and Sejanus, 14–37
Mutiny
Germanicus in the east
The trial of Piso
Tiberius in Rome
Sejanus
Caligula and Claudius, 37–54
The early rule of Caligula
‘So much for Caligula as emperor’
Claudius
Claudius and the provinces
The invasion of Britain
Conspiracies and plots
Agrippina Augusta
Descent into anarchy: the ‘sun king’ Nero, AD 54–68
The early years of Nero
The murder of Agrippina
From Britain to the Sudan
Romans, Jews, and Civil War, AD 68–74
The afterlife of the Jewish Revolt
Chapter Ten Consolidating the Principate, AD 72–137
The Flavians: Vespasian (AD 69–79), Titus (AD 79–81), and Domitian (AD 81–96)
Rome
The provinces
The Eruption of Vesuvius (79)
Titus and Domitian
International trade, imperial ideology, and the Templum Pacis
Apex of Empire: Nerva (AD 96–98) and Trajan (AD 98–117)
Trajan in government
Trajan’s Dacian wars
The annexation of Nabataea
Trajan in the east
Retrenchment: Hadrian, AD 117–37
Hadrian’s travels
The Bar Kochba Revolt
Hadrian and his family
Chapter Eleven Decay, 138–235
From Antoninus to Commodus
Antoninus Pius
Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, and Lucius Verus
The Parthian war
The Marcommanic Wars
The revolt of Avidius Cassius
The Danube—again
The Column of Marcus Aurelius
The emperor and his empire
Commodus
Civil War
Pertinax, Didius Julianus, and Septimius Severus
The showdown with Albinus
Severus the military emperor
‘Romanisation’
From Caracalla to Severus Alexander
Revolt in Persia, murder on the Rhine
Chapter Twelve The Empire Transformed, 235–337
The senate vs. the army
War with Persia
Plague
Decius and the Goths
Crisis
Secession
Diocletian and the Tetrarchy: a return to stability
War with Persia
Diocletian’s reforms
Military reforms
Social, political, and administrative changes
Cities, taxes, and persecution
Abdication
Constantine
The collapse of the Tetrarchy
Constantine and Christianity
Constantine and Licinius
Constantinople and Helena
Constantine the arbiter
Constantine’s government
Gold, society, and taxes
Constantine and art
Constatine and the empire's neighbours
Chapter Thirteen Division and Collapse, 337–493
Constantius II: church and state
Constantius and Julian
Valentinian I and Valens
The growth of asceticism
The road to Adrianople
Theodosius I
Stilicho and Alaric
Arcadius, Theodosius II, Persia, and Attila
Collapse in the west
After Attila
Romulus, Odoacer, and Theoderic
AD 493
Chapter Fourteen The End of Antiquity, 491–642
Anastasius, 491–518
The Persian war of Anastasius
The western kingdoms during the reign of Anastasius
Economy and religion
Justin I, 518–27
Justinian, 527–65
Justinian, the Balkans, and the Persians
The Justinianic Code, the Nika riot, and the western kingdoms
Axum and South Arabia during the reign of Justinian
War with Persia—again
Justinian and the church(es)
Art and architecture in Constantinople and beyond
Plague and climate change during the reign of Justinian
Justin II (565–78) and Tiberius II (578–82)
Maurice (582–602) and Phocas (602–10)
The Final Struggle: Heraclius (610–41) and Khusrau II (591–628)
The end of antiquity
The Jafnids: military-religious Arab leadership at the edge of empire
The war in the north, the struggle in the south
Glossary
Further reading
Index of individuals, deities, and saints
General index
Biography
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).
"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
