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Topic outline

 

  • Time: 14 hours
    Level: Advanced

 
 

Introduction

  • Introduction Resource
  • This unit introduces key terms that are essential for understanding the Classical Roman world.
 

1 Preliminary exercise

  • 1 Preliminary exercise Resource
  • Before you start work on this unit, please watch the video sequence ‘Introducing the Roman World’ below. This visual introduction will introduce many of the terms to be defined in this unit and set them...
 

2 Defining terms

  • 2.1 ‘Roman empire’ Resource
  • First of all there are some fundamental questions to settle about what is involved in the term ‘Roman empire’: what is meant by ‘Roman’, and what by ‘empire’?
  • 2.2 Imperium as power: Augustus and the beginning of the empire Resource
  • The basic meaning of the Latin term imperium was ‘command’ and the term included the authority that lay behind the mandate. During the long period in which Rome was a republic, imperium signified the power...
  • 2.3 Acquiring territory Resource
  • As you saw from the map (Plate 1), Rome had been gaining control over territories in the Mediterranean from the third century BC: following its expansion in Italy came conquest of Sicily, Spain and north...
  • 2.4 ‘Culture, identity and power’ Resource
  • Having unpacked some of the issues to do with the term ‘Roman empire’ we turn now to ‘culture, identity and power’, wide-ranging terms involving many different aspects which are often closely interlocked....
 

References and Acknowledgements

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