Rating
8
INFO
Plot
The Roman Empire was a remarkable achievement. It had a population of sixty million people spread across lands encircling the Mediterranean and stretching from drizzle-soaked northern England to the sun-baked banks of the Euphrates in Syria, and from the Rhine to the North African coast. It was, above all else, an empire of force - employing a mixture of violence, suppression, order, and tactical use of power to develop an astonishingly uniform culture. This Very Short Introduction covers the history of the Empire from Augustus (the first Emperor) to Marcus Aurelius, describing how the empire was formed, how it was run, its religions and its social structure. It examines how local cultures were “romanised” and how people in far away lands came to believe in the emperor as a god. The book also examines how the Roman Empire has been considered and depicted in more recent times, from the writings of Edward Gibbon, to the differing attitudes of the Victorians and recent Hollywood blockbuster films.
Notes
- This little book is NOT a short introduction to the HISTORY of the Roman Empire. Rather, it is a nice introduction to some TOPICS of the empire: the structure of governance, the life of local property owners, the zealous Christians, and the reimagined Rome by people afterwards.
- The last chapter, about rewriting history of Rome, is a transcendental to the whole book.
- Movies mentioned: Quo Vadis, Fall of the Roman Empire, Gladiator.
- 看的时候还是会让人想到各种星球大战、dune (2021)，但这本书告诉你，这些对于罗马帝国的印象，大部分来自于墨索里尼和希特勒…