Rome and the Enemy: Imperial Strategy in the Principate

MATTERN, Susan P.

ISBN 10: 0520211669 / ISBN 13: 9780520211667

Edité par University of California Press, Berkeley, 1999

A propos de cet article

A first printing of Susan Mattern's examination of the tactics employed by military leaders during the Principate, or the Roman Empire's period of being led by a single authoritarian emperor. Beginning with the reign of Augustus in 31 B.C. through Maximinus Thrax in 238 A.D., these generals often spurned expertise and were sometimes rather petty and short sighted. With five maps and a drawing. --- Bound in grey and blue paper-covered boards with spine titling in silver. Volume wrapped in dust jacket with view of a snowy Hadrian's Wall to front panel. --- With an inked notation to front free endpaper, else a tightly-bound, otherwise unmarked copy. Bright dust jacket lacks apparent damages.; Octavo - 8 to 9 in. tall; xviii, [4], 260 pages.

N° de réf. du vendeur 89281

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Rome and the Enemy: Imperial Strategy in the Principate
• Éditeur: University of California Press, Berkeley
• Date de parution: 1999
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0520211669
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780520211667
• Reliure: Hardcover
• Édition: First Edition.
• État de l'article: Near Fine
• État de la jaquette: Near Fine
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • >>European History

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

How did the Romans build and maintain one of the most powerful and stable empires in the history of the world? This book draws on the literature, especially the historiography, composed by the members of the elite who conducted Roman foreign affairs. From this evidence, Susan P. Mattern reevaluates the roots, motivations, and goals of Roman imperial foreign policy especially as that policy related to warfare. In a major reinterpretation of the sources, Rome and the Enemy shows that concepts of national honor, fierce competition for status, and revenge drove Roman foreign policy, and though different from the highly rationalizing strategies often attributed to the Romans, dictated patterns of response that remained consistent over centuries. Mattern reconstructs the world view of the Roman decision-makers, the emperors, and the elite from which they drew their advisers. She discusses Roman conceptions of geography, strategy, economics, and the influence of traditional Roman values on the conduct of military campaigns. She shows that these leaders were more strongly influenced by a traditional, stereotyped perception of the enemy and a drive to avenge insults to their national honour than by concepts of defensible borders. In fact, the desire to enforce an image of Roman power was a major policy goal behind many of their most brutal and aggressive campaigns. "Rome and the Enemy" provides a look into the Roman mind in addition to a re-examination of Roman conceptions of warfare and national honour. The resulting picture creates a fresh understanding of Rome's long mastery of the Mediterranean world.

À propos de l'auteur

Susan P. Mattern is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Georgia.