WHY GOING TO ROME IS IMPORTANT
The descendants of the first settlers on the hills overlooking a ford across the Tiber River eventually controlled most of Europe, the Near East, and North Africa for centuries. Still today, a millennium and a half later, the legacy of this extraordinary achievement by the Romans exerts a powerful influence in a rich variety of spheres worldwide—not least among them, architecture, art, language, literature, law, and religion. Although the writings and material remains that survive are inevitably no more than a tiny, random sample of what once existed, there is still quite enough to impress and engage us, and to permit a fair degree of insight into many dimensions of the nature and development of Roman civilization. Of course there are aspects— related to politics or strategy or social practices, to name only three areas—which we can never hope to understand fully.
Even so, that does not deter a large body of interested inquirers from continuing to formulate questions and discuss answers as part of an ongoing dialogue. This activity has proved especially fruitful since the mid-nineteenth century: From then onwards, at an increasing pace, advances in scholarship, technology, and exploration have hugely improved the control and appreciation of the material at our disposal. These advances have also led to many exciting new discoveries, as well as stimulating ventures into fresh areas of inquiry over a broader range than ever. The expanding pursuit of inquiry, discovery, and (re)evaluation is sure to continue. Current knowledge, interests, and opinions are by no means fixed or exhausted; each generation chooses its own mix of elements in Roman history.
The distinctiveness of this book lies in its synthesis of the Roman state’s changing character and expansion from earliest beginnings to the fourth century A.D.
The archaeological scope would be the evolving nature of the Roman com¬munity, its state institutions, and forms of rule, together with its expansion and some of the consequences. Next to no background knowledge would be expected, nor any acquaintance with languages (ancient or modern) other than English. For Rome’s history to unfold most meaningfully for newcomers to it, we concluded that the presentation needed to be mainly, though by no means invariably, narra¬tive.
Yet since we are covering a truly vast canvas in terms of time, space, and hu¬man interaction, many topics and trends can only be touched on here, despite the fact that it would in principle be possible to discuss them at length in their own right. An important feature that distinguishes our treatment from others now available is that its focus on Rome’s political and institutional history is coupled with an awareness of how such a narrative is inseparable from social, cultural, economic, art hisstorical, and other types of history.