Roman Imperial Themes
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:10th May '90
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This book comprises sixteen articles published over thirty years, with supplements including two additional essays. Its range is broad, from discussions of Rome's aspirations to world dominion, to studies of provincial administration. The results of these studies suggest that Roman rule was not endeared to the subjects by the lightness of the burdens imposed, nor by the integrity and professional competence of the administrators; both have often been overestimated. The higher orders among the conquered peoples, however, were eventually reconciled by the Roman policy of assimilating them to Romans, and entrusting to them control of local affairs and an increasing influence in central government. Though the attitude of the masses to the empire is virtually unknowable, there was, except in Judaea, no national resistance comparable to that in the British empire, a theory illustrated by detailed consideration of the first-century revolts in Gaul and Judaea. About one-third of the contents of this volume is new.
'a humane and judicious historian who is as diligent in the pursuit of truth as he is untrammelled by dogma of any kind' Times Higher Education Supplement
'f one wished to compare B.'s contribution to imperial history, as expresed in this volume, to that of any other recent British scholar, it would be to A.H.M. Jones. The mastery of the ancient evidence, the interest in institutions and their workings, the concentration on serious historical questions, all evoke comparison with Jones' many contributions to Roman imperial history. I trust I can pay the author and this volume no greater compliment than to make such a comparison'. G.P. Burton, Department of History, University of Manchester.
`Welcome collection... This austerely distinguished collection is a model of method throughout, above all in its scrupulous refusal to go beyond the evidence and its unbending insistence that painfully often we do not, perhaps cannot know the answers to our questions'. Robin Seager, The Classical Review, vol XLI, no 2, 1991.
'This updating makes the book indispensable ... No scholar still active in the field of Roman history has done more than Brunt to refute error, to establish truth, and to see how the Roman Empire actually worked. For some forty years he has stuck to his last, supremely professional, letting the lucida tela diei ^iinto some of the dark places of imperial history. Three generations of scholars are already in his debt, as their successors will also be.' Colin Wells, Trinity University, Texas, EHR Jan. 92
ISBN: 9780198144762
Dimensions: 242mm x 160mm x 38mm
Weight: 941g
558 pages