Rome: An Empire of Many Nations

A panoramic and colourful view of the many ethnic identities, languages and cultures composing the Roman Empire.

Explores the nature of the vast multinational Roman Empire through the identities of ethnic groups and the experiences of single individuals. The chapters range across the many cultures, languages, religions and literatures of the Empire, with a special focus on the Jews as a test-case for the larger issues.The center of gravity in Roman studies has shifted far from the upper echelons of government and administration in Rome or the Emperor's court to the provinces and the individual. The multi-disciplinary studies presented in this volume reflect the turn in Roman history to the identities of ethnic groups and even single individuals who lived in Rome's vast multinational empire. The purpose is less to discover another element in the Roman Empire's “success” in governance than to illuminate the variety of individual experience in its own terms. The chapters here, reflecting a wide spectrum of professional expertise, range across the many cultures, languages, religions and literatures of the Roman Empire, with a special focus on the Jews as a test-case for the larger issues.