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IMPERIALSM AND THE PROVINCES
ROMAN GEOGRAPHIC IMPERIALISM
Rome’s centrality to the world:
 Vitruvius On Architecture 6.1
 Geographical terms
Pliny NH 3.136-37:
'in commemoration of the fact that by his leadership and under his auspices all the tribes of the Alps
stretching from the Upper to the Lower Sea were brought under the power of the Roman People '
Conquest of peoples
Provincia

Rome’s impact upon the landscape:
 Trophies – victory monuments
 Adamklissi
 La Turbie 7-6 BC
Pliny NH 3.136-38 = LACTOR 17, N16:
To Imperator Caesar Augustus, son of the Deified, Pontifex Maximus, hailed as victorious general 14
times, in his 17th year of tribunician power, the Senate and People of Rome (set up this monument) in
commemoration of the fact that by his leadership and under his auspices all the tribes of the Alps
stretching from the Adriatic to the Mediterranean were brought under the power of the Roman People.
The following Alpine tribes were defeated: the Triumpilini, Camunni, Venostes, Vennonetes, Isarchi,
Breuni, Genaunes, Focunates, four tribes of the Vindelici, the Cosuanetes, Rucinates, Licates,
Catenates, Ambisontes, Rugusci, Suanetes, Calucones, Brixentes, Leponti, Uberi, Nantuates, Seduni,
Varagri, Salassi, Acitavones, Medulli, Ucenni, Caturiges, Brigiani, Sobionti, Brodionti, Nemaloni,
Edenates, Vesubiani, Veamini, Gallitae, Triullati, Ecdini, Vergunni, Eguituri, Nematuri, Oratelli,
Nerusi, Velauni, Suetri.
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Arches – Germanicus: AD 19
Lighthouses –
o Dover, Boulogne
o La Coruna
Road building and conquest – Via Appia 312 BC
o Trajan at Terracina
Centuriation
o Florentia/ Florence
Aqueducts
The ‘Roman Empire’
imperium Romanum
‘ROMANIZATION’
 Public Architecture
 North Africa
Lepcis Magna Theatre AD 1-2 – Emerita/Merida (Portugal): 18 BC
LACTOR 17 M71:
When Caesar Augustus, son of the Deified, was chief priest, in his 24 th year of tribunician power,
consul 13 times, and Father of the Fatherland, Annobal Rufus, embellisher of his country (ornator
patriae), lover of concord (amator concordiae), priest (flamen), chief magistrate (sufes), prefect of
religious rites, son of Hamilco Tapapius, supervised its construction with his own money and also
dedicated it.
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Arch, Lepcis – Laodicea, Syria
Macellum: Lepcis 9/8 BC - Pompeii
Toilets Lepcis - Ostia
Amphitheatre El Jem - Nimes
 Gallia Narbonensis:
Pliny the Elder, Natural History 3.31
Pont du Gard
Nimes, Maison Caree

Levels of local urbanism

Individual Identity
 Roman names gradually adopted by non-Romans in provinces:
CIL XIII 1041 = ILS 2531 – Gaius Iulius Macer, Saintes: father’s name Agedillus
CIL XIII 1042-5, Gaius Iulius Victor: father Congonnetodubnus, g/father
Acedomopas

C. Julius Antiochus Epiphanes Philopappus:
[in Latin] ‘Gaius Julius Antiochus Philopappus, son of Gaius of the Fabian tribe, consul, Arval priest,
adlected among the praetorians by the emperor Caesar Nerva Trajan Best Augustus Germanicus
Dacicus’.
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[in Greek] ‘King Antiochus Philopappus son of King Epiphanes the son of Antiochus’
Below central:
[in Greek] ‘Philopappos son of Epiphanes, of the deme Besa’.
EXPLAINING CULTURAL CHANGE - DIFFERENT VIEWS
 Traditional view – cultural imperialism
state imposed:
element in Roman imperialism
Winston Churchill, History of the English Speaking Peoples (published 1956, mostly
written by 1939):‘For nearly 300 years, Britain, reconciled to the R. system, enjoyed in many respects the
happiest, most comfortable, and most enlightened times its inhabitants have had… In culture and
learning Brit. was a pale reflection of the R. scene, not so lively as the Gallic. But there was law; there
was order; there was peace; there was warmth; there was food, and a long-established custom of life.
The population was free from barbarism without being sunk in sloth or luxury. The gift which R.
civilization had to bestow was civic and political. Towns were planned in chessboard squares for
communities dwelling under orderly govt. The buildings rose in accordance with the pattern
standardised throughout the R. world. Each was complete with its forum, temples, courts of justice,
gaols, baths, markets, and main drains.’

Acculturation
two-way process
o Case study: Bath/ Aquae Sulis
Aquae Sulis, ‘waters of Sulis’, sanctuary.
Religious complex based around natural spring.
Mid-1st C. AD
60-70s: main spring enclosed in polygonal reservoir
Classical temple
Minerva – assimilated with native Sulis
Lead curses
Votives: body parts
Dedicatory altars/religious offerings:
To the Goddess Sulis. L(ucius) Marcius Memor Harusp(ex) gave (this) as a gift.
To the goddess Sulis, for the welfare and safety of M. Aufidius Maximus, centurion of the 6th Legion
Victrix. Aufidius Eutuches, his freedman, willingly and deservedly fulfilled his vow.
 ‘Self-romanization’
Local provincial elite adopt Roman culture?
o Case study: Fishbourne ‘Roman Palace’:
Phases:
 Military
 Claud. – timber-framed house
 60s: stone complex; imported materials.
 courtyard surrounded by corridors
 bath suite
 painted plaster.
 Décor
 Construction techniques
 Post-73 = c.100 rooms.
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 Large formal gardens with colonnades
 Who lived there?
Tiberius Claudius Togidubnus, rex magnus
 Ireland no. 478:
To Neptune and Minerva this temple is dedicated for the safety of the Divine House on the authority of
Tiberius Claudius Togidubnus, Great King in Britain, by the guild of smiths and its members from their
own resources, Clemens son of Pudentius presenting the site.

Tacitus, Agricola 14 = Ireland no.442:
‘Certain tribal areas were given to King Togidumnus – he in fact remained totally loyal down to our
times – in accordance with the Roman People’s old and long-standing policy of making even kings
their agents in enslaving peoples.’

Barry Cunliffe on Fishbourne:
‘Within the kingdom the elite, including presumably the king himself, acquired wealth which they
invested in private buildings and public patronage, adopting the value systems of their Roman peers in
order to enhance their status in the eyes of their own society and also, incidentally, to demonstrate their
loyalty to the Roman ideal’.
 Minimising Roman impact
Richard Reece’s radical view

A whole new culture - Roman imperial civilization
Culture of Rome itself also changing radically during late 1st C BC/AD
Gradual emergence of a common civilization throughout Roman empire
Greg Woolf – ‘Roman provincial cultures’
Changes everywhere
Provincial emperors

Cultural resistance?
 How can we assess accuracy of these models of cultural change?
What the Romans say:
o Tacitus, Agricola 21
‘The following winter was taken up with most wholesome schemes. For, so that the people who were
scattered about and inexperienced, and for that reason prone to fighting, might become accustomed to
peace and leisure through pleasures, Agricola gave private encouragement and official assistance for
building temples, public squares, and houses, by praising the energetic and scolding the slack: in this
way there was competition for honour instead of compulsion. Furthermore, he educated the sons of the
chiefs in the liberal arts, and expressed a preference for the Britons’ abilities as compared with the
trained skills of the Gauls. The result was that those who had only recently been rejecting the Latin
language began to desire eloquence. Still further, our attire was honoured by them and the toga was
everywhere; little by little, the population was led astray into demoralizing temptations: colonnades,
baths, and sumptuous banquets. This process was called ‘civilization’ among the inexperienced
Britons, although it was a part of their enslavement.’
o Tacitus, Histories 4.64, speech by German envoy to inhabitants of
Cologne:
‘Go back to your fathers’ practices and their way of life, and tear yourselves from those pleasures
which the Romans find to be a more effective instrument of domination than arms.’
o Pliny the Elder Natural History 3.59
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‘I am well aware that I may with justice be considered ungrateful and lazy if I describe in this casual
and cursory manner a land which is at once the nursling and the mother of all other lands, chosen by
the providence of the gods to make heaven itself more glorious, to unite scattered empires, to make
manners gentle, to draw together in converse by community of language the jarring and uncouth
tongues of so many peoples, to give mankind civilisation, and in a word to become throughout the
world the single fatherland of all races.’
Colonies as copies of Rome:
o Aulus Gellius (speech of Hadrian) Attic Nights 16.13.8-9
But the bond of colonies [to Rome] is different [from that of municipia]; for they do not enter the
[Roman] citizenship from without, nor are they supported by their own roots, but they are as it were
propagated from the citizenship, and all of their laws and customs are those of the Roman people, not
of their own choosing. This status however, although it is more submissive and less free, is
nonetheless thought to be preferable and more worthy on account of the greatness and majesty of
the Roman people, of whom those very colonies seem to be, in a manner of speaking, small
representations and images of a sort’.
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ROMAN CULTURE AND SOCIETY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Geography and Power
Adams, C. & R. Laurence (2001) Travel and geography in the Roman Empire
(Routledge: New York, London) [DG 30.T7]
Millett, M. and Blagg, T., eds (1990) The Early Roman empire in the west (Oxford:
Oxbow) [DG 59.A2] chapter by N. Purcell
Nicolet, C. (1991) Space, Geography and politics in the Early Roman Empire (Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press) [DG 30.N4]
Cultural Change/ ‘Romanization’ (* = key theoretical contributions)
Bowman, A.K. (1992) ‘Public buildings in Roman Egypt’, Journal of Roman
Archaeology 5
*Champion, C.B. (2003) Roman Imperialism: Readings and Sources (Blackwell:
Oxford) [DG 209.R6]
Cunliffe, B. (1991) ‘Fishbourne revisited: the site in its context’, Journal of Roman
Archaeology 4
*Garnsey, P.D.A. and Whittaker, C.R., eds (1978) Imperialism in the ancient world
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) [D 60.C2] chapters by
Brunt, ‘Laus imperii’; Nutton, ‘The beneficial ideology’; de Lange,
‘Jewish attitudes to the Roman Empire’
Hales, S. and Hodos, T., eds (2010) Material culture and social identities in the
ancient world (Cambridge) [HC 5000.M28]
@Hingley, R. 'Recreating coherence without reinventing Romanization' Digressus
(online journal)
Hoff, M.C. and Rotroff, S.I. (1997) The Romanization of Athens (Oxbow monograph
94) [DF 285.R6]
Laurence, R. and Berry, J., eds (1998) Cultural identity in the Roman Empire
(London: Routledge) [DG 78.C8]
Macready, S. and Thompson, F.H., eds (1987) Roman architecture in the Greek world
(London: Society of Antiquaries, Thames and Hudson) [NA 310.R6]
review: Journal of Roman Archaeology 4
Mattingly, D. (1997) Dialogues in Roman Imperialism [DG 270.D53]
(2004) 'Being Roman: expressing identity in a provincial setting',
Journal of Roman Archaeology 17.1: 5-25
Merryweather, A.D. & J. Prag, eds (2003) Romanization? (online journal Digressus:
Supplement 1)
*Millett, M. (1990) The Romanization of Britain: an essay in archaeological
Interpretation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) [DA 145.M4]
*Millett, M. and Blagg, T., eds (1990) The Early Roman empire in the west (Oxford:
Oxbow) [DG 59.A2] chapter by R. Reece
Revell, L. (2009) Roman Imperialism and Local Identities (Cambridge) [DG 271.R38]
Scott, S. & J. Webster, eds Roman Imperialism and Provincial Art (Cambridge 2004)
Smith, R.R.R. (1988) ‘Cultural Choice and Political Identity in Honorific Portrait
Statues in the Greek East in the Second Century A.D.’ JRS 88: 56-93
Wallace-Hadrill, A. (2009) Rome’s Cultural Revolution (Cambridge) [DG 77.W35]
Ward-Perkins, J.B. (1981 and 1994) Roman imperial architecture (The Pelican
history of art) [N 5300.P3]
Wood, M. and Queiroga, F., eds, (1992) Current research on the Romanization of the
Western Provinces (Oxford: BAR international series 575)
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[qto DG 87.C8]
*Woolf, G. (1998) Becoming Roman: the origins of provincial civilization in Gaul
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) [DG 59.G2]
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