The Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #150

by Christopher Kelly

The Roman Empire was a remarkable achievement. It had a population of sixty million people spread across lands encircling the Mediterranean and stretching from northern England to the sun-baked banks of the Euphrates, and from the Rhine to the North African coast. It was, above all else, an empire of force--employing a mixture of violence, suppression, order, and tactical use of power to develop an astonishingly uniform culture.

Here, historian Christopher Kelly covers the history of the Empire from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius, describing the empire's formation, and its political, religious, cultural, and social structures. It looks at the daily lives of the Empire's people: both those in Rome as well as those living in its furthest colonies. Romans used astonishing logistical feats, political savvy, and military oppression to rule their vast empire. This Very Short Introduction examines how they "romanised" the cultures they conquered, imposing their own culture in order to subsume them completely. The book also looks at how the Roman Empire has been considered and depicted in more recent times, from the writings of Edward Gibbon to the Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator. It will prove a valuable introduction for readers interested in classical history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ancient History, Classics, Roman History, Audiobook, Politics

153 pages, Paperback

First published August 24, 2006

About the author

Christopher Kelly (born 1964) is a professor of classics and ancient history and a Fellow and Director of studies in classics at Corpus Christi College at the University of Cambridge, where he received his PhD in classics. He lives in Cambridge, England, and Chicago, Illinois.

He specializes in the later Roman Empire and the classical tradition. He has been Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge since 2018.

Reviews

[فؤاد]

هر چقدر جمهوری روم آموزنده و مفید بود، این کتاب اتلاف وقت مطلق بود.

[Ted]

This Very Short Introduction gives a nice summary of what the Roman Empire entailed. It definitely is not an introductory history of the Empire, though references to Virgil, Caesar, Augustus, Nero and the other famous emperors are scattered throughout the narrative. What Kelly has done instead is to concentrate on the period from roughly 31 BC to AD 192, when the empire was, in his words, "at the peak of its prosperity". I found it somewhat uneven; four stars for good information in most of the chapters, while a couple seemed like they could have been left out without much loss.

The book's first three chapters describe interesting and crucial aspects of the empire during this period. In these Kelly explains what it was like for the peoples scattered around the Mediterranean to become conquered by Rome (not so bad after the initial blood-letting, except for Carthage); how the cult of the God-emperors was manifested in the empire; and how the Romans allowed the prosperous and powerful social leaders of each conquered area to continue local governing.

Chapter 4 is called History Wars, and explains Hadrian's machinations (around 130 AD) to reconstitute the history of ancient Greece, as if Athens in particular had always existed as sort of a pre-Roman Rome, having the same values embraced by the Empire hundreds of years later. He contrasts Hadrian's building of Roman temples in the important Greek cities (especially the Olympieion in Athens) with the writings of Plutarch (contemporaneous with Hadrian) and Pausanias (a generation later), both of whom presented their ideas of the true history and values of ancient Athens without any reference to contemporary Roman ideals. This whole story was somewhat interesting, but frankly I didn't understand why it was there - maybe my own shortcoming.

In chapter 5, Christians to the Lions, Kelly uses the early Christian martyrs as the story line for his narrative of the blood-thirsty gladiatorial games which were so much a part of the Empire in these centuries. The topic of the Empire's main leisure-time "sport", in which all strata of society were allowed, even expected, to enjoy the public killing of thousands of animals and human beings, certainly deserves the attention that Kelly gives it. But in framing the story around the Christian victims, who were only a small part of the carnage, and in spending much of the second half of the chapter veering off into a history of the survival and growth of the Church, culminating in the acceptance of the Christian faith by Constantine in 312 AD, Kelly loses his way I think. This is a side story to the Roman Empire, whereas the blood sport in the arena was not.

Chapter 6, Living and Dying, is a very good overview of the demographics, life expectancy, general health, and diet of the people of the Empire. I felt this was a very useful topic.

Finally, chapter 7, Rome Revisited, is sort of an odd look at three views of Rome which have pertained in the modern world - the view by British academics in the early years of the twentieth century that study of the Empire was an important means for learning lessons that could be applied to their own empire; the way in which Mussolini attempted to bring back the glory of Rome as a basis for fascist Italy; and finally the view of Rome that we have received from Hollywood for the last 60 years or so. Like chapter 4, although interesting, this kind of seemed like filler.



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[[Name Redacted]]

Far from being a very short introduction, this is actually a very short commentary. The author even opens by saying he sees no need for a very short introduction to the Roman Empire, since others have already undertaken similar efforts, and so simply chose to write out his analyses of various features and trends. In fact it's almost more of a very short series of very, very short commentaries. There may be a time and a place for that, but it's not what i intended to read so i'll go read something else. Frankly i'm more than a little irked that the VSI series bothered to print something so self-consciously contrary to its intended purpose and title - we have a term for that: False Advertising. As such, i'm giving it 1 star. I may one day re-read it and change my mind, based on what it is rather than what it claimed to be, but for now i'm disappointed and more than a little pissed off at the deception.

[Darwin8u]

VSI 150 is an interesting take. There are plenty of histories that look at surveying the Roman Empire, so Kelly doesn't directly copy or mimic those books. VSI is meant to be brief, so rather than retreat other introductions to the Roman Empire, Kelly looks specifically at topics of Imperial Rome focused on:
1. Conquest
2. Imperial Power
3. Collusion
4. History Wars
5. Christians to the Lions
6. Living and Dying
7. Rome Revisited
Interesting. So instead of a mile wide and an inch deep, Kelly is going for 7 small tunnels on topics inside the Empire.

[Victor Sonkin]

This book is a gem. I did not expect a Very Short Introduction on the Roman Empire to tell me very much I didn't already know, so I took up this book mostly out of sheer curiosity, and boy, was I wrong. Kelly managed to write his text with dexterity, brio, in-depth forays into less known facets of the Roman world and facts that were little known to an informed amateur like myself and, I suspect, would be new for many a classicist. Among the things that he touches upon are the intricacies of provincial administration (the Roman Empire was remarkably undergoverned, the degree of independence of its provinces was unimaginable for any modern federal state), life expectancy and health issues of the general population, the ever-present historical dichotomy between the elite narratives (the bulk of the record available to us) and the unprivileged masses and their life; the various lessons derived from the Roman experience by subsequent empires, including the extremely divided attitude of the British (I assume the French, with their 'nos ancêtres les Gaulois' and their Romance language and customs were even more divided). Even on topics which I thought I knew pretty well, such as Mussolini's revamping of the Roman Imperial past and his abuse of history for political and urbanistic purposes, Kelly managed to say something new and surprising for me.

I can understand the disappointment of those who were looking for a very brief history of the Roman Empire, but, ma foi, it's better to read Wikipedia for this purpose.

My only personal qualm with the author is his misplaced grammar-Nazism: he avoids split infinitives like the plague, the results sometimes bordering on the incomprehensible, and chooses 'whom' over 'who' where the latter would have obviously been a better option.

[Linniegayl]

I hoped this would be a "very short introduction" to the history of the Roman Empire. Instead, it was an odd series of commentaries by the author on various topics related to the Roman Empire. There were a few that were interesting, but for the most part I struggled to continue reading (and if not reading for a workshop I would have stopped at the first chapter).

[Ewan Mills]

Less of an introduction and more of a brain dump, (some of the topics were fairly interesting). If I had to write a book, I’d probably end up writing some random stuff in that style, but I’m not an author.

Christopher Kelly says that if you want a detailed chronological overview of the history of the Roman Empire to just simply read the 6 editions of Edward Gibbons 4,000 page ‘The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’. Cool thanks for that.

[James]

The opening chapter is good, as is the one about Christians being thrown to the lions: "Treating Christians like criminals missed the central point of Christianity. It obscured its fundamental reliance on language, on the scriptures, on the Word" (94). But the other discussions are either too tangential or esoteric in subject matter. This really isn't an introduction to the Roman Empire as much as seven topics that the author finds interesting. Out of the seven, I enjoyed three.

There's no real narrative of how the empire became as such or how it fell (or survived in the east).

By the way, this series from Oxford UP is a great idea but the writing always seems a shade too academic.

[Emily]

This was an ok overview of the Roman Empire, possibly useful in a class where an overview of issues about the Roman Empire are important to know (ex: a class on the New Testament or Judaism in the Roman Empire). It was much less of a rush through history than it was a collection of essays on topics in the study of the Roman Empire.

[Justin Lynn]

Less of an introduction than a collection of superficial essays.

[Allison ☾]

I really like these A Very Short Intro books.

For someone who knows absolutely nothing about a subject, it's very informative.

[Simon]

If you don't expect a chronological history of the Roman Empire, this book is an excellent introduction to the subject. The author describes how the Romans became the most powerful Empire in history and how their daily lives differed from ours. Most of the book is centered around the centuries 1 BC to 2 AD so it does not really cover the emergence of the Empire or the decline in detail.

[Leon McNair]

The Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction

Quite unlike its predecessor, The Roman Republic: A Very Short Introduction, the author decided not to introduce to the reader aspects of the growing Empire through its emperors as the main focus in a chronological fashion, amongst other characters of the Empire such as the wars. It is thus not simply a brief history, but an account of other less-known or less-often discussed topics and issues.

As well as including health issues and life expectancy problems; the inspiration that brought Mussolini to invade Ethiopia as though a second Carthage and a Fourth Punic War; and Hitler’s discovery of his love with Roman architecture that precipitated his Germania model with Albert Speer, aspects of what it means to be Roman in the Empire era, as a citizen living within Rome or outside, is touched. Christopher Kelly then later expands that definition into our modern interpretation via film and movie adaptions: how Hollywood views or dictates a Roman emperor, whether as heroic, villainous, or maddening, and we as the consumer absorb in that powerful but pre-formulated and artistic image and its Rome setting. The iconic structure of Hollywood’s Rome we are used to, Kelly claims, is in part a testament and creation of the very powerful and influential state of the Roman Empire: two-thousand years on, such grand and luxurious images of architectural feats with military might live on.

[Richard]

As with many books in this series, The Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction might not deliver what you are hoping or expecting it to. Unlike some, it's fluently written and pretty well structured. I read it as a follow-up to Mary Beard's SPQR (Beard recommends it in her bibliography), so I was not looking for a chronological account—and Kelly declares openly at an early stage that his book is not going to provide one. Instead, it takes a thematic approach, providing seven essays on aspects of the history of the Roman Empire (from Augustus to Commodus, roughly). With the partial exception of the last one on "Rome Revisited", which felt like it was included because the book had to end somewhere, I found all of them informative reinforcements of, or supplements to, what I'd learned from Beard. When he gets analytical, some of his threads get a bit hard to untangle, but Kelly is good at scene-setting, so it's an enjoyable read as well as an interesting one. I got what I wanted out of this Very Short Introduction (which is not always the case), but I can imagine that some might not.

[Millie Swaffer]

It is quite remarkable that the author managed to make the Roman Empire seem so boring. This was not a ‘very short introduction’ but a commentary of his own opinions regarding events that occurred. For someone who has no knowledge of this era (me) - it was far too complex and was not what I was expecting.

[Bookishgamer]

Read to compliment my open university studies on the Roman Empire.

A very good and accessible overview of key information and history. I love these short introductions as they are good starting points on many subjects.

[JD Newick]

Interesting elements of social history but useless as an "Introduction". It only takes the history through to 192AD and never attempts a narrative overview of the era.

[Kerem]

A great introduction to the vastly rich history of the Mediterranean superstate.

[Cassie]

I'm about to start a university module on the Roman Empire and realised that, while I know a bit about the Roman Republic, I haven't really studied the Empire itself since primary school. So before being thrown into the academic deep end, I wanted something that would at least give me a basic framework.

The Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction turned out to be a really good choice.

Christopher Kelly obviously can't cover centuries of Roman history in enormous depth in fewer than 200 pages, but he manages to give a surprisingly broad overview. I particularly appreciated that this wasn't simply an emperor-by-emperor chronology. Alongside the major people and events, there's a broader look at how the Empire actually functioned, governed its enormous territory and maintained power.

Coming into the imperial period with relatively little knowledge, there were points where the sheer amount of condensed information became quite dense. There were also subjects that immediately caught my attention only for the book to move on a few pages later - but that's rather inevitable given the format.

What I wanted was an entry point: some names and events I might recognise when they appear again, a basic understanding of how the Empire worked, and a rough map of several centuries of history that are currently mostly blank space in my head.

That's exactly what I got.

I certainly don't feel like I know the Roman Empire now - which would be a slightly ambitious result from one tiny book - but I feel much better prepared to start learning about it properly.

⭐️ 3.75/5

[Chase Jones]

This book brought ancient Rome to life in a way that was both vivid and educational. Kelly does a great job of demystifying the Roman Empire, showing both its grandeur and its brutal realities.

The chapter on Christianity (the second-to-last chapter) was the most meaningful to me as a pastor. It was fascinating to see the historical context in which the early church emerged. Hollywood often romanticizes ancient Rome, making us long for that era—but this book makes it clear that it was not a time we'd want to live in.

[Hatem Al moqri]

coming from a person who is familiar with roman history from YouTube and online articles this is a good refresher and focuses on some parts that are usually ignored, but it is definitely not a good introduction more like a quick rant on different aspects of rome and assumes too much background information from fhe reader. i listened to it as audiobook so it felt like a breeze but I feel I wouldn't finish it if it was reading it myself.

[Patrick]

This book is a solid little introductory overview of different aspects of what made the Roman Empire what it was in its particular ways. It is not a comprehensive narrative history but instead each chapter explores different aspects of Roman imperial culture, religion, politics, and life. It was helpful for me to pull out some interesting details.

[Bennett Rogers]

Sometimes interesting, sometimes insightful, exclusively topical (as opposed to chronological), and irredeemably marred by the author's complete lack of sympathy with his subject. The only thing he dislikes more than 'The Roman Empire' is the Christian Church.

[Melissa Barbosa]

Short but very informative. I really enjoyed reading it!

[Sean Rhoades]

View of Christianity is from a Bart Ehrman/Dan Brown narrative which has been sufficiently disproved.

[Joel]

I didn’t learn very much from this book, though the chapter on daily life in Rome was quite interesting

[Derek]

I agree with some of who have criticized this book for sometimes seeming like a collection of disparate essays but since I enjoyed each different approach to the Empire I gave it a high mark.

[Andrew Darr]

This was not an introduction.

[Jessica Weida]

It's a very short introduction, so only the basic overview of the stretch and impact of the Empire rather than focusing on key players

[Tobias Carlbring]

Helt okej, rätt spännande men han verkar ha missat hela poängen med den här bokserien