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发表于2024-11-25
Imperialism in the Roman Republic European Problem Studies pdf epub mobi txt 电子书 下载 2024
"It was not by accident or without knowing what they were doing that the
Romans boldly struck out for universal dominion and rule--and accompIished
their aim." The words were penned by the Greek historian Polybius writing at the
conclusion of more than a century of Roman expansion and conquest. By 134 B.c.
that lengthy but concentrated burst of activity had made Rome the unchallenged
mistress of the Mediterranean. To Polybius, who observed a dominion that was
secure and to all appearances complete, it was all logical and obvious. Fate had
willed it; Rome had executed it.
Hindsight is the most seductive of historical faculties--and the most misleading.
In 265, before Rome s first overseas venture, few Romans would have predicted or
anticipated the conversion of the Mediterranean into a Roman lake. The "mani-
fest destiny" might be acknowledged in retrospect; it was not postulated in ad-
vance. Imperium is a Latin word, but imperialism is a modern concept. The differ-
ence is significant and revealing. Rome created an empire, but she did not theorize
about it. Wars needed to be justified, for the gods could not condone aggressive
hostilities unless undertaken out of self-defense. But dominion following upon con-
quest was taken for granted. It received no elaborate explanations and elicited few
misgivings. Cicero might criticize Asia for groaning under the burden of Roman
taxes when Rome had brought peace and security to an area torn by endemic civil
strife. But that too was hindsight. Similarly, when Virgil wrote that Rome s mission
was "to spare the subjected and humble the haughty," he was looking upon an
empire already fully formed. But Rome had launched her expansion without
missionary zeal, without a self-conscious plan to civilize the world, without the
comforting illusion of a "white man s burden." Nineteenth-century Britain may
have been buoyed by a sense of superiority, a drive to bring superior culture to the
"underdeveloped." Rome embarked on expansion with no such ambitions or illu-
sions. The civilization of Carthage was at least as old as that of Rome. Greek
civilization was much older. The Roman sense of superiority was the product of,
not the motive for, war and conquest.
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Imperialism in the Roman Republic European Problem Studies pdf epub mobi txt 电子书 下载 2024