The Eight Faces of Roman Imperialism. Review of Revell, L. (2009). Roman Imperialism and Local Identities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Abstract

Referring to the work by Louise Revell, a lecturer in Roman History at the University of Southampton, the author examines the peculiarities of interpretation of Roman imperialism, and issues of cultural and political identity in the 1 st –2 nd Century AD Roman Empire in modern foreign historiography. The author analyzes Revell’s methods of research and the heuristic potential of the concept of “Roman-ness” that the scholar uses instead of the traditional concept of “Romanization”. The reviewer examines the historical sources (archaeological and epigraphic materials from eight Roman towns of Spain and Britain), the basic propositions of the monograph (the ideology and the practical implementation of urbanism in the Roman world, an image and cult of the Roman emperor in the cities of the Empire, as well as the provincial practice of religious rites) and also the author’s arguments. The review demonstrates how the author of the monograph reconstructs the social image and relations in the Roman provincial society, and the interaction between the provincial and imperial elites.