Rome: An Empire’s Story by Greg Woolf (review)

This is an audacious book. Its purpose is to encompass in a single, accessible volume the vast scope and complexity of the Roman Empire—not just the story of rise and fall, but also some sense of the on-the-ground conditions of environment, economy, and culture that defined its peculiar character. Never mind the lack of a consistent overarching argument or that the structural conceit of alternating narrative and thematic chapters never pays off; the sheer magnitude of the learning that has been digested into these pages is tremendous. No less impressive is Woolf’s boldness, in an era of edited “handbooks” and “companions,” to take on a topic of such immensity that it might seem to require a committee of experts to render an adequate account.

Following the rapid survey of the book’s chronological framework in the opening chapter, it is chapter 2, “Empires of the Mind,” that introduces the topic in all its manifold significance. As Woolf points out, empire and notions of imperialism were just as central to the Romans’ vision of their place in world history as they are for our own understanding of Rome’s heritage. By the same token, “empire” itself has become a notoriously amorphous category of historical analysis (viz., how it is used to denote both states with expansive territorial holdings and those that are simply ruled by emperors). Woolf claims not to be deterred by this squishiness (“Lenin needed clear definitions for his proposition that imperialism was a particular historical stage, but that is not my purpose here,” 26), but in fact his analysis is most successful when it draws clear typological distinctions. Specifically, the important difference is that between a conquest state, which characterizes Roman expansion during the Republic, and a tributary empire, which is what Rome became after the imposition of the Principate. If what made the Roman Empire extraordinary was its combination of geographical extent and chronological endurance, it was this transformation from one kind of empire into another that formed the secret of its success. Moreover, many of the challenges that Rome encountered, first in the upheavals of the late Republic and then in crises of the third century c.e., can be understood as manifestations of the structural weaknesses inherent to each of these imperial types.

This story of growth, transformation, and then eventual collapse is told most effectively in the odd-numbered chapters, which treat the broad narrative of roman history from the kings through the fall of the western empire. In the intervening, even-numbered chapters, Woolf deals with some of the distinctive features of roman imperialism: the ecology of the Mediterranean basin, structures of kinship and slavery, pre-axial religions, the ecumenical culture of the Greco-Roman elite, economics and trade, citizenship and identity, and the rise of Christianity. Chapter 18, which serves as an epilogue, is essentially an extended reflection on Horace, Odes 3.30. This organizing principle has a superficial appeal, but it leads to incoherence in the execution. Woolf clearly understands that the significance of all these things varied over time, which means that each of these chapters is inextricably linked to the ongoing narrative of historical change that they are made to interrupt. The reader is thus constantly asked to overcome puzzles of the chicken-and-egg variety, as when the Augustan revival is used to exemplify the interconnection between religion and morals in chapter 8, preempting the introduction of Octavian as Caesar’s heir in chapter 11. The Social War is covered in chapter 7, and there is a reference to Cicero’s “municipal background” in chapter 10, but the general treatment of Roman citizenship (including an explanation of municipia) does not come until chapter 14. The emergence of Christianity is held for chapter 16, so that it follows the extensive discussion of the attitudes of Diocletian, Constantine, and Julian toward this faith (presented in chap. 15). The meager index provides little help for untangling most...