The Land between the Oceans: The Making of Modern Europe (Part Three)

Far left Julius Caesar ‘the greatest Roman of them all’ personifies the murderous violence that characterised the Roman Empire in the 1st century BC, when it was expanding faster than ever before, to achieve dominance over the Mediterranean basin and much of continental Europe. Yet, in the perspective of history’s longue durée, the Roman Empire was but an interlude unstable and unsustainable, for it defied the logic of Europe’s distinctive geography.

August 2, 2009

Click to read parts one and two. In the Punic Wars of the mid-late 3rd century BC, Roman imperialism erupted out of the Italian peninsula and won dominance over the Western Mediterranean. In the Macedonian Wars of the early-mid 2nd century BC, Rome established dominance over the Balkans and became a threat to the old Hellenistic kingdoms of Anatolia and Syria. By 140 BC, the Mediterranean was, for the Romans, mare nostrum – ‘our sea’. An imperial interlude Roman imperialism was self-feeding. Foreign wars generated huge wealth in the form of booty; and, as the empire expanded, the income streams to the central state from provincial taxation swelled. War captives provided slave

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