"I don't think that being a strong person is about ignoring your emotions and fighting your feelings. Putting on a brave face doesn't mean you're a brave person. That's why everybody in my life knows everything that I'm going through. I can't hide anything from them. People need to realise that being open isn't the same as being weak."

- Taylor Swift

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Rome: Borders

The borders of the Roman Republic is hard to gauge as Rome had differing levels of power over different parts of what is now considered the Mediterraenean (can never spell it) and Europe - for example, Egypt maintained its monarchy but was obliged to supply vital grain to Rome in exchange for military support, and was thus considered a 'vassal' of Rome, and this continued until the death of Cleopatra which coincided nicely with the rise of the Roman Empire. By my reckoning Rome controlled, either as 'client states', provinces or vassal states, the entire Mediterreanean by the eve of the assassination of Julius Caesar - this included Spain (Espania), the Italian penninsula, Northern Africa (Numidia), Egypt, Turkey (Asia), and Gaul, which is essentially France and Belgium. There is other stuff, but I'm lazy. It is said that Rome controlled one-quarter of the known population - the rest were tribal or Chinese :)

Rome was a city state so was not considered a 'capital' as it is today, but as a state within itself. Only those born in Rome and descended from Romans were considered true Romans, and they were fiercely proud of this fact, although other places in Roman control, especially the Italian penninsula, were given full or partial citizenship.

1 comment:

Adelaide Dupont said...

One important Roman primary source is the Acta Diurna (which was the daily newspaper).

(Found that out from the World Book Encyclopaedia, while going through their article on Ancient Rome).

The Roman Empire I know something about had two capitals: Rome itself and Constantinople.

The Romans were good at keeping public records!

I like "Make public and propagate" rather than "Go forth and multiply".

One quarter of the population? What was the comparative proportion of the Chinese and of the tribes?

Citizenship: under what terms and with which privileges?

Vassals make me think of "Here we come a wassailing through the leaves so green".