Historiographical Bibliography of Roman Imperialism

How did the ancient Roman Republic end up with an empire? Was it merely a result of their defensive measures aimed at protecting themselves? Was it an offensive plan to conquer the Mediterranean World? Or was it simply inevitable given the nature of the Roman political and military system? Arguments have been made for all of these positions, and more, over the course of the twentieth century, and continuing into the twenty-first century.

(1854-1856) 

Theodor Mommsen, Römische Geschichte (Leipzig: Reimer & Hirsel, 1854-1856) [The History of Rome, trans. by William Purdie Dickson (New York: Scribner’s, 1911)]

(1902)

J. A. Hobson. Imperialism: A Study (New York: James Pott, 1902)

(1913) 

Tenney Frank, “Mercantilism and Rome’s Foreign Policy,” The American Historical Review 18, no. 2 (January 1913): 233-252

Eugen Täubler, Imperium Romanum: Studien zur Entwicklungsgeschichte de römischen Reichs, I: Die Staatsverträge und Vertagsverhältnisse (Leipzig: Teubner, 1913)

(1914) 

Tenney Frank, Roman Imperialism (New York: Macmillan, 1914)

(1919)

Schumpeter, Joseph A. The Sociology of Imperialisms (Germany: Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, 1919)

(1921)

Maurice Holleaux, Rome, la Grèce et les monarchies hellénistique au IIIe siècle avant J-C. (273-205) (Paris, 1921)

(1933)

Alfred Heuss, Die völkerrechtlichen Grundlagen der römischen Aussenpolitik in republikanischer Zeit (Leipzig: Dieterich Verlag, 1933)

(1946)

J. H. Thiel, Studies on the History of Roman Sea-Power in Republican Times (Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing, 1946)

(1954)

Maurice Holleaux, The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume VIII (Cambridge, 1954): Chapters VI and VII

J. H. Thiel. A History of Roman Sea-Power Before the Second Punic War (Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company, 1954)

(1957)

F. W. Walbank, A Historical Commentary on Polybius (3 vols.) (Oxford, 1957-1979).

(1958)

Ernst Badian, Foreign Clientelae (264-70 B.C.) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958)   

(1959)

Ernst Badian, “Rome and Antiochus the Great: A Study in Cold War,” Classical Philology 54 (1959): 81-99

(1963)

F. W. Walbank, “Polybius and Rome’s Eastern Policy,” Journal of Roman Studies 53 (1963): 1-13

(1968)

Ernst Badian, Roman Imperialism in the Late Republic (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1968)

(1969)

J. Briscoe, “Eastern Policy and Senatorial Politics 168-146 BC,” Historia 18 (1969): 49-70

(1970)

L. Bonfante Warren, “Roman Triumphs and Etruscan Kings,” Journal of Roman Studies  60 (1970): 49-66

(1971)

P. A. Brunt, Italian Manpower, 225 BC-AD 14 (Oxford, 1971).

W. V. Harris. “On War and Greed in the Second Century B.C.” American Historical Review 76, no. 5 (December 1971): 1371-85.

(1972)

B. Forte, The Romans as the Greeks Saw Them (Rome, 1972) 

F. W. Walbank, Polybius (Berkeley, 1972)

A. W. Lintott, “Imperial Expansion and Moral Decline in the Roman Republic,” Historia 21 (1972): 626-38

R. M. Errington, The Dawn of Empire: Rome’s Rise to Power (Cornell University Press, 1972)

(1973)

H. H. Scullard, Roman Politics, 220-150 BC, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1973)

(1975)

I. Schatzmann, Senatorial Wealth and Roman Politics (Brussels, 1975)

P. Veyne, “Y a-t-il eu un impérialisme romain?” Melanges de l’Ecole Française de Rome 87 (1975): 793-855

(1976)

J. Rich, Declaring War in the Roman Republic in the Period of Transmarine Expansion (Brussels, 1976)

Edward N. Luttwak, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire, from the First Century AD to the Third (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976)

(1977)

Michael H. Crawford, “Rome and the Greek World: Economic Relationships.” The Economic History Review, New Series, 30, no. 1 (February 1977): 42-52

(1978)

Keith Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves (Cambridge University Press, 1978)

M. I. Finley, “Empire in the Greco-Roman World,” Greece & Rome, 2nd ser., 25, no. 1 (April 1978): 1-15

J. Briscoe, “The Antigonids and the Greek States, 276-196 BC,” in Imperialism in the Ancient World, edited by P. Garnsey and C. Whittaker, 145-158 (Cambridge, 1978)

P. A. Brunt, “Laus Imperii,” in Imperialism in the Ancient World, edited by P. Garnsey and C. Whittaker, 159-191 (Cambridge, 1978)

(1979)

William V. Harris, War and Imperialism in Republican Rome, 327-70 B.C. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979)

P. S. Derow, “Polybius, Rome, and the East,” Journal of Roman Studies 69 (1979): 1-15

(1981)

J. A. North, “The Development of Roman Imperialism,” The Journal of Roman Studies 71 (1981): 1-9

Andrew Lintott, “What Was the 'Imperium Romanum'?” Greece & Rome, 2nd Series, 28, no. 1 (April 1981): 53-67

(1983)

J. Briscoe, A Commentary on Livy, Books 31-33, 34-37, 38-40 (Oxford, 1983)

Keith Hopkins, Death and Renewal (Cambridge University Press, 1983)

R. J. Rowland, Jr., “Rome’s Earliest Imperialism,” Latomus 42 (1983): 749-62

J.W. Rich, “The Supposed Roman Manpower Shortage of the Later Second Century B.C.” Historia 22 (1983): 287–331

(1984)

Ernst Badian, “Hegemony and Independence: Prolegomena to a Study of Rome and the Hellenistic States in the Second Century B.C.” in Actes du VIIe Congrès de la F.E.I.C. (Budapest, 1983), 397-414

William V. Harris, “Current Directions in the Study of Roman Imperialism,” in The Imperialism of Mid-Republican Rome, edited by William V. Harris, 13-34 (American Academy in Rome, 1984)

Erich Gruen “Material Rewards and the Drive for Empire,” in The Imperialism of Mid-Republican Rome, edited by William V. Harris, 59-82 (American Academy in Rome, 1984)

William V. Harris, “The Italians and the Empire,” in The Imperialism of Mid-Republican Rome, edited by William V. Harris, 89-109 (American Academy in Rome, 1984)

Jerzy Linderski, “Si vis pacem, para bellum: Concepts of Defensive Imperialism,” in The Imperialism of Mid-Republican Rome, edited by William V. Harris, 133-164 (American Academy in Rome, 1984)

Erich S. Gruen, The Hellenistic World and the Coming of Rome (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984) 

A. N. Sherwin-White, Roman Foreign Policy in the East, 168 B.C. – A.D. 1 (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1984)

(1985)

Stephen L. Dyson, The Creation of the Roman Frontier (Princeton University Press, 1985)

(1986)

J. S. Richardson, Hispaniae: Spain and the development of Roman imperialism, 218-82 BC (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986)

(1987)

Arthur M Eckstein, Senate and General: Individual Decision-Making and Roman Foreign Relations, 264-194 B.C. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987)

(1988)

J.-L. Ferrary, Philhellénisme et impérialisme. Aspects idéologiques de la conquête romaine du monde hellénistique, de la seconde guerre de Macédoine à la guerre contre Mithridate, BEFAR 271 (Rome, 1988)

S. Keay. Roman Spain (London, 1988)

A. M. Eckstein, “Rome, the War with Perseus, and Third Party Mediation” Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 37, no. 4 (1988): 414-444

(1989)

Dieter Norr, Aspekte des römischen Völkerrechts: Die Bronzetafel von Alcántara. Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften: Philosophische-Historische Klasse Abhandlungen, Neue Folge, Heft 101 (Munchen: Verlag der Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, in Kommission bei der C. H. Beck'schen Verlagsbuchhandlungen, 1989)

(1990)

Nathan S. Rosenstein, Imperatores Victi: Military Defeat and Aristocratic Competition in the Middle and Late Republic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990). 

Gary B. Miles, “Roman and Modern Imperialism: A Reassessment,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 32, no. 4 (October 1990): 629-659

Arthur Eckstein, “Polybius, the Achaeans, and the ‘Freedom of the Greeks’” Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 31, no. 1 (1990): 45-71

(1991)

L. R. Churchin, Roman Spain: Conquest and Assimilation (London, 1991)

Arther Ferrill, Roman Imperial Grand Strategy (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1991)

(1992)

Benjamin H. Isaacs, The Limits of Empire: the Roman Army in the East. Rev. ed. (Oxford, 1992)

(1993)

Fergus Millar, The Roman Near East 31 BC–AD 337 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993)

S. Oakley, “The Roman Conquest of Italy,” in War and Society in the Roman World, edited by John Rich and Graham Shipley, 9-37 (New York: Routledge, 1993)

John Rich, “Fear, Greed and Glory: The Causes of Roman War-Making in the Middle Republic,” in War and Society in the Roman World, edited by John Rich and Graham Shipley, 38-68 (New York: Routledge, 1993)

A. Ziolkowski, “Urbs Direpta, or How the Romans Sacked Cities,” in War and Society in the Roman World, edited by John Rich and Graham Shipley, 69-91 (New York: Routledge, 1993)

Tim Cornell, “The End of Roman Imperial Expansion,” in War and Society in the Roman World, edited by John Rich and Graham Shipley, 139-170 (New York: Routledge, 1993)

A. W. Lintott. Imperium Romanum: Politics and Administration (London, 1993)

J. North, “Roman Reactions to Empire,” Scripta Classica Israelica 12 (1993): 127-38

K, J. Hölkeskamp, “Conquest, Competition, and Consensus: Roman Expansion in Italy and the Rise of the Nobilitas,” Historia 42 (1993): 12-39

Alan Watson, International Law in Archaic Rome: War and Religion (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 1993)

(1994)

Charles R. Whittaker, Frontiers of the Roman Empire: A Social and Economic Study (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994)

(1995)

Robert Morstein Kallet-Marx. Hegemony to Empire: The Development of the Roman Imperium in the East from 148 to 62 B.C. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.

A. Erskine, “Rome in the Greek World: The Significance of a Name,” in The Greek World, edited by Anton Powell, 368-83 (Routledge, 1995)

Arthur Eckstein, Moral Vision in the Histories of Polybius (University of California Press, 1995)

(1996)

Kurt A. Raaflaub, “Born to Be Wolves? The Origins of Roman Imperialism,” in Transitions to Empire: Essays in Greco-Roman History, 360-146 B.C. in Honor of E. Badian, edited by R. W. Wallace and E. M. Harris, 273-314 (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996)

Valerie M. Warrior, “Evidence in Livy on Roman Policy Prior to War with Antiochus the Great,” in Transitions to Empire: Essays in Greco-Roman History, 360-146 B.C. in Honor of E. Badian, edited by R. W. Wallace and E. M. Harris, 356-75 (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996)

J.-M. David, The Roman Conquest of Italy (Oxford, 1996)

J. S. Richardson, The Romans in Spain (Oxford, 1996)

Timothy Cornell, B. Rankov, and P. Sabin, eds., The Second Punic War: A Reappraisal (London, 1996)

J. Webster, and N. Cooper, eds. Roman Imperialism: Post-Colonial Perspectives. Leicester Archaeology Monographs 3 (Leicester, 1996)

Valerie Warrior, The Initiation of the Second Macedonian War (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1996)

(1997)

J.E. Lendon. Empire of Honour: The Art of Government in the Roman World (Oxford, 1997)

D. Mattingly, ed., Dialogues in Roman Imperialism: Power, Discourse and Discrepant Experience in the Roman Empire (Portsmouth, 1997)

(1998)

B. D. Hoyos, Unplanned Wars: The Origins of the First and Second Punic Wars, 247-183 BC (Berlin, 1998)

(1999)

Nathan Rosenstein, “Republican Rome,” in War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds: Asia, the Mediterranean, and Mesoamerica, edited by Kurt Raaflaub and Nathan Rosenstein, 193-216 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1999)

A. Eckstein, “Pharos and the Question of Roman Treaties of Alliance in the Greek East in the Third Century BCE,” Classical Philology 94 (1999): 395-418

Susan P. Mattern, Rome and the Enemy: Imperial Strategy in the Principate (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999)

(2001)

Neville Morley, “The Transformation of Italy, 225-28 BC,” Journal of Roman Studies 91 (2001): 50-62

Simon Goldhill, ed., Being Greek under Rome: Cultural Identity, the Second Sophistic and the Development of Empire (Cambridge, 2001)

(2002)

C. Eilers, Roman Patrons of Greek Cities (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2002)

(2003)

Paul J. Burton, “Clientela or Amicitia? Modeling Roman International Behavior in the Middle Republic (264–146 B.C.)” Klio 85, no. 2 (2003): 333-369

(2004)

C. Champion, ed. Roman Imperialism: Readings and Sources (Oxford, 2004)

Nathan Rosenstein, Rome at War: Farms, Families and Death in the Middle Republic (Chapel Hill, 2004)

Charles R. Whittaker, Rome and Its Frontiers: The Dynamics of Empire (London: Routledge, 2004)

(2005)

Armin Eich and Peter Eich，“War and State-Building in Roman Republican Times” Scripta Classica Israelica 24 (2005): 1-33

(2006)

Arthur M. Eckstein, Mediterranean Anarchy, Interstate War, and the Rise of Rome (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006)

Kimberly Kagan，“Redefining Roman Grand Strategy” Journal of Military History 70, no. 2 (2006): 333-362

(2007)

C. Steinby, The Roman Republican Navy: From the Sixth Century to 167 BC (Helsinki, 2007)

(2008)

Arthur M. Eckstein, Rome Enters the Greek East: From Anarchy to Hierarchy in the Hellenistic Mediterranean, 230-170 BC (Oxford, 2008).

M. Dobson. The Army of the Roman Republic: The Second Century BC, Polybius and the Camps at Numantia, Spain (Oxford, 2008)

J. S. Richardson, The Language of Empire: Rome and the Idea of Empire from the Third Century BC to the Second Century AD (Cambridge, 2008)

(2009)

J. M. Madsen. Eager to be Roman: Greek Response to Roman Rule in Pontus and Bithynia (London, 2009)

Mary Beard, The Roman Triumph (Harvard University Press, 2009)

Louise Revell，Roman Imperialism and Local Identities（Cambridge UP, 2009)

Paul J. Burton, “Ancient International Law, the Aetolian League, and the Ritual of Surrender during the Roman Republic: A Constructivist View” The International History Review 31, no. 2 (June 2009): 237-252

Arthur M. Eckstein, “Ancient 'International Law', the Aetolian League, and the Ritual of Unconditional Surrender to Rome: A Realist View” The International History Review 31, no. 2 (June 2009): 253-267

Arthur Eckstein, “What is an Empire? Rome and the Greeks after 188 B.C.” South Central Review 26, no. 3 (Fall 2009): 20-37

(2010)

Neville Morley, The Roman Empire: Roots of Imperialism (Pluto Press, 2010)

(2011)

S. Dmetriev. The Greek Slogan of Freedom and Early Roman Politics in Greece (Oxford, 2011)

Donald Walter Baronowski, Polybius and Roman Imperialism (Bristol Classical Press, 2011)

Paul J. Burton, Friendship and Empire: Roman Diplomacy and Imperialism in the Middle Republic (353-146 BC) (Cambridge UP, 2011)

(2012)

Dexter Hoyos, ed., A Companion to Roman Imperialism (Brill, 2012)

(2016)

William V. Harris, Roman Power: A Thousand Years of Empire (Cambridge UP, 2016)

Jeremy Armstrong, War and Society in Early Rome: From Warlords to Generals (Cambridge UP, 2016)

(2017)

Paul J. Burton, Rome and the Third Macedonian War (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2017)

John D. Grainger, Great Power Diplomacy in the Hellenistic World (London: Routledge, 2017)

Toni Ñaco del Hoyo and Fernando López Sánchez, eds., War, Warlords, and Interstate Relations in the Ancient Mediterranean. Impact of Empire, Volume 28 (Brill, 2017)

(2019)

Paul J. Burton, Roman Imperialism. Brill Research Perspectives in Ancient History (Brill, 2019)