Books by Philip Matyszak - The Roman Empire

No political entity has had such a dramatic effect on modern day Europe than the Roman Empire. Encompassing close to 60 million people and over 2,750,000 km2 of land, it represented an incredibly diverse and dynamic collection of nations, states and tribes, all bound to Rome and the ideal of the Roman identity.

Taking a uniquely long view of events, acclaimed historian Philip Matyszak brings the period to life - from the fall of the Assyrian Empire and the rise of Rome under King Tarquin, to the growth of the Byzantine empire, and the capture of Constantinople. This incisive introduction offers new insight into the formation and demise of the Roman Empire and its legacy that lives on in the social, political and economic foundations of the modern world.

"Remarkably wide-ranging, accessible and well-informed. A must for all students of the Roman world."

Mark Bradley - Associate Professor of Ancient History, University of Nottingham

"A brilliant introduction to the Romans - informative and entertaining."

Roy and Lesley Adkins - authors of 'Handbook to life in ancient Rome'

"Well-crafted. Scholarly while managing to retain easy accessibility to the general reader."

Ian Hughes - Late Roman historian and author of 'Belisarius: the Last Roman General'

When writing ancient history, writers often have to struggle with scanty evidence and obscure, recondite details. ('Anglo-Saxon Buckets' is for many reasons one of my favourite academic papers). With this book, the challenge was exactly the opposite - to take the vast, sprawling mass of the Roman Empire, its complex economy, culture and history, compress the lot into under 250 pages, and come up with an accessible introduction for someone new to the subject that would be still useful and interesting to those who know the topic reasonably well. In short, this was no easy task and we had to make every page count.

To do this, I and my editors had to decide what sort of story we were going to tell. All too often the story of the Roman empire is told as a sort of backdrop to the lives and often violent deaths of Rome's emperors, with their wars and wives filling the rest of the space. This is indeed a great story, and it has been told many times and many ways. But really, it is not the story of the Roman empire.

We decided to tell a different story. Over the thousand years that it existed in the west, the Roman empire slowly evolved from being an empire ruled by Rome to an empire of Romans. People as far apart as Northumbria in Britain and Palmyra in Syria considered themselves Roman, and so deep did that romanization go that even today most of western Europe is based on Roman culture. (So too, much more than we realize, are the cultures of the Middle East.)

How did this come about? This is a story of cultural fusion and economic integration. It is how the provinces affected Rome almost as much as Rome affected the provinces. By the end of the Empire, many emperors seldom, if ever, saw Rome and the city was not even an imperial capital - yet fifteen hundred years on, the legacy of Rome lives on in our language, culture, law and customs. It is a great story, and well worth the telling.