Finance

Perspective (graphical)

Sociology

Archaeology

Empire

Social science

Roman Empire

Politics

History

Agency (philosophy)

Epistemology

Visual arts

Vision

Philosophy

Materialism

Political science

Order (exchange)

Economics

Anthropology

Expansionism

Antiquity

This debate piece offers a critique of some recent ‘new materialist’ approaches and their application to Roman expansionism, particularly those positing that the study of ‘Romanisation’ should be about ‘understanding objects in motion’—a perspective that carries important political and ethical implications. Here, the authors introduce the alternative notion of a ‘predatory’ political economy for conceptualising Late Republican and Early Imperial Rome. The aim is to illuminate the darker sides of Roman expansionism in order to produce more balanced and inclusive accounts. Two cases studies—the archaeology of the Roman conquest and of rural communities—illustrate the potential of such a perspective.

The dark side of the Empire: Roman expansionism between object agency and predatory regime