Rome and the Making of a World State, 150 BCE–20 CE

In the century following 150 BCE, the Romans developed a coherent vision of empire and a more systematic provincial administration. The city of Rome itself became a cultural and intellectual center that eclipsed other Mediterranean cities, while ideas and practices of citizenship underwent radical change. In this book, Josiah Osgood offers a new survey of this most vivid period of Roman history, the Late Republic. While many discussions focus on politics in the city of Rome itself, his account examines developments throughout the Mediterranean and ties political events more firmly to the growth of overseas empire. The volume includes a broad overview of economic and cultural developments. By extending the story well beyond the conventional stopping date of Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BCE, Osgood ultimately moves away from the old paradigm of the fall of the Republic. The Romans of the Late Republic emerge less as the disreputable gangsters of popular imagination and more as inspired innovators.

1. From world power to world state: an introduction; 2. The new world power: the Empire and imperial affairs (150–139 BCE); 3. The city of Rome: scene of politics and growing metropolis; 4. The struggle for reform (150–104 BCE); 5. The spiral of violence (104–80 BCE); 6. Italy and the reinvention of Rome (150–50 BCE); 7. Rome between Republic and Empire: the stuck elephant (80–60 BCE); 8. Rival leaders and the search for power bases (66–50 BCE); 9. The course of empire: provincial government and society (90–50 BCE); 10. World city: society and culture in Rome (85–45 BCE); 11. War of the world (49–30 BCE); 12. Principate: government for the world state (30–-6 BCE); 13. The New Age: refashioning culture and society (30-5 BCE); 14. The world state tested (4 BCE–-20 CE).

Josiah Osgood is Professor of Classics at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, where he teaches Roman history and Latin literature. He has published numerous books and articles, including Caesar's Legacy: Civil War and the Emergence of the Roman Empire (Cambridge, 2006) and Turia: a Roman Woman's Civil War (2014). Osgood's academic interests include civil war, the figure of the Roman emperor, and ancient biography, historiography, and satire. He lives in Washington, DC.