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The Roman Empire is widely admired as a model of civilisation.
However, in this compelling new study Neil Faulkner argues that
in fact, it was nothing more than a ruthless system of robbery
and violence. War was used to enrich the state, the imperial
ruling classes and favoured client groups. In the process
millions of people were killed or enslaved.

Within the empire the landowning elite creamed off the wealth
of the countryside to pay taxes to the state and fund the towns
and villas where they lived. The masses of people - slaves, serfs
and poor peasants - were victims of a grand exploitation that
made the empire possible. This system, riddled with tension and
latent conflict, contained the seeds of its own eventual collapse.

Rome: Empire of the Eagles, 753 BC - Ad 476
By: Neil Faulkner
Format: EPUB
ISBN: 9781317905240
Language: EN
Pages: 863