Roman Imperialism: Post-Colonial Perspectives

The papers presented here are the result of a symposium, Roman Imperialism: Post-Colonial Perspectives, held at the University of Leicester in November 1994. The symposium brought together scholars from interrelated fields (including Roman Archaeology, Ancient History, and Classical Studies) who, within their own areas, were using analytical tools drawn from post-colonial theory. Our aims as a group were two-fold. First, we wanted to explore some of the central themes of post-colonial theory, and their implications for the study of the Roman Empire. These are, necessarily, themes which particularly concern Roman scholars who have grown up in what Martin Millett (1990a) calls the ‘post imperial age’; and most of those present at the symposium belonged to the first (and the second) generation of ‘post imperial’ Roman scholars. Our second aim was to look reflexively at Roman studies in the late-twentieth century. In what ways, we asked, is our position within the ‘post imperial’ condition causing us to reassess not only Roman imperialism, but the epistemological basis of our own discipline (the study of the Roman Empire), which developed in the context of Western imperialism? [Taken from the introduction]