The Ecology of Roman Imperialism

We often think of imperialism as a process that rolls out indiscriminately over numerous peoples and places. But for the Romans, at least, it comprised their mastery of a vast range of contrasting landscapes and ecologies. Building on process of connection that went back at least to the first explorations of Phoenician, Greek and Etruscan voyages, the Romans found ways to insert themselves into countless local economic systems, engineering exchanges between mountain and plain, island and mainland, wilderness and city. Not only did they weave a web of connections between the opposite shores of the inland sea, but those connections and differences transformed them, framing expansion, setting limits on empire and shaping what it became. This lecture explores some of these themes, thinking especially about the Roman presence in the Maghreb.