01534 a2200337 4500 140822920X 20250317100414.0 250312042009GB eng 9781408229200 Taylor & Francis GBP 48.99 BB 01 eng NHC thema NKD thema 1QBAR bisac 1QBCB bisac 1QBA bisac HBLA1 bic HDDK bic 1QDAR bisac 1QDAZ bisac HIS002000 bisac SOC003000 bisac 937 bisac Neil Faulkner Rome Empire of the Eagles, 753 BC – AD 476 1 Oxford Routledge 20091105 378 p The Roman Empire is widely admired as a model of civilisation. 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. 2689 2689