There's one point in your book about the importance of legions, Praetorian Guard and taxation. It seems to me that you're paraphrasing Tacitus' speech when he says there can be no peace or calm among people without arms. And so I wondered... But the amazing thing about that is that it's in the context of a year that will be succeeded by Gallic nobility laying claim to a line of dissent from Julius Caesar.
What was Rome like during its zenith? In July 2023 acclaimed historian and co-host of The Rest Is History podcast Tom Holland came to Intelligence Squared to paint a vivid picture of Rome during the Pax Romana, when Rome was the world’s great superpower. Drawing on his new book Pax: War and Peace in Rome’s Golden Age, Holland described how at its peak the Roman Empire was the wealthiest and most powerful state the world had then seen, stretching from Scotland to Arabia, and containing perhaps a quarter of the human population then alive. Joining Holland in conversation is Hannah Cornwell, Associate Professor of Ancient History at the University of Birmingham and author of Pax and the Politics of Peace: Republic to Principate.
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