Romanisation: The Process of Becoming Roman

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• 1. Collaboration or resistance?
• 2. Civilisation or enslavement?
• 3. Becoming a citizen
• 4. A 'multicultural' army
• 5. Greeks and 'barbarians'
• 6. Limits of Romanisation
• 7. Find out more
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Collaboration or resistance?

How did the Romans maintain control of such a huge empire for so long? Partly, of course, it was a matter of using military power to threaten those who resisted. But partly, too, it was a matter of positive incentives to collaborate.

In their conquests, the Romans rarely faced united opposition. Usually they made alliances with native rulers who were willing either to fight alongside them or at least provide logistical support.

'Die-hards who fought on to the bitter end were often a minority.'

Once Roman military superiority was clear, other native rulers frequently gave up the unequal struggle and made terms. Die-hards who fought on to the bitter end were often a minority.

The difference between collaboration and resistance can be seen in comparing two cases: Pergamum in Western Turkey, which was bequeathed to the Romans by its last independent ruler in 133 BC; and Dacia, the ancient Romania, whose king resisted fiercely in three hard-fought wars between 85 and 106 AD.

The result was that whereas the long-established Hellenistic culture of Pergamum survived and flourished under the Romans, Dacia appears to have been laid waste, ethnically cleansed, and re-settled by foreign colonists.

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Published: 2006-09-12