Rome in the East : the transformation of an empire
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 494-511) and index.

"Rome in the East provides an illustrated study of the influence of Near Eastern culture on the Roman world, which overturns received wisdom about Rome as the bastion of European culture. In this controversial and provocative study Warwick Ball presents the story of Rome in the light of Rome's fascination with the East. He explains Rome's obsession with the Eastern world as a fascination of the new world for the old, of the mundane for the exotic, a love affair with the East that took literal form in the story of Antony and Cleopatra. From Rome's legendary foundation by Aeneas and the Trojan heroes as the New Troy, through installing Arabs as Roman emperors, to the eventual foundation of the new Rome by a latter-day Aeneas at Constantinople, the East took over Rome - and Rome ultimately ditched Europe to the Barbarians. Through this obsession, Near Eastern civilisation - most of all, Christianity - went West to transform Europe. Warwick Ball argues that the story of Rome is the story of the East, more than the story of the West."--BOOK JACKET.