Ancient World Seminar: The Roman Atlantic and the Boundaries of the 'Colonial'

Organised on behalf of the Colonisation CRASIS Network, this lecture by Professor Nicolas Purcell will explore the historiographical and spatial complexities of Roman expansion in the Atlantic and its implications for understanding ancient colonialism. Full abstract to follow.

Abstract

Many different kinds of resource were exploited in the parts of the Atlantic litoral subject to Roman hegemony, from the Canaries to the Rhine-Meuse Delta and the British Isles, in ways which resulted from the nature and organisation of Roman conquest. Comparing what is known of these exploitations and their management is one of the more convincing ways of making a ‘Roman Atlantic’ an object of historical or archaeological research. It may also make it possible to draw parallels with earlier and later periods, from ‘Phoenician’ interests in the African and Iberian façades to the Muslim Atlantic and the first ventures into colonialism of the Iberian polities in the later Middle Ages; and with the activities of Mediterranean-based agents in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

Did political or governmental responses to economic opportunities have any distinctively Mediterranean character, and if so, how did that differ from oceanic spaces, and are the zones of transition also important for the study of the ‘colonial’ in the pre-modern world? I am also interested in ancient perceptions of these subjects, and how ‘colonial’ behaviour became an object of discourse, with consequences for the thought-worlds available to practitioners of economic exploitation in later periods.

About the Speaker

Professor Nicolas Purcell is Camden Professor of Ancient History at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Brasenose College. He is widely recognised as one of the leading scholars in Roman social, economic, and environmental history. His work explores the interconnectedness of the ancient Mediterranean world, with a particular focus on urbanism, landscape, infrastructure, and the dynamics of empire.

Professor Purcell is co-author (with Peregrine Horden) of the influential volume The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History, which has reshaped scholarly understanding of the Mediterranean as a coherent historical region defined by its networks and micro-regional diversity. His research continues to inspire interdisciplinary approaches to the ancient world, combining archaeology, history, and environmental studies to offer new perspectives on connectivity and regional integration.

Reminder

Following the presentation, we invite attendees to join us for drinks at Woolthorn Café. Those interested in continuing the discussion over dinner at Mr Mofongo (self-expense) are kindly asked to register by emailing the CRASIS secretary at crasis.aws@rug.nl