The Roman Predicament: How the Rules of International Order Create the Politics of Empire 0691136351, 9780691136356

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HAROLD JAMES

HOW THE RULES OF 0 DER CREATE THE POLITICS OF EMPIRE —s' -.o-r rr■--.-“V.'* ~~ ' ~ —--v -

Modern America owes the Roman Empire for more than gladiator movies and the architecture of the nation’s Capitol. It can also thank the ancient republic for some helpful lessons in globalization. So argues economic historian Harold James in this masterful work of intellectual history. The book addresses what James terms “the Roman dilemma”—the paradoxical notion that while global society depends on a system of rules for building peace and prosperity, this system inevitably leads to domestic clashes, international rivalry, and even wars. As it did in ancient Rome, James argues, a rule-based world order eventually subverts and destroys itself, creating the need for imperial action. The result is a continu¬ ous fluctuation between pacification and the breakdown of domestic order. James summons this argument, first put forth more than two centuries ago in Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and Edward Gib¬ bon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, to put current events into perspective. The world now finds itself staggering between

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The Roman Predicament

Harold James

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Copyright © 2006 by Princeton University. Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 3 Market Place, Woodstock, Oxfordshire 0X201SY All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data James, Harold, 1956— The Roman predicament: how the rules of international order create the politics of empire / Harold James, p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-691-12221-2 (c : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-691-12221-0 (c : alk. paper) 1. Imperialism.

2. Power (Social sciences)

4. International organization. 30 b.c-476 a.d.

3. International economic relations.

5. Social values.

6. Rome—History—Empire,

7. Smith, Adam, 1723-1790. Inquiry into the nature and causes

of the wealth of nations. fall of the Roman Empire.

8. Gibbons, Edward, 1737-1794. History of the decline and I. Title.

JC359.J35 2006 325'.32—dc22

2005055080

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Minion Typeface Printed on acid-free paper.

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pup.princeton.edu Printed in the United Sta tes of America 10

987654321

Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction

vii 1

Chapter One The Model of Decline and Fall

6

Chapter Two Mercury and Mars

24

Chapter Three The Questioning of Rules in an Obscure and Irregular System

39

Chapter Four Can It Last?

71

Chapter Five The Victory of Mars

86

Chapter Six Terminus: Beyond the Fringe

99

Chapter Seven The Holy Roman Empire and the Roman Empire

118

Conclusion

141

Notes

1^1

Index

163

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