"Imperium sine fine"? : Latium, Italy and the borders of Roman expansion during the Republic : some remarks

Bibliogr. i streszcz. ang.

The success of Roman expansion in the Republican period and the durability of the Empire, which survived the fall of the Republic and continued to function for the next few hundred years under the rule of emperors, drew the attention of scholars in subsequent eras. In the famous Vergil’s phrase - Imperium sine fine dedi - Jupiter bestowed a dominion without limits on the Romans as the defenders of their friends, clients, allies and generally the weak. The majority of available accounts present the Romans as protectors. This is a result of a strong rhetoric of propaganda used by the Romans in order to justify themselves in the eyes of the contemporary and posterity alike. The conception of imperialism without limits was probably born in the middle of the 2nd century or more probably in the 1st century B.C. but both earlier and later Rome outlined the borders of the expansion (e.g. lands, rivers or seas).