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Professor Sheldon uses the modern concept of the intelligence cycle to trace intelligence activities in Rome whether they were done by private citizens, the government, or the military. Examining a broad range of activities the book looks at the many types of espionage tradecraft that have left their traces in the ancient sources: * intelligence and counterintelligence gathering * covert action * clandestine operations * the use of codes and ciphers Dispelling the myth that such activities are a modern invention, Professor Sheldon explores how these ancient spy stories have modern echoes as well. What is the role of an intelligence service in a free republic? When do the security needs of the state outweigh the rights of the citizen? If we cannot trust our own security services, how safe can we be? Although protected by the Praetorian Guard, seventy-five percent of Roman emperors died by assassination or under attack by pretenders to his throne. Who was guarding the guardians? For students of Rome, and modern social studies too - this will provide a fascinating read.
Intelligence activities have always been an integral part of statecraft. Ancient governments, like modern ones, realized that to keep their borders safe, control their populations, and keep abreast of political developments abroad, they needed a means to collect the intelligence which enabled them to make informed decisions. Today we are well aware of the damage spies can do. Here, for the first time, is a comprehensive guide to the literature of ancient intelligence. The entries present books and periodical articles in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, and Dutch--with annotations in English. These works address such subjects as intelligence collection and analysis (political and military), counterintelligence, espionage, cryptology (Greek and Latin), tradecraft, covert action, and similar topics (it does not include general battle studies and general discussions of foreign policy). Sections are devoted to general espionage, intelligence related to road building, communication, and tradecraft, intelligence in Greece, during the reign of Alexander the Great and in the Hellenistic Age, in the Roman republic, the Roman empire, the Byzantine empire, the Muslim world, and in Russia, China, India, and Africa. The books can be located in libraries in the United States; in cases where volumes are in one library only, the author indicates where they may be found.
Exploratio is the first ever survey of Roman military and civil intelligence. The authors examine in detail the operation and gradual development of Roman intelligence-gathering from shaky beginnings to a high level of excellence. They identify who gathered it, and for whom. This study shows the effects of intelligence on policy formation at various levels from the purely local through to the global. The consequences of various instances of the mishandling of information are uncovered. Austin and Rankov also demonstrate that intelligence gathering was not necessarily directed from Rome, but had for practical reasons to be carried out and processed on the frontiers themselves. Exploratio is important reading for all students and teachers of Roman history. It will also appeal to those with a general interest in military or diplomatic history.
"Rome's foreign policy in the East has been the subject of many books, but until now there has been no detailed study of the individual wars Rome fought against Parthia from the military perspective. This book details Rome's military encounters with Parthia from the bumbling campaign of Crassus to the fall of the Parthian regime. America's recent war in Iraq has shown that invading Mesopotamia without proper intelligence is a bad idea, but it is not a new idea. Time after time the Romans stormed into the area between the Tigris and Euphrates thinking 'shock and awe' was all they needed to prevail. What they discovered was that it takes more than just overrunning an empire to defeat it. Exhausting the Parthian regime and furthering its collapse only brought forward a new enemy, the Persians, who were much stronger and more aggressive than the Parthians ever were. We may legitimately ask, therefore, whether Rome's aggressive policy against Parthia made Rome's eastern frontier less secure." "Did the Romans attack the Parthians in self-defence, or because they simply would not tolerate the co-existence of an equal power on their border? Its size alone made the Parthian Empire formidable. This certainly counterbalanced Rome's hegemony in the West. What did the Romans gain by attacking Parthia? This book will give a historical perspective on what is still a strikingly modern problem when waging war in the Middle East." --Book Jacket.
A historian of military intelligence presents a revelatory account of ancient Greek battle tactics, including the use of espionage and irregular warfare. There are two images of warfare that dominate Greek history. The better known is that of Achilles, the Homeric hero skilled in face-to-face combat and outraged by deception on the battlefield. The alternative model, also taken from Homeric epic, is Odysseus, ‘the man of twists and turns’ who saw no shame in winning by stealth, surprise or deceit. It is common for popular writers to assume that the hoplite phalanx was the only mode of warfare used by the Greeks. The fact is, however, that the use of spies, intelligence gathering, ambush, and surprise attacks at dawn or at night were also a part of Greek warfare. While such tactics were not the supreme method of defeating an enemy, they were routinely employed when the opportunity presented itself.
“Why were Rome’s first emperors—the good, the bad, and the ugly—so vulnerable to conspiracies and assassination? . . . an expert analysis . . . compelling.” —Adrienne Mayor, author of The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates and Rome’s Deadliest Enemy Exploring the history of internal security under the first Roman dynasty, this groundbreaking book answers the enduring question: If there were 9,000 men guarding the emperor, how were three-quarters of Rome’s leaders assassinated? Rose Mary Sheldon traces the evolution of internal security mechanisms under the Julio-Claudians, evaluating the system that Augustus first developed to protect the imperial family and the stability of his dynasty. Yet in spite of the intensive precautions taken, there were multiple attempts on his life. Like all emperors, Augustus had a number of competing constituencies—the senate, the army, his extended family, the provincials, and the populace of Rome—but were they all equally threatening? Indeed, the biggest threat would come from those closest to the emperor—his family and the aristocracy. Even Roman imperial women were deeply involved in instigating regime change. By the fourth emperor, Caligula, the Praetorian Guards were already participating in assassinations, and the army too was becoming more politicized. Sheldon weighs the accuracy of ancient sources: Does the image of the emperor presented to us represent reality or what the people who killed him wanted us to think? Were Caligula and Nero really crazy, or did senatorial historians portray them that way to justify their murder? Was Claudius really the fool found drooling behind a curtain and made emperor, or was he in on the plot from the beginning? These and other fascinating questions are answered as Sheldon concludes that the repeated problem of “killing Caesar” reflected the empire’s larger dynamics and turmoil.
An intellectual history of the late Roman Republic—and the senators who fought both scholarly debates and a civil war In The Roman Republic of Letters, Katharina Volk explores a fascinating chapter of intellectual history, focusing on the literary senators of the mid-first century BCE who came to blows over the future of Rome even as they debated philosophy, history, political theory, linguistics, science, and religion. It was a period of intense cultural flourishing and extreme political unrest—and the agents of each were very often the same people. Members of the senatorial class, including Cicero, Caesar, Brutus, Cassius, Cato, Varro, and Nigidius Figulus, contributed greatly to the development of Roman scholarship and engaged in a lively and often polemical exchange with one another. These men were also crucially involved in the tumultuous events that brought about the collapse of the Republic, and they ended up on opposite sides in the civil war between Caesar and Pompey in the early 40s. Volk treats the intellectual and political activities of these “senator scholars” as two sides of the same coin, exploring how scholarship and statesmanship mutually informed one another—and how the acquisition, organization, and diffusion of knowledge was bound up with the question of what it meant to be a Roman in a time of crisis. By revealing how first-century Rome’s remarkable “republic of letters” was connected to the fight over the actual res publica, Volk’s riveting account captures the complexity of this pivotal period.
Saul of Tarsus is one of the best known and most beloved figures of Christianity. This man, later known as St. Paul, set the tone for Christianity, including an emphasis on celibacy, the theory of divine grace and salvation, and the elimination of circumcision. It was Paul who wrote a large part of the New Testament, and who called it euangelion, "the gospel". There is another side of Paul, however, that has been little studied and that is his connection to the Roman military establishment and its intelligence arm. While other scholars and writers have suggested the idea that Paul was cooperating with the Romans, this is the first book-length study to document it in detail. By looking at the traditional story through a new lens, some of the thorniest questions and contradictions in Paul's life can be unravelled. How did he come to work for the Temple authorities who collaborated with the Romans? How was he able to escape from legal situations in which others would have been killed? Why were so many Jews trying to have Paul killed and to which sect did they belong? These and other mysteries will be solved as the authors follow Paul's career and his connections to Roman intelligence.
This book presents the legislation that formed the basis of Roman law - The Laws of the Twelve Tables. These laws, formally promulgated in 449 BC, consolidated earlier traditions and established enduring rights and duties of Roman citizens. The Tables were created in response to agitation by the plebeian class, who had previously been excluded from the higher benefits of the Republic. Despite previously being unwritten and exclusively interpreted by upper-class priests, the Tables became highly regarded and formed the basis of Roman law for a thousand years. This comprehensive sequence of definitions of private rights and procedures, although highly specific and diverse, provided a foundation for the enduring legal system of the Roman Empire.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977.