Hogyan győznek a provinciák? – A Fogság c. regény történelmi hátteréről

The lecturer is a writer, who wrote his last novel, Captivity, on the basis of the events in the Roman Empire in the 1st century AC. The lecture is not about the novel itself, but on some lessons drawn from research done in a preparation of the book. The foreign policy of Rome was based on the religious, economic and legislative lives of the provinces. Ever since that time, no comparable multicultural, tolerant and wise approach could be seen from any of the superpowers. Nevertheless, the intolerant mentality of the peripheries penetrated into the centre and demolished imperial Rome both in cultural and in political terms. Rome's mentality underwent a deep change due to a new, unexpected religion, Christianity, originating from the provinces, emerging from a Jewry divided by antique globalisation and disseminating extremely fast. The history of the Roman empire represents a paradigm, its evolution is characteristic also for the fates of subsequent empires - it warns, as Seneca said: he whom you conquer today, will subjugate you tomorrow.