Adrian Goldsworthy has given his book the subtitle ‘The men who won the Roman Empire’. It’s a study of 15 Roman commanders, and this subtitle recognises a truth from which many prefer to avert their eyes: that empires are won, expanded, and defended by armed force, usually by armies, sometimes by navies and now also by air power. This is as true today as it was in the Ancient World. Coca-Cola and blue jeans may spread America’s cultural influence, but it is the USA’s possession of the most powerful and best equipped military force that makes it the world’s one superpower.

Rome never doubted this. The first word of its imperial epic is arma. The Romans came to believe that they had a civilising mission:

These shall be thine arts, to impose
civilisation after peace,
To spare the conquered and subdue
the proud …
So, Virgil. But note: ‘after peace’. Or, as Vegetius (late 4th century AD) put it, ‘If you want peace, prepare for war.’

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