Expansion Of The Roman Empire

Ancient Rome was an empire that stretched over two million square miles, at its height. It reached the shores of the Rhine River to the Caspian Sea, and along the outskirts of Africa to Spain (Eyewitness to History, 2007). The empire was an advancement for humankind, combining multiple cultures for trading, and the collaboration of different peoples for science. Overall, it was an empire so large, that during that time, one in every four people on the planet were under Roman rule (PBS, 2014). However, it wasn’t like that all the time. The early Roman army was a simple Greek phalanx, a rectangular formation of heavy infantry. Later, emperor Servius Tullius introduced the census, and divided the citizens of Rome into recruits for the army, organizing and reforming it. The ancient Roman Empire was considered the greatest and most formidable empire of that time period (753 BC – 476 AD) (Scaruffi, 1999). This was due to a multitude of reasons, the most prominent being the ways of the Roman army. The Roman Army has specific traits that made it so powerful. Its advanced tactics, training methods, and reforms made it a highly reliable and successful army, and has greatly influenced today’s militaries.

Between 500 BCE and 500 CE, the Roman civilization experienced changes both politically and culturally. Firstly, Rome’s government transitioned from a Republic to an Empire. Later, that empire was split into two parts; east and west. In terms of changes in culture, it was impacted by the shift in religion, as the Romans shifted from polytheism to monotheism. Despite all the changes, Rome still remained culturally diverse.

In its time, the Roman Empire was the largest empire the world had ever seen. The fact that the Romans were able to control and obtain an empire of this size was due to plenty of factors, but the main ones are the Roman army, the Roman roads, Pax Romana, the borders of the empire, and the benefits of the barbarians who became ruled by the empire. On their own, these factors wouldn’t do much at all, but such a combination brought great success.

To start with, it can be said overexpansion was responsible for the failing economy of the Empire which then in turn contributed to causing the fall of the Roman Empire in the West. Firstly, ancient agriculture had a significant role to play in the shortcomings of the economy. It suffered from two limitations; the lack of modern machinery so the productivity of a slab of land depended massively on how much labour was available to work it and the lack of chemical fertilisers so output was generally quite low. Therefore, “In the economically ailing west, a decrease in agricultural production led to higher food prices.” This decrease was due to high taxation on marginal land driving it out of cultivation. In addition to this, transport was very

Trade is extremely important to any civilization that intends on growing and prospering. There were basically two different kinds of trade routes. The sea routes which incorporated shipping items over water and the land routes where they carted items back and forth, both of which provided items and money into the economy of Rome. Such items as grains, cereals, papyrus, and silk were traded. Control and the efficient use of these trades routes certainly helps a developing nation, but is it the main factor in why Rome grew so fast?

Because Augustus encouraged trade, many roads and highways were built for convenient traveling. Trading made easier increased trade, which boosted Roman economy even more.

The Romans used commerce to consolidate the provinces and territories of their vast empire. Being a part of the Empire was of great economic benefit to almost all of the members; insomuch as the Romans built roads and protected sea routes, and inasmuch as the Roman Empire was so large, the Roman Empire’s subjects benefited from what amounted to a massive free trade zone. Roman commerce was a major factor in preserving the Empire for so long.

Military strength allowed the Romans to increase their trade networks. Economy: Besides taking part in trade overseas, merchants also made use of Roman roads to reach inland markets. The Exchange of

For the Roman Empire agriculture was its primary source of their food and wealth. The grew grains, olives, and grapes. Furthermore, out of those crops they made olive oil and wine since that was one of their most important commodities. Most of the grain, grape, and olive products they made were then later traded or sold to other people. On the other hand, the Roman’s had a fairly negative approach to trading, considerably in the higher classes. Since having a surplus of crops and land was a status of wealth while manufacturing and commerce were seen as a lesser occupation. The rich landlords had many slaves to work in their fields to harvest their crops.

The rebellion resulted in a very successfully established independent Jewish state outside the Jewish state that they established was Alexandria, which was a Hellenistic city in Egypt that had a large amount of Jews. Next, the Romans saw Hellenistic culture as a way to expand their empire. First, the rest of the Mediterranean and parts of South Asia were brought together to make Rome into a large territorial state.

In my opinion, the success in the building of the trading between provinces and the growth of the Roman economy are found in three parts, 1) Slavery, 2) Roads, and 3) Trading. Through the development of trading in other provinces, the creation of roads and the business of slavery, the growth of the Roman economy grew by leaps and bounds. The process of growth set the example for economic growth for other countries and states for years to come.

The primary cause of the collapse during this period was due to the over-expansion of the empire. During the Classical period, power was established by land; so, empires focused on accumulating and controlling as much land as possible. While this strategy initially contributed to the power of the empire, it ultimately lead to their decline, since the vastness of the empire became too much to control and defend. In the Roman Empire, they expanded too far from its core location in Rome, spanning cultures that did not blend in and overstepping the ability of the state to control its land. As the empire expanded into North Africa and began to expand into the modern-day Middle East and Northern Europe, it had reached its limits. It was difficult to maintain and protect the roads and bridges needed for trade. Many in the Roman Empire relied on trade, so when the legions spent less time repairing roads and bridges and guarding travelers; bandits and pirates attacked travelers and ships, leading to a sharp decline in trade. Less trade meant fewer taxes.

Conquests and control of busy trade routes brought incredible riches into Rome. Generals, officials, and traders amassed fortunes from oot, taxes and commerce. A new class of wealthy Romans emerged. they built lavish mansions and filled them with luxuries imported from the east. Wealthy families brought up huge farming estates, called latifundia. As Romans conquered more and more lands, they forced people captured in war to work as slaves on the latifundia. By the last days of the republic, around a third of Italy's people lived in slavery.

Us Romans, Just like all other people, take the damage from defeated enemies. In the early period of Rome’s development, the most important thing to us is land. Rome has a lot land to provide for all of the citizens but it is not enough. we can’t solve the problems of land shortage through colonization or trade, say the Athenians. So, Roman settlements are to be in Italy, and this meant that they take land away from another state to achieve the goal. Roman politicians knew they could relieve population pressures at Rome by fighting to receive more land, so political leaders, who were also, military leaders actively fought wars.

After the huge financial and human costs of the 2nd Punic War, Rome might easily have turned its attention inward. Instead, in a move about which historians still debate, Rome turned to the east. They waded first into the ancient morass of Greek politics that lurked across the Adriatic, and were then were drawn -seemingly inexorably- ever further eastward through Asia Minor, and beyond. I intend to show that this expansion eastward was not driven by any “top-down” imperial strategy on the part of Rome, but instead by its attempts to manage the never-ending series of crises that arose from Rome’s increasingly complicated and unpredictable relationships with other players on the world stage. At the dawn of the 2nd century BC, Rome’s objectives can be extrapolated from the actions of the senate, the details of its diplomatic outreach in troublesome situations, and the treaties imposed on its conquered enemies.