How did Rome conquer and rule such a huge empire ?

Answer 1

Good ? I would like to know my self!!!

Answer 2

This question is really unanswerable in the capacity of Yahoo! Answers. Neither answer already given is adequate, or even factually correct. Generals did not pay their own armies except in very rare cases during the late Republic. After Marius implementd the professional army, the legions became state sponsored. They were treated quite well and were granted land upon completion of a 25 year service period. Also, military service was essentially a prerequisite for a political career. Because of the generally benign treatement of the soldiers, and the benefits of service, Rome never had a shortage of soldiers. Rome therefore managed to conquer such large territories through a well trained, well funded, and large military. Also key to military conquest was a political and social structure that suported an imperialist foreign policy.

Also, Rome did not often make practice of enslaving people. In fact, people of conquered lands were usually treated quite well. They did not have Roman culture shoved down their throats unless they wanted it, and they were allowed to keep their own ways of life unless they directly undermined Rome's authority. Conquered people could often continue to worship their own gods, and many of these gods found their way into officially Roman cults. Local political structures were also left pretty much intact so long as Rome's right to rule was not questioned. As a consequence, Rome did not really have to activly rule much of its empire.

Also, Rome occasionally acquired land from non-military sources, such as alliances, purchases, or wills. For example, Rome acquired the Greek kingdom of Pergamum in Asia Minor from the will of the last king of Pergamum, who had no heirs.

Answer 3

Greetings!

Rome had very large and well fed private armies. The general actually paid for and maintained his own Army.
He would benefit from the monies an invasion would bring forth as well as controlling a provisional government which would of course make trade with Rome.
Also Rome offered the benefit of the installation of infrastructure in the form of aqueducts, roads, buildings, etc.
So you see sometimes it was not much of an advantage to rebel the oncoming invasion.
In fact many countries benefited directly from being invaded.

Last but not least, once invaded, the people had rights just the same as a Roman citizen did.

Good Luck

Answer 4

Rome Hotelbye com today is one of the main tourist destinations of the entire world, due to the incalculable immensity of its archaeological and artwork secrets, as well as for the allure of their unique traditions, the sweetness of its breathtaking views, and the majesty of their wonderful parks. One of many points must see en Rome is Campo de'Fiori. Campo de'Fiori is a rectangular square south of Piazza Navona used as a market place during the day, and celebration main for school pupils and tourists at night. The name suggests “area of flowers” and was initially provided during the Middle Ages when the region was actually a meadow. Yet another place worth visit is The Roman Forum. Positioned in the little area involving the Palatine and Capitoline Hills, The Roman Forum was for generations the teeming center of ancient Rome and nowadays is a vast ruin of architectural fragments

Answer 5

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Answer 6

1

Answer 7

it promised other countries riches and citizenship, and technology and civilization. then they enslaved everyone in their path and used the people as soldiers later on. kind of like Britain did a few centuries later

Answer 8

The origins of Rome

Fertile lands, mild climate and rich mineral resource deposits made people seek their new homeland in Italy leading to a large population.

The city of Rome grew out of a number of settlements that existed around seven hills that were near the River Tiber. The settlements were near the river for the obvious reasons of a water supply. The Tiber was also narrow enough at this point to be bridged. However, the area also suffered because of the nearness of the river. Each settlement was separated from the other by marshland. Each individual settlement was vulnerable to attack as a single settlement. By joining together they were stronger. To join together, the marshland had to be drained. This was something that took years to do. The legend of Romulus and Remus gives the impression that Rome was created very quickly; the truth was very different.

The early people of Rome were from a tribe called Latins. They were from the Plains of Latium. The Latins were successful farmers and traders and they became rich and successful. Therefore, Rome from its early days was a rich city. This was to create jealousy and to bring the city of Rome into conflict with areas surrounding the city. In particular, the Romans fought against the Etruscans and the Samnites.

For this reason, the leaders of Rome invested in an army. This skilled force both protected the city and expanded its power. By 300 BC, the Romans controlled most of the Italian peninsula

How The Roman Empire Grew

Roman expansion was not deliberately planned; rather, it was
the result of dealing with unsettled conditions, first in Italy and then
abroad, which were thought to threaten Rome's security. Rome always claimed
that its wars were defensive.

Roman Conquest Of Italy

Soon after ousting their Etruscan overlords in 509 B.C., Rome and the
Latin League, composed of other Latin peoples in Latium, entered into a
defensive alliance against the Etruscans. This new combination was so
successful that by the beginning of the fourth century B.C. it had become the
chief power in central Italy. But at this time (390 B.C.) a major disaster
almost ended the history of Rome. A horde of marauding Celts, called Gauls by
the Romans, invaded Italy from central Europe, wiped out the Roman army, and
almost destroyed the city by fire. The elderly members of the Senate,
according to the traditional account, sat awaiting their fate with quiet
dignity before they were massacred. Only a garrison on the Capitoline Hill
held out under siege. After seven months and the receipt of a huge ransom in
gold, the Gauls retired. The stubborn Romans rebuilt their city and protected
it with a stone wall, part of which still stands. They also remodeled their
army by replacing the solid line of fixed spears of the phalanx formation,
borrowed from the Etruscans and Greeks, with the much more maneuverable small
units of 120 men, called maniples, armed with javelins instead of spears. It
would be 800 years before another barbarian army would be able to conquer the
city of Rome.

The Latin League grew alarmed at Rome's increasing strength, and war
broke out between the former allies. With Rome's victory in 338 B.C., the
League was dissolved, and the Latin cities were forced to sign individual
treaties with Rome. Thus the same year that saw the rise of Macedonia over
Greece also saw the rise of a new power in Italy.

Border clashes with aggressive highland Samnite tribes led to three
fiercely fought Samnite wars and the extension of Rome's frontiers to the
Greek colonies in southern Italy by 290 B.C. Fearing Roman conquest, the
Greeks prepared for war and called in the Hellenistic Greek king, Pyrrhus of
Epirus, who dreamed of becoming a second Alexander the Great. Pyrrhus' war
elephants, unknown in Italy, twice routed the Romans, but at so heavy a cost
that such a triumph is still called a "Pyrrhic victory." When a third battle
failed to induce the Romans to make peace, Pyrrhus is reported to have
remarked, "The discipline of these barbarians is not barbarous," and returned
to his homeland. By 270 B.C. the Roman army had subdued the Greek city-states
in southern Italy.

Treatment Of Conquered Peoples

Instead of slaughtering or enslaving their defeated foes, the Romans
treated them fairly, in time creating a strong loyalty to Rome throughout the
peninsula. Roman citizenship was a prized possession that was not extended to
all peoples on the peninsula until the first century B.C. Most defeated states
were required to sign a treaty of alliance with Rome, which bound them to
adhere to Rome's foreign policy and to supply troops for the Roman army. No
tribute was required, and each allied state retained local self-government.
Rome did, however, annex about one fifth of the conquered lands, on which
nearly thirty colonies were established by 250 B.C.

In Rome’s early years, the state lived in fear of its more powerful neighbour, Carthage. The Carthaginians were great traders in the Mediterranean Sea and as the Romans wanted to expand into this trading zone, a clash was inevitable. In 264 BC, the Romans and the Carthaginians had their first war. In a series of three wars, known as the Punic Wars, the Romans eventually defeated the Carthaginians. However, this took over 100 years to accomplish and the wars eventually ended in 146 BC. In the second Punic War, the Romans lost several important battles – the most famous being against the Carthaginian general Hannibal. However, by 146 BC, the Romans were strong enough to capture the city of Carthage in Northern Africa. Carthage was burned to the ground and all signs of the city were destroyed by the Romans as a sign that the power of the Carthaginians had disappeared forever.

With Carthage defeated, the Romans became the most powerful Mediterranean state. The victory over the Carthaginians gave the Romans all the opportunity they needed to expand their power in the Mediterranean. The more wealthy and powerful the Romans became, the more able they were to further expand their empire.

The Romans were not content with conquering land near to them. They realised that land further away might also have riches in them that would make Rome even more wealthy. Hence their drive to conquer Western Europe. At the height of its power, around AD 150, Rome controlled the greatest empire ever seen in Europe at that time. Many of the conquered nations benefited from Roman rule as the Roman way of life was imposed on those conquered societies. Roman public baths, roads, water supplies, housing etc. all appeared in Western Europe – though many fell into disuse after the Romans retreated back to Rome.

Ironically, the sheer size of the empire, which many marvelled at, was also a major reason for the collapse in the power of the Romans. The Romans had great difficulty in maintaining power in all of their empire and supplying their army was a major problem as their lines of communications were stretched to the limit. The power of the empire rested with the success of the Roman Army. When this success started to weaken, the empire could only start to collapse.



By 270 B.C. the first phase of Roman expansion was over. Ringed by
hostile peoples - Etruscans in the north, predatory hill tribes in central
Italy, and Greeks in the south - Rome had subdued them all after long,
agonizing effort and found itself master of all Italy south of the Po valley.
(After Rome's fall in the fifth century A.D., Italy was not again unified
until 1870.) In the process the Romans developed the administrative skills and
traits of character - both fair-minded and ruthless - that would lead to the
acquisition of an empire with possessions on three continents by 133 B.C

Rome, Supreme In The Ancient World

In 133 B.C. Rome acquired its first province in Asia when the king of
Pergamum, dying without heir, bequeathed his kingdom to Rome. Apparently he
feared that the discontented masses would revolt after his death unless Rome,
with its reputation for maintaining law and order in the interest of the
propertied classes, took over. Rome accepted the bequest and then spent the
next three years suppressing a proletarian revolution in the new province
called Asia. With provinces on three continents - Europe, Africa, and Asia -
the once obscure Roman Republic was now supreme in the ancient world.
The Late Republic, 133-30 B.C.

The century following 133 B.C., during which Rome's frontiers reached the
Euphrates and the Rhine, witnessed the failure of the Republic to solve the
problems that were the by-products of the acquisition of an empire.

Effects Of Roman Expansion

The political history of Rome thus far has consisted of two dominant
themes: the gradual extension of equal rights for all citizens and the
expansion of Roman dominion over the Mediterranean world. Largely as a result
of this expansion, important social and economic problems faced Rome by
roughly the midpoint of the second century B.C.

One of the most pressing problems was the decline in the number of small
landowners, whose spirit had made Rome great. Burdened by frequent military
service, their farm buildings destroyed by Hannibal, and unable to compete
with the cheap grain imported from the new Roman province of Sicily, small
farmers sold out and moved to Rome. Here they joined the unemployed,
discontented proletariat, so-called because their only contribution was
proles, "children." The proletariat comprised a majority of the citizens in
the city.

On the other hand, improved farming methods learned from Greeks and
Carthaginians encouraged rich aristocrats to buy more and more land.
Abandoning the cultivation of grain, they introduced large-scale scientific
production of olive oil and wine, or of sheep and cattle. This change was
especially profitable because an abundance of cheap slaves from conquered
areas was available to work on the estates. These large slave plantations,
called latifundia, were now common in many parts of Italy.

The land problem was further complicated by the government's practice of
leasing part of the territory acquired in the conquest of the Italian
peninsula to anyone willing to pay a percentage of the crop or animals raised
on it. Only the patricians or wealthy plebeians could afford to lease large
tracts of this public land, and in time they treated it as if it were their
own property. Plebeian protests led to an attempt to limit the holdings of a
single individual to 320 acres of public land, but the law enacted for that
purpose was never enforced.

Corruption in the government was another mark of the growing degeneracy
of the Roman Republic. Provincial officials seized opportunities for lucrative
graft, and a new class of Roman businessmen scrambled selfishly for the
profitable state contracts to supply the armies, collect taxes and loan money
in the provinces, and lease state-owned mines and forests. An early example of
corrupt business practices occurred during the Second Punic War. According to
the Roman historian Livy, "Two scoundrels, taking advantage of the assumption
by the state of all risks from tempest in the case of goods carried by sea to
armies in the field," fabricated false accounts of shipwrecks. "Their method
was to load small and more or less worthless cargoes into old, rotten vessels,
sink them at sea..., and then, in reporting the loss, enormously to exaggerate
the value of the cargoes." When the swindle was reported to the Senate, it
took no action because it "did not wish at a time of such national danger to
make enemies of the capitalists." ^6

Although in theory the government was a democracy, in practice it
remained a senatorial oligarchy. Wars tend to strengthen the executive power
in a state, and in Rome the Senate had such power. Even the tribunes,
guardians of the people's rights, became for the most part puppets of the
Senate. Thus by the middle of the second century B.C., the government was in
the hands of a wealthy, self-seeking Senate, which became increasingly
incapable of coping with the problems of governing a world-state. Ordinary
citizens were for the most part impoverished and landless; and Rome swarmed
with fortune hunters, imported slaves, unemployed farmers, and discontented
war veterans. The poverty of the many, coupled with the opulence of the few,
hastened the decay of the old Roman traits of discipline, simplicity, and
respect for authority.

The next century (133-30 B.C.) saw Rome convulsed by civil strife, which
led to the establishment of a permanent dictatorship and the end of the
Republic. The Senate was noticeably inefficient in carrying on foreign
conflicts, but its most serious weakness was its inability to solve the
economic and social problems following in the wake of Rome's conquests

Under Augustus

Augustus greatly reduced the corruption and exploitation that had
flourished in the late Republic by creating a salaried civil service, open to
all classes. He also established a permanent standing army, stationed in the
frontier provinces and kept out of politics. More than forty colonies of
retired soldiers were founded throughout the Empire; among them were Palermo
in Sicily, Patras in Greece, and Baalbek in Syria

In its finest period, the Empire was a vast area stretching from Britain
to the Euphrates and containing upwards of 100 million people. It was welded
together into what Pliny the Elder, in the first century A.D., termed the
"immense majesty of the Roman peace" (Pax Romana). Writing during the
rule of Augustus, the Roman poet Virgil was the spokesman for what enlightened
Romans felt to be the mission of Rome:
Non-Romans were equally conscious of the rich benefits derived from Roman
rule. The mass of the inhabitants of the Empire welcomed the peace,
prosperity, and administrative efficiency of the Principate.

The Pax Romana began with Augustus and reached its height under the Five
Good Emperors. Cities increased in number and were largely self-governed by
their own upper-class magistrates and senates. They formed nerve centers
linked together by a network of roads and waterways. Secure behind natural
frontiers guarded by well-trained armies, the Pax Romana created a
cosmopolitan world-state where races and cultures intermingled freely.

The "True Democracy" Of The Roman Empire

At the head of this huge world-state stood the emperor, its defender and
symbol of unity as well as an object of veneration. "The whole world speaks in
unison," proclaimed a Greek orator, "more distinctly than a chorus; and so
well does it harmonize under this director-in-chief that it joins in praying
this Empire may last for all time." ^12 The major theme of the many encomiums
written to celebrate the generally enlightened government of the Principate
was that liberty had been exchanged for order and prosperity. The Empire was
said to represent a new kind of democracy: "the true democracy and the freedom
that does not fail" - "a democracy under the one man that can rule and govern
best." The last century of the Republic, by contrast, exhibited "the evils
found in every democracy.... The cause is the multitude of our population and
the magnitude of the business of our government; for the population embraces
men of every kind,...and the business of the state had become so vast that it
can be administered only with the greatest difficulty." ^13

[Footnote 12: Aelius Aristides To Rome. Oration 26, trans. S. Levin (Glencoe,
IL: The Free Press, 1950), p. 126.]

[Footnote 13: The advice of Maecenas, Rome's richest capitalist, to Augustus
in Dio Cassius Roman History 52.1415, trans. Earnest Cary, The Loeb Classical
Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), vol. 6, pp. 109ff.]

Economic Prosperity

Rome's unification of the ancient world had far-reaching economic
consequences. The Pax Romana was responsible for the elimination of tolls and
other artificial barriers, the suppression of piracy and brigandage, and the
establishment of a reliable coinage. Such factors, in addition to the longest
period of peace the West has ever enjoyed, explain in large measure the great
expansion of commerce that occurred in the first and second centuries A.D.
Industry was also stimulated, but its expansion was hindered since wealth
remained concentrated and no mass market for industrial goods arose. Industry
remained organized on a small-shop basis with producers widely scattered,
resulting in self-sufficiency.

The economy of the Empire remained basically agrarian, and the huge
estates, latifundia, prospered. On these tracts, usually belonging to
absentee owners, large numbers of coloni, free tenants, tilled the soil
as sharecroppers. The coloni were replacing slave labor, which was
becoming increasingly hard to secure with the disappearance of the flow of war
captives.

Rome's expansion was
accompanied by much devastation and suffering, yet it was less disastrous than
continued international anarchy would have been.

Rome's greatest achievement was the Pax Romana, peace and prosperity over
a vast area for long periods under a stable and acceptable government. The
Roman citizens who accomplished this task were characterized by Livy, Rome's
great historian at the end of the Republican period, in words that anticipate
what modern Americans have often said of themselves:
The Roman Contribution

Unlike the Greeks, the Romans were not gifted in abstract thought. They
constructed no original system of philosophy, invented no major new literary
forms, and made no outstanding scientific discoveries. Yet they excelled in
the art of government. The Romans created a workable world-state and developed
a skill in administration, law, and practical affairs. The Pax Romana
was fashioned and maintained by a people who were, on the whole, conscious of
their responsibilities to others.

The Roman Spirit

The Roman spirit was compounded of many factors. Never completely
forgotten was the tradition of plain living that stemmed from Rome's early
history as a nation of farmers. Geography was another factor; for centuries
the Romans were faced with the need to conquer or be conquered, and they had
to stress discipline and duty to the state. But the Roman spirit also had
another side. It could be arrogant and cruel, and its sense of justice was
often untempered with mercy. In A.D. 84, a Scottish chieftain is reported to
have said of his Roman conquerors, "To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give
the lying name of empire; they create a desert and call it peace." ^16

[Footnote 16: Tacitus Agricola 30.]

Rome's answer to such criticism was delivered a few years earlier by a
Roman general to some tribes in Gaul that had revolted after the infamous
emperor Nero had arrested some of their leaders:

Gaul always had its petty kingdoms and intestine wars,
until you submitted to our authority. We, though so often
provoked, have used the right of conquest to burden you only
with the cost of maintaining peace.... You often command our
legions. You rule these and other provinces. There is no
privilege, no exclusion.... Endure the passions and rapacity
of your masters, just as you bear barren seasons...and other
natural evils. There will be vices as long as there are men.
But they are not perpetual....

Should the Roman be driven out...what can result but wars between all
these nations? ...Let the lessons of fortune...teach you not to prefer
rebellion and ruin to submission and safety. ^17

[Footnote 17: Tacitus Histories 4.74.]

Evolution Of Roman Law

Of the contributions made by the Romans in government, Roman law is
preeminent. Two great legal systems, Roman law and English common law, are the
foundation of jurisprudence in most modern Western nations. Roman law is the
basis for the law codes of Italy, France, Scotland, Louisiana, and the Latin
American countries. Where English common law is used, as in the United States
(except in Louisiana), there is also a basic heritage of great legal
principles originated by ancient Roman jurists. In addition, Roman legal
principles have strongly affected the development of the canon law of the
Roman Catholic Church; and international law has borrowed principles inherent
in the Roman system.

Roman law evolved slowly over a period of about a thousand years. At
first, as in all early societies, the law was unwritten, mixed with religious
custom, and harsh in its judgments. In the fifth century B.C., this law was
put in writing in the Law of the Twelve Tables, as the result of plebeian
demand. During the remainder of the Republic the body of Roman law (jus
civile, "law of the citizen") was enlarged by legislation passed by the Senate
and the assembly and by judicial interpretation of existing law to meet new
conditions. By the second century A.D. the emperor had become the sole source
of law, a responsibility he entrusted to scholars "skilled in the law"
(jurisprudentes). These scholars stuck fast to the idea of equity ("Follow the
beneficial interpretation"; "Letter of law is height of injustice") and to
stoic philosophy with its concept of a "law of nature" common to all people
and ascertainable by means of human reason. Finally, in the sixth century
A.D., the enormous bulk of Roman law from all sources was codified and thus
easily preserved for posterity.

Roman Engineering And Architecture

The Empire's needs required a communication system of paved roads and
bridges as well as huge public buildings and aqueducts. As road builders, the
Romans surpassed all previous peoples. Constructed of layers of stone and
gravel according to sound engineering principles, their roads were planned for
the use of armies and messengers and were kept in constant repair. The
earliest and best known main Roman highway was the Appian Way. Running from
Rome to the Bay of Naples, it was built about 300 B.C. to facilitate Rome's
expansion southward. It has been said that the speed of travel possible on
Roman highways was not surpassed until the early nineteenth century