why was the roman empire so successful essay

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History Hit Story of England: Making of a Nation

The Growth of the Roman Empire Explained

Colin Ricketts

09 aug 2018.

It is perhaps surprising to learn that the Roman Empire is only around the 28th largest in history. It punches above its weight in terms of influence. Its sheer physical size shouldn’t be underestimated, however. It grew to around 1.93 million square miles, containing about 21 per cent of the world’s population (by an estimate) at its greatest extent in the early second century.

Rome: the village that became an empire

The story of Romulus and Remus  is just a legend, but Rome’s mighty empire did grow from what was little more than a village in the 8th century BC or even earlier.

In the 6th century BC Rome was subservient to the Etruscans, part of a Latin League of city states that operated as loose federation, cooperating on some matters, independent on others.

By the end of the next century, Rome was flexing its muscles , fighting its first wars against its Etruscan neighbours and cementing their dominance over their former allies in the Latin War of 340 –  338 BC.

From central Italy the Romans expanded north and south, defeating the Samnites (290 BC) and Greek settlers (the Pyrrhic War 280 – 275 BC) in the South to take control of the Italian peninsular.

Roman victory in Africa and the east

In southern Italy, they butted up against another great power, Carthage, a city in modern Tunisia. The two powers first fought in Sicily, and by 146 BC Rome had utterly defeated their great maritime rival and added large parts of North Africa and all of modern Spain to their territory.

With Carthage swept aside, there was no credible rival for Mediterranean power and Rome expanded to the east, greedily acquiring land in Greece, Egypt, Syria and Macedonia. By the time of the defeat of the Achaean League in 146 BC, Roman territory was so large the growing empire (then still a republic) initiated a system of provinces with military governors.

Carthaginian territories were added to the growing Roman state.

The conquests of Caesar and beyond

Julius Caesar took Roman power to the north , conquering Gaul (roughly modern France, Belgium and parts of Switzerland) by 52 BC in the wars that gave him the popular reputation to seize power for himself. He also explored further expansion into modern Germany and over the English Channel to Britain.

Caesar is a fine example of a Roman general expanding the Empire’s territories for his own personal (and largely financial) gain.

The first Emperor Augustus pushed on into Germania, drawing back to a border along the Rhine and Danube after a disastrous defeat at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD.

Britain was finally invaded in 43 AD and pacified over the following decades until the building of Hadrian’s Wall around 122 AD marked the furthest northern extent of the Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire at its height

Emperor Trajan (ruled 98 – 117 AD) was Rome’s most expansionist ruler, his death marking the high water mark of Rome’s size.

He campaigned against Dacia (modern Romania and Moldova, and parts of Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, and Ukraine), adding most of it to the Empire by 106 AD.

He also made conquests in Arabia and took on the Parthian Empire to add Armenia, Mesopotamia and Babylon to the Empire, while pushing on towards modern Iran, the Parthians’ power base. Roman writers were starting to dream of conquering India.

Trajan fell ill and died in 117 AD, doing what had come so naturally to him, fighting. The Roman Empire would both add and lose territories over the centuries to its final collapse around 476 AD, but would never match the extent of Trajan’s conquests, when it was possible to travel from the north of England to the Persian Gulf without leaving Roman territory.

Map by Tataryn77 via Wikimedia Commons.

What made Rome expand?

Why Rome was so successful at conquest and what drove it to expand from so early in its history and for so long is an interesting question with complex and inconclusive answers. Those answers might include everything from early population growth to the birth of a very military society; a belief in Roman superiority to economics and urbanisation.

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Home — Essay Samples — History — Ancient Rome — Why was the Roman Empire so Successful?

Why Was The Roman Empire so Successful?

• Categories: Ancient Rome

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Words: 722 |

Published: Jul 17, 2018

Words: 722 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Works Cited

• Britannica. (n.d.). Delian League. In Encyclopædia Britannica.
• History.com Editors. (n.d.). Punic Wars. In History.com.
• Kagan, D., Ozment, S., & Turner, F. M. (2012). The Western Heritage: Since 1300 (10th ed.). Pearson.
• Mark, J. J. (2021). Ancient Rome. In Ancient History Encyclopedia.
• Momigliano, A. (1990). The Classical Foundations of Modern Historiography. University of California Press.
• Potter, D. S. (2009). Ancient Rome: A New History. Thames & Hudson.
• Raaflaub, K. A. (2005). The Roman Empire in Context: Historical and Comparative Perspectives. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Rosenstein, N., & Morstein-Marx, R. (2010). A Companion to the Roman Republic. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Scullard, H. H. (1980). From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome from 133 BC to AD 68. Routledge.
• Wallace-Hadrill, A. (2008). Rome's Cultural Revolution. Cambridge University Press.

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Roman Empire

The Roman Empire , at its height (c. 117), was the most extensive political and social structure in western civilization . Building upon the foundation laid by the Roman Republic , the empire became the largest and most powerful political and military entity in the world up to its time and expanded steadily until its fall, in the west, in 476.

By 285, the empire had grown too vast to be ruled from the central government at Rome and so was divided by Emperor Diocletian (r. 284-305) into a Western and an Eastern Empire. The empire began when Augustus Caesar (r. 27 BCE-14 CE) became the first emperor of Rome and ended, in the west, when the last Roman emperor , Romulus Augustulus (r. 475-476), was deposed by the Germanic King Odoacer (r. 476-493). In the east, it continued as the Byzantine Empire until the death of Constantine XI (r. 1449-1453) and the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The influence of the Roman Empire on western civilization was profound in its lasting contributions to virtually every aspect of western culture .

The Early Dynasties

Following the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, Gaius Octavian Thurinus, Julius Caesar 's nephew and heir, became the first emperor of Rome and took the name Augustus Caesar. Although Julius Caesar is often regarded as the first emperor of Rome, this is incorrect; he never held the title `Emperor' but, rather, `Dictator', a title the Senate could not help but grant him, as Caesar held supreme military and political power at the time. In contrast, the Senate willingly granted Augustus the title of emperor, lavishing praise and power on him because he had destroyed Rome's enemies and brought much-needed stability.

Augustus ruled the empire from 27 BCE until 14 CE when he died. In that time, as he said himself, he "found Rome a city of clay but left it a city of marble." Augustus reformed the laws of the city and, by extension, the empire's, secured Rome's borders, initiated vast building projects (carried out largely by his faithful general Agrippa (l. 63-12 BCE), who built the first Pantheon ), and secured the empire a lasting name as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, political and cultural powers in history. The Pax Romana (Roman Peace), also known as the Pax Augusta, which he initiated, was a time of peace and prosperity hitherto unknown and would last over 200 years.

Following Augustus' death, power passed to his heir, Tiberius (r. 14-37), who continued many of the emperor's policies but lacked the strength of character and vision which so defined Augustus. This trend would continue, more or less steadily, with the emperors who followed: Caligula (r. 37-41), Claudius (r. 41-54), and Nero (r. 54-68). These first five rulers of the empire are referred to as the Julio-Claudian Dynasty for the two family names they descended from (either by birth or through adoption), Julius and Claudius.

Although Caligula has become notorious for his depravity and apparent insanity, his early rule was commendable as was that of his successor, Claudius, who expanded Rome's power and territory in Britain ; less so was that of Nero. Caligula and Claudius were both assassinated in office (Caligula by his Praetorian Guard and Claudius, apparently, by his wife). Nero's suicide ended the Julio-Claudian Dynasty and initiated the period of social unrest known as The Year of the Four Emperors.

These four rulers were Galba , Otho , Vitellius , and Vespasian . Following Nero's suicide in 68 , Galba assumed rule (69) and almost instantly proved unfit for the responsibility. He was assassinated by the Praetorian Guard. Otho succeeded him swiftly on the very day of his death, and ancient records indicate he was expected to make a good emperor. General Vitellius, however, sought power for himself and so initiated the brief civil war which ended in Otho's suicide and Vitellius' ascent to the throne.

Vitellius proved no more fit to rule than Galba had been, as he almost instantly engaged in luxurious entertainments and feasts at the expense of his duties. The legions declared for General Vespasian as emperor and marched on Rome. Vitellius was murdered by Vespasian's men, and Vespasian (r. 69-79) took power exactly one year from the day Galba had first ascended to the throne.

Vespasian founded the Flavian Dynasty which was characterized by massive building projects, economic prosperity, and expansion of the empire. Vespasian's reign was prosperous as evidenced by his building projects which included initial construction of the Flavian Amphitheatre (the famous Coliseum of Rome) which his son Titus (r. 79-81) would complete. Titus' early reign saw the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 which buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum .

Ancient sources are universal in their praise for his handling of this disaster as well as the great fire of Rome in 80. Titus died of a fever in 81 and was succeeded by his brother Domitian (r. 81-96). Domitian expanded and secured the boundaries of Rome, repaired the damage to the city caused by the great fire, continued the building projects initiated by his brother, and improved the economy of the empire. Even so, his autocratic methods and policies made him unpopular with the Roman Senate , and he was assassinated in 96.

The Five Good Emperors

Domitian's successor was his advisor Nerva who founded the Nervan-Antonin Dynasty which ruled Rome 96-192. This period is marked by increased prosperity owing to the rulers known as The Five Good Emperors of Rome. Between 96 and 180, five exceptional men ruled in sequence and brought the Roman Empire to its height:

• Nerva (r. 96-98)
• Trajan (r. 98-117)
• Hadrian (r. 117-138)
• Antoninus Pius (r. 138-161)
• Marcus Aurelius (r. 161-180)

Under their leadership, the Roman Empire grew stronger, more stable, and expanded in size and scope. Lucius Verus and Commodus are the last two of the Nervan-Antonin Dynasty. Verus was co-emperor with Marcus Aurelius until his death in 169 and seems to have been fairly ineffective. Commodus (r. 180-192), Aurelius' son and successor, was one of the most disgraceful emperors Rome ever saw and is universally depicted as indulging himself and his whims at the expense of the empire. He was strangled by his wrestling partner in his bath in 192, ending the Nervan-Antonin Dynasty and raising the prefect Pertinax (who most likely engineered Commodus' assassination) to power.

The Severan Dynasty

Pertinax governed for only three months before he was assassinated. He was followed, in rapid succession, by four others in the period known as The Year of the Five Emperors, which culminated in the rise of Septimus Severus to power. Severus (r. 193-211), founded the Severan Dynasty, defeated the Parthians, and expanded the empire. His campaigns in Africa and Britain were extensive and costly and would contribute to Rome's later financial difficulties. He was succeeded by his sons Caracalla and Geta, until Caracalla had his brother murdered.

Caracalla ruled until 217, when he was assassinated by his bodyguard. It was under Caracalla's reign that Roman citizenship was expanded to include all free men within the empire. This law was said to have been enacted as a means of raising tax revenue, simply because, after its passage, there were more people the central government could tax. The Severan Dynasty continued, largely under the guidance and manipulation of Julia Maesa (referred to as "empress"), until the assassination of Alexander Severus (r. 222-235) in 235 which plunged the empire into the chaos known as The Crisis of the Third Century (lasting from 235-284).

Two Empires: East & West

This period, also known as The Imperial Crisis, was characterized by constant civil war, as various military leaders fought for control of the empire. The crisis has been further noted by historians for widespread social unrest, economic instability (fostered, in part, by the devaluation of Roman currency by the Severans), and, finally, the dissolution of the empire which broke into three separate regions. The empire was reunited by Aurelian (270-275) whose policies were further developed and improved upon by Diocletian who established the Tetrarchy (the rule of four) to maintain order throughout the empire.

Even so, the empire was still so vast that Diocletian divided it in half in c. 285 to facilitate more efficient administration by elevating one of his officers, Maximian (r. 286-305) to the position of co-emperor. In so doing, he created the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire (also known as the Byzantine Empire). Since a leading cause of the Imperial Crisis was a lack of clarity in succession, Diocletian decreed that successors must be chosen and approved from the outset of an individual's reign. Two of these successors were the generals Maxentius and Constantine. Diocletian voluntarily retired from rule in 305, and the tetrarchy dissolved as rival regions of the empire vied with each other for dominance. Following Diocletian's death in 311, Maxentius and Constantine plunged the empire again into civil war.

Constantine & Christianity

In 312, Constantine defeated Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge and became sole emperor of both the Western and Eastern Empires (ruling from 306-337 but holding supreme power 324-307). Believing that Jesus Christ was responsible for his victory, Constantine initiated a series of laws such as the Edict of Milan (313) which mandated religious tolerance throughout the empire and, specifically, tolerance for the faith which came to known as Christianity.

In the same way that earlier Roman emperors had claimed a special relationship with a deity to augment their authority and standing (Caracalla with Serapis , for example, or Diocletian with Jupiter ), Constantine chose the figure of Jesus Christ. At the First Council of Nicea (325), he presided over the gathering to codify the faith and decide on important issues such as the divinity of Jesus and which manuscripts would be collected to form the book known today as The Bible . He stabilized the empire, revalued the currency, and reformed the military, as well as founding the city he called New Rome on the site of the former city of Byzantium (modern-day Istanbul) which came to be known as Constantinople.

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He is known as Constantine the Great owing to later Christian writers who saw him as a mighty champion of their faith but, as has been noted by many historians, the honorific could as easily be attributed to his religious, cultural, and political reforms, as well as his skill in battle and his large-scale building projects. After his death, his sons inherited the empire and, fairly quickly, embarked on a series of conflicts with each other which threatened to undo all that Constantine had accomplished.

His three sons, Constantine II, Constantius II , and Constans divided the Roman Empire between them but soon fell to fighting over which of them deserved more. In these conflicts, Constantine II and Constans were killed. Constantius II died later after naming his cousin Julian his successor and heir. Emperor Julian ruled for only two years (361-363) and, in that time, tried to return Rome to her former glory through a series of reforms aimed at increasing efficiency in government.

As a Neo-Platonic philosopher, Julian rejected Christianity and blamed the faith, and Constantine's advocacy for it, for the decline of the empire. While officially proclaiming a policy of religious tolerance, Julian systematically removed Christians from influential government positions, banned the teaching and spread of the religion , and barred Christians from military service. His death, while on campaign against the Persians, ended the dynasty Constantine had begun. He was the last pagan emperor of Rome and came to be known as `Julian the Apostate' for his opposition to Christianity.

After the brief rule of Jovian, who re-established Christianity as the dominant faith of the empire and repealed Julian's various edicts, the responsibility of emperor fell to Theodosius I. Theodosius I (r. 379-395) took Constantine's and Jovian's religious reforms to their natural ends, outlawed pagan worship throughout the empire, closed the schools and universities, and converted pagan temples into Christian churches after proclaiming Christianity Rome's state religion in 380.

It was during this time that Plato 's famous Academy was closed by Theodosius' decree. Many of his reforms were unpopular with both the Roman aristocracy and the common people who held to the traditional values of pagan practice. The unity of social duties and religious belief which paganism provided was severed by the institution of a religion which removed the gods from the earth and human society and proclaimed only one God who ruled from the heavens.

This new god, unlike the gods of old, had no special interest in Rome - he was the god of all people - and this distanced the religion of Rome from the state of Rome. Previously, Roman religious belief was state-sponsored and the rituals and festivals went to enhancing the status of the government. Theodosius I devoted so much effort to promoting Christianity that he seems to have neglected other duties as emperor and would be the last to rule both Eastern and Western Empires.

The Fall of the Roman Empire

From 376-382, Rome fought a series of battles against invading Goths known today as the Gothic Wars. At the Battle of Adrianople , 9 August 378, the Roman Emperor Valens (r. 364-378) was defeated, and historians mark this event as pivotal in the decline of the Western Roman Empire. Various theories have been suggested as to the cause of the empire's fall but, even today, there is no universal agreement on what those specific factors were. Edward Gibbon has famously argued in his The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that Christianity played a pivotal role, in that the new religion undermined the social mores of the empire which paganism provided.

The theory that Christianity was a root cause in the empire's fall was debated long before Gibbon, however, as the theologian Orosius (l. c. 5th century) argued Christianity's innocence in Rome's decline as early as 418. Orosius claimed it was primarily paganism itself and pagan practices which brought about the fall of Rome. Other contributing factors to Rome's fall include:

• Political instability due to size of empire
• The self-interest of the two halves of the empire
• Invasion of barbarian tribes
• Government corruption
• Mercenary armies
• Over-reliance on slave labor
• Massive unemployment and inflation

The ungovernable vastness of the empire, even divided in two, made it difficult to manage. The Eastern Empire flourished while the Western Empire struggled and neither gave much thought to helping the other. Eastern and Western Rome saw each other more as competitors than teammates and worked primarily in their own self-interest. The growing strength of the Germanic tribes and their constant incursions into Rome could have been dealt with more effectively if not for government corruption, especially among provincial governors, and fair treatment of the Goths by the Romans overall.

The Roman military , manned largely with barbarian mercenaries who had no ethnic ties to Rome, could no longer safeguard the borders as efficiently as they once had nor could the government as easily collect taxes in the provinces. Further, the debasement of the currency, begun under the Severan Dynasty, had steadily encouraged inflation while widespread slave labor deprived lower-class citizens of jobs and increased unemployment levels. The arrival of the Visigoths in the empire in the third century, fleeing from the invading Huns , and their subsequent rebellions has also been cited as a contributing factor in the decline.

The Western Roman Empire officially ended 4 September 476, when Emperor Romulus Augustulus was deposed by the Germanic King Odoacer (though some historians date the end as 480 with the death of Julius Nepos). The Eastern Roman Empire continued on as the Byzantine Empire until 1453, and though known early on as simply "the Roman Empire", it did not much resemble that entity at all. The Western Roman Empire would become re-invented later as The Holy Roman Empire (962-1806), but that construct, also, was far removed from the Roman Empire of antiquity and was an "empire" in name only.

Legacy of the Roman Empire

The inventions and innovations which were generated by the Roman Empire profoundly altered the lives of the ancient people and continue to be used in cultures around the world today. Advancements in the construction of roads and buildings, indoor plumbing, aqueducts , and even fast-drying cement were either invented or improved upon by the Romans.

The calendar used in the West derives from the one created by Julius Caesar, and the names of the days of the week (in the romance languages) and months of the year also come from Rome. Even the practice of returning some purchase one finds one does not want comes from Rome whose laws made it legal for a consumer to bring back some defective or unwanted merchandise to the seller.

Apartment complexes (known as insula ), public toilets, locks and keys, newspapers, even socks all were developed by the Romans as were shoes, a postal system (modeled after the Persians), cosmetics, the magnifying glass, and the concept of satire in literature . During the time of the empire, significant developments were also advanced in the fields of medicine , law, religion, government, and warfare .

The Romans were adept at borrowing from, and improving upon, those inventions or concepts they found among the indigenous populace of the regions they conquered. It is therefore difficult to say what is an "original" Roman invention and what is an innovation on a pre-existing concept, technique, or tool. It can safely be said, however, that the Roman Empire left an enduring legacy which continues to affect the way in which people live in the present day.

Ancient Rome in 8 Infographics

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Bibliography

• Adkins, L. & Adkins, R. A. Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome. Oxford University Press, 1998.
• Durant, W. Caesar and Christ. Simon & Schuster, 1980.
• Gibbon, E. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Penguin, 2000.
• Grant, M. Readings in the Classical Historians. Scribner, 1993.
• Grant, M. The Climax of Rome. Weidenfeld, London, 1993.
• Harvey, B. K. Daily Life in Ancient Rome. Focus, 2016.
• Herwig, W. History of the Goths. University of California Press, 1988.
• Kelly, C. The Roman Empire. Oxford University Press, 2006.
• Lewis, J. E. The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness Ancient Rome. Running Press, 2003.
• Mellor, R. The Historians of Ancient Rome. Routledge, 2012.
• Polybius. The Rise of the Roman Empire. Penguin Classics, 1980.
• Tacitus. Annals of Tacitus. Cambridge University Press, 2001.
• The Roman Empire , accessed 1 Dec 2016.
• Titus Livy. Livy's Histories. Penguin Classics, 2002.

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The Roman Empire: A Story of Power, Glory, and Tragedy

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For centuries, the Roman Empire stood as a formidable superpower, spanning vast territories, and leaving an indelible mark on Western civilization. The Roman Empire was a powerhouse of innovation, culture, and military might. Yet it wasn’t all smooth sailing. The Empire, and its citizens, did not just experience periods of great prosperity but also decline. These periods were often decided by the Empire’s rulers, some of them great, and some of them insane. Here is our overview of the Roman Empire – how it rose to greatness and ultimately fell to nothing. 

Julio-Claudian Dynasty

We often think of Julius Caesar as being Rome’s first emperor but that isn’t really accurate. Caesar was actually a dictator (a title given to him by the senate since he’d basically seized power). Rome’s actual first emperor was Caesar’s nephew and adopted heir, Gaius Octavius Thurinus. Also known as, Augustus Caesar.

Augustus came to power following the Battle of Actium (during which Augustus beat the combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra ). The title of Emperor was given to Augustus by the senate as a reward for his success in vanquishing Rome’s enemies and in the hopes that he would bring Rome some desperately needed stability (things had been a bit of a mess since Caesar’s assassination).

Augustus ruled from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD. His rule was a remarkably stable one. He reformed many of Rome’s laws, secured his empire’s borders, and started sweeping building initiatives like the first Pantheon. When we think of the Roman Empire today, usually as one of the greatest Empires in history, we largely have Augustus to thank.

The Pantheon, an ancient building of Rome, a popular tourist site. ( Public Domain )

After Augustus came his heir, Tiberius. Tiberius tried his best to continue much of what Augustus had started but he simply wasn’t as remarkable, lacking the vision and strength of character that Augustus had had.

At least he was better than the next handful of emperors. After Tiberius came Caligula . Caligula got off to a strong start, but things went downhill fast. Today he is mainly remembered for his depravity, cruelty, and (alleged) insanity. 

After Caligula was assassinated in 41 AD he was replaced by Claudius. Claudius is largely remembered for his role in expanding Rome’s power across Europe, especially Britain. Like Caligula, he was also assassinated. 

Nero replaced Claudius in 54 AD. There’s very little good to say about him or his rule. Today, he’s mostly remembered as a cruel and tyrannical ruler who had a soft spot for persecuting Christians. His cruelty and penchant for lavish spending along with his extravagant lifestyle ended up costing him dearly. In 68 AD he was declared a public enemy by the Senate and killed himself (rather than being assassinated).

The death of Nero ended the Julio-Claudian Dynasty and began a new era.

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The Year of the Four Emperors

After the death of Nero things went from bad to worse. First came Emperor Galba in 69 AD, who proved himself an inept emperor from day one. He did such a poor job that he was swiftly assassinated by his own Praetorian Guard.  

Before Galba’s body was even cold, he was replaced by Otho. By most ancient accounts hopes were high that Otho might have actually been an above average emperor. Unfortunately, one of his generals, Vitellius, disagreed and started a civil war to usurp Otho. This brief war ended with Otho killing himself and Vitellius on the throne.

Sadly, Vitellius wasn’t the answer. He had seized power for all the wrong reasons and soon started indulging in the kind of extravagances that had gotten Nero and Caligula in trouble. This led to the Roman legions deeming that General Vespasian would be a better fit.

They declared him the new emperor and marched on Rome. Vitellius was swiftly murdered by Vespasian’s men. Vespasian sat on the throne exactly a year to the day from when Galba had first done the same. Four emperors in exactly one year.

 Painting titled: La mort de Vitellius. The death of Vitellius. (Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry/ CC BY-SA 3.0 )

The Flavian Dynasty

Thankfully, Vespasian was the right man for the job. His ten-year reign is remembered for massive building projects, economic growth and expansionism. It had taken quite a few years, but Rome was finally back on track.

When Vespasian died in 97 AD his son, Titus, came to the throne. Titus was dealt a bad hand as he had to deal with two massive disasters. First, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD devastated both Pompeii and Herculaneum , and then the great fire of Rome in 80AD, which destroyed much of the great city.

The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, painting by John Martin. ( Public domain )

Titus died in 81 AD from a fever, making his rule a short one. Ancient sources from the time praised his handling of both disasters and despite his short reign, he was fondly remembered.

Titus was succeeded by his brother, Domitian . Compared to his father and brother, Domitian’s rule was more of a mixed bag. On the positive side, he continued to expand and protect Rome’s borders and repaired the damage caused to the city by the great fire. He also continued his family’s legacy of building projects and improving the Roman Empire’s economy. 

On the downside, his leadership style was far more autocratic. This made him many enemies in the Roman Senate, who had him killed in 96 AD.

Let the Good Times Roll

Things had been good under the Flavian dynasty but they were about to get even better. Domitian was replaced by his advisor, Nerva. Nerva founded the Nerva-Antonine Dynasty which lasted for nearly a hundred years.

And what a hundred years it was. The five emperors who ruled during this dynasty are remembered as “ The Five Good Emperors ” due to the fact their remarkable leadership arguably brought Ancient Rome to its highest point. Under Nerva (96-98), Trajan (98-117), Hadrian (117-138), Antonius Pius (138-161), and Marcus Aurelius (161-180) Rome grew stronger and more stable than it had ever been before. 

Yet of course all good things must come to an end. When Marcus Aurelius’ life ended in 180 AD, so did Rome’s impressive winning streak. Just as Aurelius is remembered as one of Rome’s best, his son, Commodus , is remembered as one of its worst.

The Emperor Commodus Leaving the Arena at the Head of the Gladiators, by American muralist Edwin Howland Blashfield . ( Public Domain )

Commodus was essentially convinced he was a god among men and acted like it. His time in power was tyrannical and extravagant. He was obsessed with gladiator games, and often participated in them himself, slaying both man and beast. This particularly annoyed the Senate, who felt he spent too little time actually ruling.

Commodus was also infamous for his cruelty towards his subjects, and he was responsible for numerous executions and persecutions. He was known to be paranoid and would often execute anyone he perceived as a threat to his rule, including his own sister and many members of the Senate.

He also worked to undo much of the good done by his predecessors. His financial mismanagement led to a significant downturn in the Roman economy. He was a leader who cared only for himself and extraordinarily little for his empire.

Which is why his empire killed him. After plotting the deaths of his mistress and closest advisors, Commodus was assassinated by his wrestling partner in 192 AD. Thus ended the Nerva-Antonine Dynasty.

• Roman Law and Its Lasting Influence On the Legal System of Europe
• The Roman Empire’s Crisis of the Third Century

The Severan Dynasty

After the death of Commodus, history began to repeat itself. Commodus was succeeded by his prefect, Pertinax. Rome’s newest emperor only lasted for three months and then he too was assassinated.

What came next became known as “ The Year of the Five Emperors ”, breaking the record of 69 AD. None of these emperors lasted long enough to make much of a mark. They either seized power by literally buying it (Didius Julianus) or using their troops to try and take it (Pescennius Niger and Clodius Albinus).

The year of the Five Emperors ended with the rise of Septimus Severus , who founded the Severan dynasty. Severus was a fighter at heart and spent his rule defeating the Parthians (a major rival from Iran and Mesopotamia) and expanding his empire in both Africa and Britain. While this helped expand Rome’s influence even further, these campaigns were hugely expensive, which later caused Rome some financial difficulties.

Severus died in 211 AD and was succeeded by his two sons, who became the co-emperors Caracalla and Geta. This arrangement didn’t last for long though. Caracalla was a hothead and a bully while Geta was more moderate. This clash in personalities led to Caracalla having his brother murdered in front of their mother and several members of the court in 211 AD.

Geta dying in his Mother's arms at the hands of Carcalla by Jacques Pajou. ( Public domain )

Caracalla ruled single handed until he was assassinated in 217 AD by a bodyguard. His rule was remembered for his military campaigns, and the massacre he carried out at Alexandria in retaliation for a perceived insult. It was also under him that all free men in the empire were granted Roman citizenship. While this might sound like a positive step, in reality, it was a simple cash grab. More citizens meant more tax revenue. Tax revenue the Empire was in dire need of.

The Severan Dynasty continued until the assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 AD. His death began one of the darkest periods in the history of the Roman Empire (which is saying something) known as “The Crisis of the Third Century.”

The Crisis of the Third Century

What followed was a period of almost constant civil war as rival military leaders laid claim to the throne. These civil wars led to massive civil unrest and worsened the economic instability that had started with the Severans' devaluation of the Roman currency. The period's low point came when the Empire was split into three separate regions.

Things began to settle in 270 AD when Aurelian came to power. He ruled until 275 AD and during his rule managed to reunite the empire. This was relatively short-lived, however, and Rome didn’t truly begin to see peace again until the rise of Diocletian in 284 AD.

Diocletian had his head screwed on straight and attempted massive reforms to save the Roman Empire. He split the empire into two halves (Eastern and Western) and introduced the Tetrarchy (also known as the rule of four).

Medallion of Diocletian, AD 303. (Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com / CC BY-SA 2.5 )

Under this system, each half of the empire had two co-emperors, making four in total. To put a stop to the never-ending succession disputes that had crippled the empire, Diocletian brought in a rule that potential successors had to be chosen and approved at the start of each co-emperor reign.

It all ran relatively smoothly until Diocletian stepped down and retired in 305 AD. The tetrarchy he had worked so hard to build swiftly dissolved as rival parts of the empire vied for control. After Diocletian died in 311, his successors, Maxentius and Constantine gave up any pretense of listening to the old man and plunged the empire back into yet another civil war.

The Rule of Constantine

Constantine defeated Maxentius at the battle of Milvian Bridge in 312 AD and declared himself the sole Emperor of both halves of the Roman Empire. He believed that his great victory was thanks to his love of Jesus Christ and began a series of law changes that introduced religious tolerance to the empire, especially tolerance of Christianity.

Besides legalizing Christianity , Constantine also oversaw numerous reforms and infrastructure projects, including the construction of public works such as roads, aqueducts, and churches. He also instituted a new system of government and bureaucracy, which helped to centralize power and streamline governance.

Pope Sylvester I and Emperor Constantine ( Public Domain )

In short, Constantine worked hard to undo all the damage done by years of Roman infighting. As such, after his death he became known as Constantine the Great , remembered for his military prowess, support of Christianity, and the great strides he made in returning Rome to its former glory.

And then history repeated itself, again. Constantine left his Empire in the not-so-worthy hands of his three sons, Constantine II, Constantius II, and Constans. These boys carved up the Roman Empire and then began fighting over who got the biggest pieces to rule over. In the conflicts that followed Constantine II and Constans were killed. Constantius II didn’t outlive his brothers by much, declaring their cousin, Justinian, as his successor.

Justinian is remembered for his attempts at bringing back the old glory of Rome through a series of reforms, and for his hostility to Christianity. He only ruled for two years but became remembered as Justinian the Apostate, Rome’s last pagan emperor. 

He was succeeded by Jovian and then Theodosius I. Both of these emperors concentrated on religious forms aimed at making the Roman Empire a Christian one. They banned pagan worship and closed many of the empire’s oldest, and greatest, schools and universities. Christianity became the state religion in 380 AD.

The Fall of the Roman Empire

It’s difficult to really put a pin in what caused the fall of the Roman Empire and to do so would take far more words than we have space for here. What follows is a quick overview of what happened.

Starting in 376 AD, a series of battles between Rome and the Goths (a Germanic people from Sweden/Denmark/ Germany) began. These battles lasted until 382, severely weakening the Empire. In particular, the defeat of Emperor Valens at the hands of the Goths in 378 is widely seen as a major turning point in the decline of Rome.

The vastness of the Roman Empire, despite being divided into Eastern and Western halves, posed a significant challenge to effective governance. The Eastern Empire thrived while the Western Empire struggled, with both entities operating independently with little concern for the other's well-being. 

There was also the problem of corruption. Many of the Empire’s officials were both bad at their jobs and corrupt. In the old days, the Romans would have had no problem defending their territories from the likes of the Germans. Yet the Germans, smelling blood in the water, reportedly raided Roman territories. Government officials were too busy filling their pockets to care much.

This mismanagement led to a reliance on foreign barbarians who acted as mercenaries. They had no ethnic loyalty to Rome and could not effectively protect the border or collect taxes from the provinces. Taxes that were needed to pay said barbarians. 

Furthermore, the debasement of the currency that had begun under the Severan Dynasty, caused inflation, while the use of slave labor deprived lower-class citizens of employment opportunities and increased unemployment rates. Unhappy lower-class citizens led to yet more civil unrest.

The Western Roman Empire officially ended on September 4, 476 AD, when Emperor Romulus Augustus was deposed by the Germanic King Odoacer . The Eastern Roman Empire continued as the Byzantine Empire until 1453, although it was quite distinct from the ancient Roman Empire. Of course, the Holy Roman Empire emerged later in history but was also different from the Roman Empire and existed only in name.

The history of the Roman Empire is a complex one, full of highs and lows. By the end, it had deteriorated to such a point that it was recognizable only by name. A startling reminder, that nothing, not even the greatest of empires, lasts forever. 

Top image: Roman Empire in its splendor.  Source: Artcuboy /Adobe Stock

By Robbie Mitchell

Mark. J. 2018. Roman Empire . Available at:  https://www.worldhistory.org/Roman_Empire/

Editors. 2023. Roman Empire . Available at:  https://www.britannica.com/place/Roman-Empire

Gibbon. E. 2000. The History of the Decline and fall of the Roman Empire . Penguin. 

Kelly. C. 2006. The Roman Empire . Oxford University Press.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Roman Empire lasted for approximately 500 years, from 27 BC to 476 AD.

The exact end of the Roman Empire is debated, but traditionally it is said to have fallen in 476 AD when the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus, was deposed by the Germanic king Odoacer.

The Roman Empire fell due to a combination of internal problems, such as political instability and economic issues, as well as external threats from barbarian invasions and military defeats.

The largest empire in history was the British Empire, which at its height in the early 20th century, controlled over a quarter of the world's land and population.

I’m a graduate of History and Literature from The University of Manchester in England and a total history geek. Since a young age, I’ve been obsessed with history. The weirder the better. I spend my days working as a freelance... Read More

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Ancient Rome

By: History.com Editors

Updated: September 22, 2023 | Original: October 14, 2009

Beginning in the eighth century B.C., Ancient Rome grew from a small town on central Italy’s Tiber River into an empire that at its peak encompassed most of continental Europe, Britain, much of western Asia, northern Africa and the Mediterranean islands. Among the many legacies of Roman dominance are the widespread use of the Romance languages (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian) derived from Latin, the modern Western alphabet and calendar and the emergence of Christianity as a major world religion.

After 450 years as a republic, Rome became an empire in the wake of Julius Caesar’s rise and fall in the first century B.C. The long and triumphant reign of its first emperor, Augustus, began a golden age of peace and prosperity; by contrast, the Roman Empire’s decline and fall by the fifth century A.D. was one of the most dramatic implosions in the history of human civilization.

Origins of Rome

As legend has it, Rome was founded in 753 B.C. by Romulus and Remus, twin sons of Mars, the god of war. Left to drown in a basket on the Tiber by a king of nearby Alba Longa and rescued by a she-wolf, the twins lived to defeat that king and found their own city on the river’s banks in 753 B.C. After killing his brother, Romulus became the first king of Rome, which is named for him.

A line of Sabine, Latin and Etruscan (earlier Italian civilizations) kings followed in a non-hereditary succession. There are seven legendary kings of Rome: Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Martius, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus (Tarquin the Elder), Servius Tullius and Tarquinius Superbus, or Tarquin the Proud (534-510 B.C.). While they were referred to as “Rex,” or “King” in Latin, all the kings after Romulus were elected by the senate. 

Did you know? Four decades after Constantine made Christianity Rome's official religion, Emperor Julian—known as the Apostate—tried to revive the pagan cults and temples of the past, but the process was reversed after his death, and Julian was the last pagan emperor of Rome.

Rome’s era as a monarchy ended in 509 B.C. with the overthrow of its seventh king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, whom ancient historians portrayed as cruel and tyrannical, compared to his benevolent predecessors. A popular uprising was said to have arisen over the rape of a virtuous noblewoman, Lucretia, by the king’s son. Whatever the cause, Rome turned from a monarchy into a republic, a world derived from res publica , or “property of the people.”

Rome was built on seven hills, known as “the seven hills of Rome”—Esquiline Hill, Palatine Hill, Aventine Hill, Capitoline Hill, Quirinal Hill, Viminal Hill and Caelian Hill. 

The Early Republic

The power of the monarch passed to two annually elected magistrates called consuls. They also served as commanders in chief of the army. The magistrates, though elected by the people, were drawn largely from the Senate, which was dominated by the patricians, or the descendants of the original senators from the time of Romulus. Politics in the early republic was marked by the long struggle between patricians and plebeians (the common people), who eventually attained some political power through years of concessions from patricians, including their own political bodies, the tribunes, which could initiate or veto legislation.

In 450 B.C., the first Roman law code was inscribed on 12 bronze tablets–known as the Twelve Tables–and publicly displayed in the Roman Forum . These laws included issues of legal procedure, civil rights and property rights and provided the basis for all future Roman civil law. By around 300 B.C., real political power in Rome was centered in the Senate, which at the time included only members of patrician and wealthy plebeian families.

Military Expansion

During the early republic, the Roman state grew exponentially in both size and power. Though the Gauls sacked and burned Rome in 390 B.C., the Romans rebounded under the leadership of the military hero Camillus, eventually gaining control of the entire Italian peninsula by 264 B.C. Rome then fought a series of wars known as the Punic Wars with Carthage, a powerful city-state in northern Africa.

The first two Punic Wars ended with Rome in full control of Sicily, the western Mediterranean and much of Spain. In the Third Punic War (149–146 B.C.), the Romans captured and destroyed the city of Carthage and sold its surviving inhabitants into slavery, making a section of northern Africa a Roman province. At the same time, Rome also spread its influence east, defeating King Philip V of Macedonia in the Macedonian Wars and turning his kingdom into another Roman province.

Rome’s military conquests led directly to its cultural growth as a society, as the Romans benefited greatly from contact with such advanced cultures as the Greeks. The first Roman literature appeared around 240 B.C., with translations of Greek classics into Latin; Romans would eventually adopt much of Greek art, philosophy and religion.

Internal Struggles in the Late Republic

Rome’s complex political institutions began to crumble under the weight of the growing empire, ushering in an era of internal turmoil and violence. The gap between rich and poor widened as wealthy landowners drove small farmers from public land, while access to government was increasingly limited to the more privileged classes. Attempts to address these social problems, such as the reform movements of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus (in 133 B.C. and 123-22 B.C., respectively) ended in the reformers’ deaths at the hands of their opponents.

Gaius Marius, a commoner whose military prowess elevated him to the position of consul (for the first of six terms) in 107 B.C., was the first of a series of warlords who would dominate Rome during the late republic. By 91 B.C., Marius was struggling against attacks by his opponents, including his fellow general Sulla, who emerged as military dictator around 82 B.C. After Sulla retired, one of his former supporters, Pompey, briefly served as consul before waging successful military campaigns against pirates in the Mediterranean and the forces of Mithridates in Asia. During this same period, Marcus Tullius Cicero , elected consul in 63 B.C., famously defeated the conspiracy of the patrician Cataline and won a reputation as one of Rome’s greatest orators.

Julius Caesar’s Rise

When the victorious Pompey returned to Rome, he formed an uneasy alliance known as the First Triumvirate with the wealthy Marcus Licinius Crassus (who suppressed a slave rebellion led by Spartacus in 71 B.C.) and another rising star in Roman politics: Gaius Julius Caesar . After earning military glory in Spain, Caesar returned to Rome to vie for the consulship in 59 B.C. From his alliance with Pompey and Crassus, Caesar received the governorship of three wealthy provinces in Gaul beginning in 58 B.C.; he then set about conquering the rest of the region for Rome.

After Pompey’s wife Julia (Caesar’s daughter) died in 54 B.C. and Crassus was killed in battle against Parthia (present-day Iran) the following year, the triumvirate was broken. With old-style Roman politics in disorder, Pompey stepped in as sole consul in 53 B.C. Caesar’s military glory in Gaul and his increasing wealth had eclipsed Pompey’s, and the latter teamed with his Senate allies to steadily undermine Caesar. In 49 B.C., Caesar and one of his legions crossed the Rubicon, a river on the border between Italy from Cisalpine Gaul. Caesar’s invasion of Italy ignited a civil war from which he emerged as dictator of Rome for life in 45 B.C.

From Caesar to Augustus

Less than a year later, Julius Caesar was murdered on the ides of March (March 15, 44 B.C.) by a group of his enemies (led by the republican nobles Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius). Consul Mark Antony and Caesar’s great-nephew and adopted heir, Octavian, joined forces to crush Brutus and Cassius and divided power in Rome with ex-consul Lepidus in what was known as the Second Triumvirate. With Octavian leading the western provinces, Antony the east, and Lepidus Africa, tensions developed by 36 B.C. and the triumvirate soon dissolved. In 31 B.C., Octavian triumped over the forces of Antony and Queen Cleopatra of Egypt (also rumored to be the onetime lover of Julius Caesar) in the Battle of Actium. In the wake of this devastating defeat, Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide.

By 29 B.C., Octavian was the sole leader of Rome and all its provinces. To avoid meeting Caesar’s fate, he made sure to make his position as absolute ruler acceptable to the public by apparently restoring the political institutions of the Roman republic while in reality retaining all real power for himself. In 27 B.C., Octavian assumed the title of Augustus , becoming the first emperor of Rome.

Age of the Roman Emperors

Augustus’ rule restored morale in Rome after a century of discord and corruption and ushered in the famous pax Romana –two full centuries of peace and prosperity. He instituted various social reforms, won numerous military victories and allowed Roman literature, art, architecture and religion to flourish. Augustus ruled for 56 years, supported by his great army and by a growing cult of devotion to the emperor. When he died, the Senate elevated Augustus to the status of a god, beginning a long-running tradition of deification for popular emperors.

Augustus’ dynasty included the unpopular Tiberius (A.D. 14-37), the bloodthirsty and unstable Caligula (37-41) and Claudius (41-54), who was best remembered for his army’s conquest of Britain. The line ended with Nero (54-68), whose excesses drained the Roman treasury and led to his downfall and eventual suicide.

Four emperors took the throne in the tumultuous year after Nero’s death; the fourth, Vespasian (69-79), and his successors, Titus and Domitian, were known as the Flavians; they attempted to temper the excesses of the Roman court, restore Senate authority and promote public welfare. Titus (79-81) earned his people’s devotion with his handling of recovery efforts after the infamous eruption of Vesuvius, which destroyed the towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii .

The reign of Nerva (96-98), who was selected by the Senate to succeed Domitian, began another golden age in Roman history, during which four emperors–Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius–took the throne peacefully, succeeding one another by adoption, as opposed to hereditary succession. Trajan (98-117) expanded Rome’s borders to the greatest extent in history with victories over the kingdoms of Dacia (now northwestern Romania) and Parthia. His successor Hadrian (117-138) solidified the empire’s frontiers (famously building Hadrian's Wall in present-day England) and continued his predecessor’s work of establishing internal stability and instituting administrative reforms.

Under Antoninus Pius (138-161), Rome continued in peace and prosperity, but the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161–180) was dominated by conflict, including war against Parthia and Armenia and the invasion of Germanic tribes from the north. When Marcus fell ill and died near the battlefield at Vindobona (Vienna), he broke with the tradition of non-hereditary succession and named his 19-year-old son Commodus as his successor.

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Decline and Disintegration

The decadence and incompetence of Commodus (180-192) brought the golden age of the Roman emperors to a disappointing end. His death at the hands of his own ministers sparked another period of civil war , from which Lucius Septimius Severus (193-211) emerged victorious. During the third century Rome suffered from a cycle of near-constant conflict. A total of 22 emperors took the throne, many of them meeting violent ends at the hands of the same soldiers who had propelled them to power. Meanwhile, threats from outside plagued the empire and depleted its riches, including continuing aggression from Germans and Parthians and raids by the Goths over the Aegean Sea.

The reign of Diocletian (284-305) temporarily restored peace and prosperity in Rome, but at a high cost to the unity of the empire. Diocletian divided power into the so-called tetrarchy (rule of four), sharing his title of Augustus (emperor) with Maximian. A pair of generals, Galerius and Constantius, were appointed as the assistants and chosen successors of Diocletian and Maximian; Diocletian and Galerius ruled the eastern Roman Empire, while Maximian and Constantius took power in the west.

The stability of this system suffered greatly after Diocletian and Maximian retired from office. Constantine (the son of Constantius) emerged from the ensuing power struggles as sole emperor of a reunified Rome in 324. He moved the Roman capital to the Greek city of Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople . At the Council of Nicaea in 325, Constantine made Christianity (once an obscure Jewish sect) Rome’s official religion.

Roman unity under Constantine proved illusory, and 30 years after his death the eastern and western empires were again divided. Despite its continuing battle against Persian forces, the eastern Roman Empire–later known as the Byzantine Empire –would remain largely intact for centuries to come. An entirely different story played out in the west, where the empire was wracked by internal conflict as well as threats from abroad–particularly from the Germanic tribes now established within the empire’s frontiers like the Vandals (their sack of Rome originated the phrase “vandalism”)–and was steadily losing money due to constant warfare.

Rome eventually collapsed under the weight of its own bloated empire, losing its provinces one by one: Britain around 410; Spain and northern Africa by 430. Attila and his brutal Huns invaded Gaul and Italy around 450, further shaking the foundations of the empire. In September 476, a Germanic prince named Odovacar won control of the Roman army in Italy. After deposing the last western emperor, Romulus Augustus, Odovacar’s troops proclaimed him king of Italy, bringing an ignoble end to the long, tumultuous history of ancient Rome. The fall of the Roman Empire was complete.

Steps Leading to the Fall of Rome

• A.D. 285 First split
• A.D. 378 Battle of Adrianople
• A.D. 395 Final split
• A.D. 410 Visigoths sack Rome
• A.D. 439 Vandals capture Carthage
• A.D. 455 Vandals sack Rome
• A.D. 476 Western Roman Emperor deposed

Between 235 and 284, more than 20 Roman emperors take the throne in a chaotic period known as the Crisis of the Third Century . This period ends when Diocletian becomes emperor and divides the Roman Empire into eastern and western regions, each ruled by its own emperor. This divided rule lasts until 324 when Constantine the Great reunifies Rome. More

The Roman military suffers one of its worst defeats at the Battle of Adrianople . Led by Eastern Emperor Valens, Rome loses an estimated 10,000 troops while fighting against the Visigoths and other Germanic peoples. Valens dies in battle, and the defeat in the east paves the way for attacks in the west. More

After Valens’ death in the Battle of Adrianople, Theodosius I becomes the new eastern emperor. In 394, he defeats Eugenius, the proclaimed western emperor. Theodosius executes Eugenius and briefly reunifies the empire under his rule. However, his death in 395 divides the empire between his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius.

In 410, Visigoths successfully enter and sack the city of Rome . According to legend, this attack marks the first time an outside force has sacked Rome since 387 B.C., nearly 800 years before. More

Three decades after the Visigoths sack Rome, a different group of Germanic people called the Vandals capture Carthage, one of the largest cities in the Western Roman Empire. After capturing the ancient city, the Vandals declare it their new capital. This marks another significant victory for Germanic peoples against the Western Roman Empire. More

During the early 450s, the Western Roman Empire successfully fights off attempts by Attila the Hun and his forces to invade Roman territory. However, in 455 the Vandals invade and sack the city of Rome. This attack eventually helps turn the Vandals’ name into another word for people who destroy property. More

In 476, a Germanic soldier named Odoacer deposes the last western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus , and proclaims himself king of Italy. This marks the traditional end of the Western Roman Empire; but not the end of the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantine Empire , which flourishes for another millennium.

Roman Architecture

Roman architecture and engineering innovations have had a lasting impact on the modern world. Roman aqueducts, first developed in 312 B.C., enabled the rise of cities by transporting water to urban areas, improving public health and sanitation. Some Roman aqueducts transported water up to 60 miles from its source and the Fountain of Trevi in Rome still relies on an updated version of an original Roman aqueduct.

Roman cement and concrete are part of the reason ancient buildings like the Colosseum and Roman Forum are still standing strong today. Roman arches, or segmented arches, improved upon earlier arches to build strong bridges and buildings, evenly distributing weight throughout the structure.

Roman roads, the most advanced roads in the ancient world, enabled the Roman Empire—which was over 1.7 million square miles at the pinnacle of its power—to stay connected. They included such modern-seeming innovations as mile markers and drainage. Over 50,000 miles of road were built by 200 B.C. and several are still in use today.

HISTORY Vault: Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire

History of the ancient Roman Empire.

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• Introduction

Rise and consolidation of imperial Rome

• Height and decline of imperial Rome
• Legacy of Rome

• How did Nero become famous?
• What was Nero’s childhood like?
• What were Nero’s accomplishments?
• How did Vespasian become emperor?
• What was Vespasian’s family like?

Roman Empire

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• Table Of Contents
• What was the Roman Empire?
• When did the Roman Empire begin and end?
• Who was the first emperor of the Roman Empire?
• How did the Roman Empire expand its territory?
• What was daily life like for people living in the Roman Empire?
• What were some of the major achievements and innovations of the Roman Empire?
• How did the Roman Empire influence the cultures and societies it conquered?
• What led to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire?
• How did the Roman Empire's government and legal system work?
• What is the legacy of the Roman Empire in modern times?

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Roman Empire , the ancient empire , centerd on the city of Rome , that was established in 27 bce following the demise of the Roman Republic and continuing to the final eclipse of the empire of the West in the 5th century ce . A brief treatment of the Roman Empire follows. For full treatment, see ancient Rome .

A period of unrest and civil wars in the 1st century bce marked the transition of Rome from a republic to an empire. This period encompassed the career of Julius Caesar , who eventually took full power over Rome as its dictator. After his assassination in 44 bce , the triumvirate of Mark Antony , Lepidus , and Octavian, Caesar’s nephew, ruled. It was not long before Octavian went to war against Antony in northern Africa, and after his victory at Actium (31 bce ) he was crowned Rome’s first emperor , Augustus . His reign, from 27 bce to 14 ce , was distinguished by stability and peace.

Augustus established a form of government known as a principate, which combined some elements from the republic with the traditional powers of a monarchy. The Senate still functioned, though Augustus, as princeps , or first citizen, remained in control of the government..

With a mind toward maintaining the structure of power entrusted to his rule, Augustus began thinking early about who should follow him. Death played havoc with his attempts to select his successor. He had no son and his nephew Marcellus , his son-in-law Agrippa , and his grandsons Gaius and Lucius each predeceased him. He eventually chose Tiberius, a scion of the ultra-aristocratic Claudia gens, and in 4 ce adopted him as his son.

Tiberius (reigned 14–37) became the first successor in the Julio-Claudian dynasty and ruled as an able administrator but cruel tyrant. His great-nephew Caligula (37–41) reigned as an absolutist, his short reign filled with reckless spending, callous murders, and humiliation of the Senate. Claudius (41–54) centralized state finances in the imperial household, thus making rapid strides in organizing the imperial bureaucracy , but was ruthless toward the senators and equites . Nero (54–68) left administration to capable advisers for a few years but then asserted himself as a vicious despot . He brought the dynasty to its end by being the first emperor to suffer damnatio memoriae : his reign was officially stricken from the record by order of the Senate.

Following a war of succession, Vespasian became emperor, and the Flavian dynasty was established. His reign (69–79) was noted for his reorganization of the army, making it more loyal and professional; for his expansion of the membership of the Senate, bringing in administrators with a sense of service; for his increase and systematization of taxation; and for his strengthening of the frontiers of the empire (though little new territory was added). The brief but popular reign of his son Titus (79–81) was followed by the autocracy of Domitian (81–96), Vespasian’s other son, who fought the senatorial class and instituted taxes and confiscations for costly buildings, games, and shows. A reign of terror in his final years was ended by his assassination. The Flavian dynasty, like the Julio-Claudian, ended with an emperor whose memory was officially damned.

Traces of Ancient Rome in the Modern World

The ideas and culture of ancient Rome influence the art, architecture, science, technology, literature, language, and law of today.

Anthropology, Archaeology, Social Studies, World History

Pont du Gard Aqueduct

This is the Roman aqueduct of Pont du Gard, which crosses the Gard River, located in France. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Robert Harding Picture Library

Ancient Rome had a large influence on the modern world. Though it has been thousands of years since the Roman Empire flourished , we can still see evidence of it in our art, architecture , technology , literature , language, and law. From bridges and stadiums to books and the words we hear every day, the ancient Romans have left their mark on our world.

Art and Architecture

Ancient Romans have had a tremendous impact on art and architecture . We can find traces of Roman influence in forms and structures throughout the development of Western culture.

Although the Romans were heavily influenced by ancient Greece, they were able to make improvements to certain borrowed Greek designs and inventions . For example, they continued the use of columns, but the form became more decorative and less structural in Roman buildings. Ancient Romans created curved roofs and large-scale arches , which were able to support more weight than the post-and-beam construction the Greeks used. These arches served as the foundation for the massive bridges and aqueducts the Romans created. The game-loving ancients also built large amphitheaters, including the Colosseum. The sports stadiums we see today, with their oval shapes and tiered seating, derive from the basic idea the Romans developed.

The arches of the Colosseum are made out of cement, a remarkably strong building material the Romans made with what they had at hand: volcanic ash and volcanic rock. Modern scientists believe that the use of this ash is the reason that structures like the Colosseum still stand today. Roman underwater structures proved to be even sturdier. Seawater reacting with the volcanic ash created crystals that filled in the cracks in the concrete. To make a concrete this durable, modern builders must reinforce it with steel. So today, scientists study Roman concrete, hoping to match the success of the ancient master builders.

Sculptural art of the period has proven to be fairly durable, too. Romans made their statues out of marble, fashioning monuments to great human achievements and achievers. You can still see thousands of Roman artifacts today in museums all over the world.

Technology and Science

Ancient Romans pioneered advances in many areas of science and technology , establishing tools and methods that have ultimately shaped the way the world does certain things.

The Romans were extremely adept engineers. They understood the laws of physics well enough to develop aqueducts and better ways to aid water flow. They harnessed water as energy for powering mines and mills. They also built an expansive road network , a great achievement at the time. Their roads were built by laying gravel and then paving with rock slabs. The Roman road system was so large, it was said that “all roads lead to Rome.”

Along with large-scale engineering projects, the Romans also developed tools and methods for use in agriculture. The Romans became successful farmers due to their knowledge of climate, soil, and other planting-related subjects. They developed or refined ways to effectively plant crops and to irrigate and drain fields. Their techniques are still used by modern farmers, such as crop rotation , pruning, grafting , seed selection, and manuring. The Romans also used mills to process their grains from farming, which improved their efficiency and employed many people.

Literature and Language

Much of the literature of the world has been greatly influenced by the literature of the ancient Romans. During what is considered the “Golden Age of Roman Poetry,” poets such as Virgil, Horace, and Ovid produced works that have had an everlasting impact. Ovid’s Metamorphoses , for example, inspired authors such as Chaucer, Milton, Dante, and Shakespeare. Shakespeare, in particular, was fascinated by the ancient Romans, who served as the inspiration for some of his plays, including Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra .

While Roman literature had a deep impact on the rest of the world, it is important to note the impact that the Roman language has had on the Western world. Ancient Romans spoke Latin, which spread throughout the world with the increase of Roman political power. Latin became the basis for a group of languages referred to as the “Romance languages.” These include French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Catalan. Many Latin root words are also the foundation for many English words. The English alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet. Along with that, a lot of Latin is still used in the present-day justice system.

The use of Latin words is not the only way the ancient Romans have influenced the Western justice system. Although the Roman justice system was extremely harsh in its punishments, it did serve as a rough outline of how court proceedings happen today. For example, there was a preliminary hearing, much like there is today, where the magistrate decided whether or not there was actually a case. If there were grounds for a case, a prominent Roman citizen would try the case, and witnesses and evidence would be presented. Roman laws and their court system have served as the foundation for many countries’ justice systems, such as the United States and much of Europe.

The ancient Romans helped lay the groundwork for many aspects of the modern world. It is no surprise that a once-booming empire was able to impact the world in so many ways and leave a lasting legacy behind.

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February 9, 2024

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Why the Roman Empire fell is often discussed in history classes and textbooks. But new research by Stanford historian Walter Scheidel considers an angle that has received little scholarly attention: Why did it – or something similar to it – never emerge again?

Stanford historian Walter Scheidel calls the fall of Rome the “great escape.” (Image credit: Daniel Hinterramskogler)

Scheidel discusses in a new book why the Roman Empire was never rebuilt and how pivotal its absence was for modern economic growth, the Industrial Revolution and worldwide Western expansion. Freed from the clutches of an imperial monopoly, Europeans experimented and competed, innovated and collaborated – all preconditions for the world we now inhabit, he said.

Scheidel, the Dickason Professor in the Humanities and a Catherine R. Kennedy and Daniel L. Grossman Fellow in Human Biology, is author of Escape from Rome: The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity (2019). He also edited The Science of Roman History: Biology, Climate and the Future of the Past (2018).

The collapse of the Roman Empire is considered by many to be one of the greatest disasters in history. But you argue that Rome’s dramatic collapse was actually the best thing that ever happened. How so?

The disintegration of the Roman empire freed Europe from rule by a single power. Imperial monopolies provided peace and stability, but by seeking to preserve the status quo also tended to stifle experimentation and dissent. When the end of empire removed centralized control, rival political, military, economic and religious constituencies began to fight, bargain and compromise and – in the process – rebuilt society along different lines.

Those 1,500 years (all the way up to World War II) were full of conflicts as Europe splintered into a violently competitive state system. But for all the suffering it caused, this fragmentation and competition fostered innovation that eventually gave rise to unprecedented change in knowledge production, economic performance, human welfare and political affairs. This path to modernity was long and tortuous, but also unique in the world.

In contrast to other large-scale empires – such as the successive dynasties in China – the Roman empire never returned to Europe. Why was that?

Stanford Professor Walter Scheidel says the fall of the Roman Empire enabled the rise of Western civilization. (Image credit: bwzenith / Getty Images)

An overly simple answer would be that all later attempts to restore universal empire on European soil failed. But was that just an accident? I argue that it wasn’t: there were powerful environmental reasons for Europe’s lasting fragmentation. Europe lacks large river basins that supported centralized power elsewhere and it is shaped by mountain barriers and exceptionally long coastlines that carve it up into smaller units. Perhaps most importantly, Western Europe is far removed from the great Eurasian steppe, grasslands that used to house warlike nomads who played a critical role in the creation of large empires in Russia, the Middle East, and South and East Asia. Although these features did not determine historical outcomes, they nudged European state formation onto a different trajectory of greater diversity.

What made the Roman Empire so successful?

If Europe wasn’t fertile ground for empire-building, we may wonder why the Roman Empire existed at all. The Romans succeeded by exploiting a set of conditions that were hard or even impossible to replicate later on. Through shrewd manipulation of civic obligations, material rewards and alliances, their leadership managed to mobilize vast numbers of ordinary farmers for military operations at low cost.

Rome also benefited from modest levels of state formation in the western Mediterranean and the fact that larger kingdoms farther east were busy fighting each other. This allowed them to overpower and swallow other societies one by one. In later periods, by contrast, Europe was full of competing states that prevented any one of them from subduing all the others.

What were the efforts to rebuild the Roman Empire, and why did they fail?

Such efforts began almost immediately when the eastern Roman Empire tried to recover the western provinces that had fallen to Germanic conquerors. Two-hundred-and-fifty years later, the Frankish ruler Charlemagne styled himself as a Roman emperor, and later in the Middle Ages an unwieldy entity known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation appeared on the scene. However, none of these projects succeeded in re-creating an empire of Rome’s size, power or durability.

Later efforts by the Habsburgs and by Napoleon to establish some degree of hegemony over Europe failed as well. Several factors were responsible for this. In the Middle Ages, the erosion of royal power and taxation brought about by the rise of landed aristocracies interfered with state building. By the early modern period, the European state system had already become too deeply entrenched to be dislodged by any one power and would-be conquerors were reliably stymied by alliances that checked their ambitions.

You devote your epilogue to Monty Python’s tongue-in-cheek question, “What have the Romans ever done for us?” So what does the modern world owe to the ancient past?

We usually focus on the legacies of Roman civilization that are still visible today, from the Romance languages, the Roman writing system and many proper names to the Julian calendar, Roman law, architectural styles, and, last but by no means least, the various Christian churches. All of these continue to shape our lives.

But when it comes to explaining why the world has changed so much over the last couple of centuries, the single most important contribution of the Roman Empire turns out to have been that it went away for good and nothing like it ever returned. This rupture was critical in allowing the right conditions for transformative change to emerge over time. Sometimes the most important legacy is the one we cannot see!

What made ancient rome successful?

The Roman Republic was founded in 509 BC by Romulus and Remus, two of the sons of Mars, the god of war. The Roman Empire was founded in 27 BC by Augustus Caesar, the first emperor. Rome was successful because it had a strong military, a stable government, and a thriving economy.

The success of ancient Rome was due to a number of factors. The Roman Republic was well-organized, and the Roman army was one of the most powerful in the world. Rome also had a strong economy, based on trade with other countries. Additionally, the Romans built a huge network of roads and aqueducts, which helped them to trade and move people and goods around their vast empire. Finally, the Romans were very good at assimilating new cultures and ideas, which helped them to become one of the most powerful empires in history.

What was Rome’s biggest success?

The Roman Empire was the largest and most powerful empire of its time. It covered a vast area of land and lasted for a very long time. The Roman Empire was a major achievement of the Romans.

The Roman Empire was responsible for a number of inventions and discoveries that have had a lasting impact on the world. Here are 10 of them:

1. Cement: The Roman Empire was responsible for the invention of cement, which is a key ingredient in concrete. Concrete is one of the most widely used building materials in the world.

2. Sanitation: The Romans were also responsible for the development of sanitation systems, which are essential for public health.

3. Roads: The Roman road network was one of the largest and most extensive in the ancient world. It allowed for the movement of people and goods across the empire.

4. Social care and welfare: The Romans developed a number of social welfare programs, including food assistance and public baths.

5. Julian Calendar: The Julian calendar, which is still used today, was first introduced by the Romans.

6. Elements of surgery: The Romans were responsible for a number of discoveries in the field of surgery, including the use of anesthesia and the development of surgical instruments.

7. Elements of the modern legal system: The Roman legal system was the basis for the development of the modern legal system.

8. The English language: The English language

Why was Rome so successful in war

The training that soldiers had to do was very tough and thorough. They had to march 20 miles a day wearing full armour. This meant that the Roman armies were very fit and organised. Training included marching in formation and learning specific tactics and manoeuvres for battle.

The Romans were able to achieve high levels of technology due to their borrowing of technologies from the Greeks, Etruscans, Celts, and others. With limited sources of power, the Romans were still able to build impressive structures that have survived to this day. This is a testament to the engineering and construction abilities of the Roman people.

What are 5 things the Romans are most famous for?

The Roman civilization was one of the most influential in human history. Here are thirteen things that the Romans did for us:

1. Fast food – The Romans were the first to introduce street stalls and ‘food on the move’ as we might think of it today.

2. Advertising and trademarks – The use of public advertising and trademarks began with the Romans.

3. Plumbing and sanitation – The Romans were responsible for many of the advancements in plumbing and sanitation that we take for granted today.

4. Towns – The concept of a town as a centralized place of commerce and government began with the Romans.

5. Architecture – Roman architecture is some of the most beautiful and enduring in history.

6. Roads – The Roman system of roads was the most advanced of its time and was responsible for connecting the vast Roman Empire.

7. Our calendar – The modern calendar is based on the one originally devised by the Romans.

8. Law and order – The Romans were responsible for many of the concepts of law and order that we still use today.

9. Education – The Romans were pioneers in the field of education, establishing the first formal schools.

10. Language – The Latin language

Rome is a city that is full of history and culture. Some of the most famous attractions in Rome include the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, The Pantheon, Roman Forum, Piazza Navona, Spanish Steps, Vatican Museums, St. Peter’s Basilica, and many more. Rome is a city that has something for everyone, and is definitely worth a visit.

What is the most famous thing in ancient Rome?

One of the most recognizable landmarks in Rome, the Colosseum is a must-see for anyone visiting the city. With a history dating back over 2,000 years, the Colosseum was once the site of legendary gladiator contests that entertained the masses. Today, the Colosseum is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Rome, and is sure to give you a taste of the city’s rich history.

The Western Roman Empire never had the strength to rise again after falling in the 5th century. The Eastern Roman, or Byzantine Empire, however, survived and remained an effective power in the Eastern Mediterranean for centuries. Though its legitimacy and influence have diminished over time, the Byzantine Empire was a powerful force in its heyday.

Why was Roman trade so successful

The Roman army made the roads and sea routes safe for traders. In turn, trade helped the economy grow. People in each area of the empire could sell what they grew or made to people in other areas who could use these goods. They could also buy things that they couldn’t produce for themselves. This made the empire stronger and more prosperous.

What made ancient Rome unique?

The ancient Romans were one of the most influential civilizations of all time. They conquered vast amounts of land in Europe and northern Africa, built roads and aqueducts, and spread Latin, their language, far and wide. Their military, political, and social institutions have shaped the world we live in today.

Rome is one of the most popular tourist destinations because of its ancient history and art. The Colosseum, Vatican City, and Sistine Chapel are just a few of the reasons why tourists flock to Rome. The food is also a big draw, with delicious pasta and gelato to be found around every corner.

What are 3 interesting facts about ancient Rome

1. Rome was founded by two brothers who were raised by a she-wolf.

2. The Ancient Romans worshipped a lot of different gods and goddesses.

3. Sometimes the Romans would flood the whole Colosseum or Circus Maximus for a boat battle.

4. Ancient Rome is underground!

5. The Roman Forum was the center of daily life in Rome.

6. The Romans built aqueducts to bring fresh water into the city.

7. The Romans were great engineers and architects.

8. The Roman empire was the largest and most powerful empire of its time.

9. Rome was the first city to have a population of over one million people.

10. The Colosseum is one of the most famous and well-preserved buildings from Ancient Rome.

Rome became the most powerful state in the world by the first century BCE through a combination of military power, political flexibility, economic expansion, and more than a bit of good luck. The Roman military was arguably the most powerful in the world, and their political system was flexible enough to adapt to changing circumstances. Additionally, Rome had a thriving economy that allowed for expansion into new territories. Finally, a bit of good luck played a role in Rome’s success; for example, the Roman Republic was founded in a time of relative peace and stability.

What is the most important thing in Rome?

The Colosseum is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Rome. It is a large amphitheatre that was used in Roman times for gladiator battles and wild animal fights. Today, it is a popular spot for tourists to visit and take photos.

1. The Romans were very clean people and would take baths together.

2. The Romans were very inventive and created many things that we still use today.

3. The Roman’s most popular form of entertainment were Gladiator fights.

4. The rich Romans had servants to do all their work for them.

5. We still use some Roman roads that were built thousands of years ago.

6. The Romans worshipped many different Gods and Goddesses.

7. Ancient Rome is actually underground now due to all the years of development.

There are many factors that made ancient Rome successful. One factor was its location. Rome was situated in a strategic location that allowed it to control the trade routes between the East and the West. Another factor was its military prowess. Rome was a very militaristic society and was able to conquer and expand its territory. Finally, Rome had a very effective political system that allowed it to rule its vast empire effectively.

Ancient Rome was successful because it had a strong military, a stable government, and a thriving economy.

Ellen Hunter

Ellen Hunter is a passionate historian who specializes in the history of Rome. She has traveled extensively throughout Europe to explore its ancient sites and monuments, seeking to uncover their hidden secrets.

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Why We Can’t Get Over the Roman Empire

Holland is an award-winning historian of the ancient world, a translator of Greek and Roman classical texts, and a documentary writer. He is the author of seven books, including his most recent, PAX: War and Peace in Rome’s Golden Age . He contributes regularly to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times . He co-presents the podcast The Rest Is History . He lives in London

“I worry far more what the judgement on me will be in a 1,000 years time than what the trolls are saying today.” So wrote Cicero , Rome’s most celebrated orator, in 59 BC. Although the comment was made privately to his close friend, Titus Pomponius Atticus, no one would have been surprised to read it. Cicero was notorious among his fellow citizens for the insufferable quality of his conceit. The notion that anyone would remember him a millennium after his death would have been greeted in Rome with widespread hilarity.

Yet in truth Cicero was being modest. Not one but 2,000 years have passed since his death, and still he is being quoted. His posthumous fame is tribute not just to his own achievements, but also to the enduring hold on the popular imagination of the city of which he was a citizen. “Urbs Aeterna,” the poet Ovid called Rome some 50 years after Cicero’s death: “the Eternal City.” The empire ruled by the Romans may long since have declined and fallen ; its monuments crumbled into ruin; its language evolved to become Spanish, Italian, and French; but its memory remains a golden one. Indeed, according to a meme that has recently taken social media by storm , millions of men across America are apparently thinking about it every day.

Why? Not, I think, out of any particular devotion to Cicero or Ovid. The reason is likelier to be altogether more visceral. The Roman Empire was the apex predator of antiquity: powerful, terrifying, box-office.

If that makes it sound like a tyrannosaur, then perhaps that is no coincidence. The Romans, much like the dinosaurs, are not merely glamorous—they are also safely extinct. Two thousand years have passed since the heyday of the pax Romana . The age when the capital was at its most teeming and gilded, when the sands of the Colosseum were black with the blood of gladiators, when the rule of Caesar was backed by legions capable of visiting slaughter and ruin on all who opposed them, are long gone. Few people watching Gladiator , no matter how much they might be rooting for Russell Crowe, feel complicit in the enthusiasm of the crowd. The Romans are too distant to be truly unsettling; instead, they have become exotic.

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The display of might—especially when backed up by color, clamor, and overpowering architecture—can be stirring, even thrilling. Successful empires have always understood this. It helps to explain why so many capitals in Europe and America are replete with monuments inspired by imperial Rome. Yet the shadow these buildings cast in the 21 st century is not merely a Roman one. We understand, as the designers of the Capitol and the Arc de Triomphe did not, to what extremes swagger and steel can lead. With fascism, a long tradition in Western politics reached a hideous climax and then expired.

But the fascination with power endures. Only the most toxic crank today would confess to finding the displays of Nazism alluring. Yet Julius Caesar—who was reported by one classical biographer to have slaughtered a million people and enslaved another million while conquering the region of Gaul—still has his statue in the centre of Rome, while, just down the road, touts dressed as centurions and gladiators encourage tourists to pose with them outside the Colosseum. The empire of the Caesars—unlike more recent empires—is removed in time enough from us to be protected by a certain statute of limitations.

Read More : Women in Ancient Rome Didn’t Have Equal Rights. They Still Changed History

Of course, this does not explain why modern-day men of America are busy thinking about the Romans rather than, say, the Egyptians, or the Assyrians, or the Vikings. The answer, perhaps, lies in the way that the Romans, more than any other ancient people, seem to offer America a distorted reflection of itself. So they have always done. Just as American conservatives today look back wistfully to the Founding Fathers as patrons of an age of rugged independence and virtue, so did the Founding Fathers look back with an equal wistfulness to the early years of Rome. There, for any infant republic victorious in a war against a great monarchy, was a morality tale to be found that could hardly help but serve as inspiration. The Romans, like the Americans, had originally been ruled by a king; then, resolved no longer to live in servitude, they had dared all in a heroic and ultimately successful campaign to expel him. In 1832, commissioned to mark the centennial of George Washington’s birth with a fittingly imposing statue, the sculptor Horatio Greenough represented him as a properly Roman hero, returning his sword to a grateful people. Simultaneously toga-clad and be-wigged, the first president of the United States was portrayed by Greenough as the heroic, if sartorially challenged, intersection point of twin republics: the Roman and the American.

In the 21 st century, the parallels drawn between ancient Rome and the modern United States tend to be gloomier. Wars in Iraq; the rise in the east of a rival superpower; political vendettas pursued in the law courts; anxieties that venerable constitutional traditions are menaced by populism; the emergence of radicals preaching that the last will be first, and the first will be last, to the excitement of many, and the consternation of others. All these are developments that will be familiar to anyone with even the most glancing familiarity with Roman history.

Gladiator —the most celebrated sword-and-sandals epic of the 21 st century (of which there is a sequel currently in the works)—offered a portrait of a world that seemed, in many ways, as much about the future as the past. Citizens fed on dazzling entertainments; armies striking at an elusive foreign foe; the high-tech delivery of weapons of fire. Here was a mirror being held up to the decades that were to come.

Perhaps, then, it is not surprising that so many Americans today should be thinking about the Roman Empire. They are thinking about a civilization that is at once strange and familiar; terrifying and glamorous; safely extinct and the image of themselves.    

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Oxford University Press's Academic Insights for the Thinking World

How did Rome last so long?

Rome: an empire's story.

• May 16 th 2012

By Greg Woolf

Each age finds new questions to ask about the Roman Empire. Edward Gibbon, the English historian dedicated to the study of the Roman Empire, chose to entitle his seminal masterpiece The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire because for him, as for others at the end of the eighteenth century, it was decline and fall that was the real puzzle. The Romans had, so it seemed, achieved so much of the what European states of the day still strived to create. There was peace, the rule of law, and some measure of religious toleration. He documented economic progress too, noting advances in navigation and agriculture and the growth of commerce. Gibbon and his peers knew very well that the authors of the Greek and Roman classics on which they have been brought up were not Enlightenment scholars. But they felt some affinity for the spirit of the age. “The love of letters, almost inseparable from peace and refinement, was fashionable among the subjects of Hadrian and the Antonines, who were themselves men of learning and curiosity.” So for the subjects of the last generation of European monarchs who did not quake before the French and American Revolutions, the real question was: “Where did it all go wrong?” What brought ancient Rome to its knees and let in the barbarians?

Things look different today. It’s not just that we are less confident about those Enlightenment values, and more sceptical about Roman toleration and the quality of Rome’s emperors. We live amidst the ruins of European and Soviet Empires, empires that rose and fell in the blink of a Roman eye. Most historians consider the British Empire was in its infancy in Gibbon’s lifetime which gives it a lifespan of two and half centuries at best. Depending on how you count it the Roman Empire lasted between one and half and two millennia. Our question today is not ‘why did it fall?’ but ‘why did it last so long?’

The Romans, of course, had no idea. Or rather their answers no longer convince us. Most saw their success as resting on the virtue of men and the favour of the gods (and so their decline on the growth of vices and the loss of that favour). The first analyst of Roman imperialism — the Greek general and historian Polybius — thought the answer might lie in the comparative advantage given by the Roman constitution. Rome was a Goldilocks city, not too democratic, not too monarchical, with a well-ordered military system and a religion in which the right people were firmly in control. That sort of analysis appeals more to modern political science with its interest in institutions. Yet every single institution changed in the course of Rome’s long history.

One new approach to the question is to follow Polybius’ comparative instinct but cast our net more widely. Rome was just one of a number of vast empires that appeared around the globe in antiquity. It seems astonishing at first that Persian, Chinese, Indian, Macedonian, Arab, Inka and Aztec conquerors, to name just the most famous cases, could create imperial states thousands of miles across and sustain them for centuries. The European empires of the nineteenth century had gunpowder and telegraphs, ships that could cross the oceans and were powered by dynamic economies back home. Yet they began to collapse almost before they reached their greatest extent. Early empires in Europe and Asia depended on iron technology and animal traction. All their documents were painstakingly written out by hand. In the New World they even lacked iron, ploughs, and writing! Seeing the Roman Empire against this backdrop does not make it less remarkable, but it helps us understand better what went right for it.

To take just one example: every early empire had to survive the end of expansion. Many early empires – that of the Mongols for instance – expanded fantastically rapidly but failed to stabilize their rule and collapse almost at once. China’s first imperial dynasty, the Qin , lasted just one generation. The Persian Empire of Cyrus nearly collapsed in the second, until Darius the Mede seized power. In all the success stories we see the same basic strategies played out. Conquerors form alliances with elements of the defeated peoples, share some power and some profits, and bind them into the new empire with a cosmological vision that made their own self-interest seem in some sense noble. And suddenly the emperor Augustus’ investment in creating a tax system and filling the empire with monuments makes sense. Successful conquerors invest in infrastructure: the Persian Royal Road, the Great Canal of China….and the Roman roads. Fast communications meant knowing the enemy’s moves earlier, making the most of a smaller army, and provisioning the great capitals that arose at the heart of every empire.

There are differences of course between the early empires. Almost no other empire made the use (as Romans did) of slavery or citizenship; many had much less use for cities; some cultivated the scholars Gibbon identified with; some did without. Those contrasts too are revealing, helping explain some of Rome’s genuinely unique features. The trick, as always in comparative history, is picking the right comparisons. Rome in the Antonine Age was not quite like Enlightenment Europe, and it was not very like the British Empire either, for all that it was admired and taken as a model by both.

Greg Woolf is Professor of Ancient History at the University of St Andrews. His research specialities include ancient literacy, the Roman economy, the sociology of ancient empires, ancient science, and Roman religion. His latest book, Rome: An Empire’s Story , publishes this month. See Greg Woolf discussing what’s new in Roman studies via our YouTube channel .

• Classics & Archaeology

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Enjoyable post, and look forward to the book. How, though, does Professor Wolff get the figure of between “one and half and two millennia” for the duration of the Roman Empire?

[…] say, or to use a more elegant French term, un mot voyageur. The beginning of the story takes us to Ancient Rome. Still Life by Paul Cézanne. Source: […]

BB, it seems that Professor Wolff is willing to count either the overthrow of the Etruscan kings (509 BCE) or the proclamation of the first emperor (27 BCE) as the beginning of the Roman Empire, with the clock running until the Fall of Constantinople (1453 CE).

Rome; the longest surviving empire. So, should we say East Byzantium from Rome?

Or one could date the Roman realm from the foundation of Rome about 850 to 650 BC and go up to the fall of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 and get 2,456 to 2,656 years!

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