Roman empire
How were the Romans so successful in maintaining their empire? How is it possible that such a huge land area could be governed by a single power without modern communications networks? Why did subjugated peoples so readily submit to foreign domination and foreign taxes? Rome actually had relatively little bureaucracy to control its empire. Control was maintained more through conditioning the minds of the conquered masses to accept Roman rule than a complex system of government. Through careful planning, Rome used various methods of control to pacify and please the millions under its control. Rome, of course, did not gain control of its immense empire overnight. Thus, its policies of control slowly evolved as necessity was placed upon it. Firstly, consider the beginning of Rome's power-- its domination of Italy. Italy, much like Greece, was a land of the city state. However, quite unlike Greece, Italy was extremely diverse. There was no common bond that Italians (if that term could even be used) could point to in order to say that they were a single people. Starr points out the arrival of Greeks, Phoenicians, Etruscans, Latins, Gauls and many others in Italy in pre-Roman times. It may be somewhat easy to understand how empire
This was a very shrewd method of control. Josephus says, "Now, as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder . Allowing virtual self-government to these lands reduced the need for increased bureaucracy, and Romanisation ensured that the people of these lands would be loyal to Rome. " Instead of being cruel masters, the Romans were civil to the conquered. Rome gave them a common tongue-- Latin, through which all political affairs were administered. Indeed, by accepting an Emperor, the stability of ruling such a large Empire was ensured. By using this cultural foundation upon which to build its empire, it was making itself compatible with the larger and much more ancient eastern world. Although the Roman Empire has now long passed, its policies and culture still remain with us. " Soldiers kept general order throughout the Empire, and most citizens had at one time served in the army, or at least their relatives had, since it was required to gain citizenship. Although it seems evident that Rome maintained much of its power through the concept of Romanising the Empire, the role of the military must not be ignored. Tacitus gives an excellent account of how this process of Romanisation was carried out in the west. If Rome could not succeed in uniting its own peninsula, how could it ever unite the rest of the world? Breasted describes the careful approach that Rome took in uniting the conquered states of Italy: "The Romans began by granting the defeated cities a kind of citizenship. This would be of greater significance later on. But why was this? Ferguson says, "To extend the number of praetors further would have been to weaken the closed circle of the aristocracy.
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Acceptance Essays
