Download How Rome became an Empire

How did Rome grow into an empire?
Administration played a major role.
The Romans were good at organizing
themselves and as a result were very good at
ruling large territories. This was of incredible
importance in a world where communication
generally was only as fast as a man or a
horse. Without it Rome would never have
expanded nearly as far or been able to move
the vast resources it needed to move around
its empire. At one point The city of Rome was
being supplied with grain not from Italy or
Gaul but from Egypt. To import a reliable
food source from so far away when
communication was so slow is a staggering
achievement that would have been impossible
without excellent administrative capability.
ancient Roman empire map- Roman empire spanned 3
continents: Europe, Africa, and Asia
The Romans also assimilated the native population or Romanised them. Building things like bath
houses, public toilets, aqueducts gave the native people of a conquered land lots of reasons to want the Romans.
The Romans didn't only use there technology to get a native people on side being part of the empire gave a
Roman baths
people a large amount of trade
opportunity with its extensive road network and organization bringing wealth into newly conquered lands. Also
Roman auxiliary soldiers never served in the province where they were raised so the soldiers in a province
would be unlikely to harbour sympathy for the locals. This worked so well that even though the British people
had been such a nightmare to conquer when Rome abandoned Britain the people not only wished her to stay but
called themselves Roman not British or Celtic etc. hence the Romano British.
Rome's army played a major part in the expansion of the empire, but first. The Roman army wasn't
always as portrayed by Hollywood. Countless professional seemingly invincible legions clad in segmented
armor behind a solid wall of imperial red shields. In fact at the time when Hannibal Barca brought Rome to its
knees it's army was none of these things. It was not professional far from invincible poorly equipped and
trained, at least in comparison to Rome's later armies. For a Polybian era Roman army was made up of citizens
who owned some land and bought their own equipment and after the campaign season went back to being
civilians again. The man who turned this not all that impressive army into the one the even today is used as a
model for modern army's was Gaius Marius. It was his reforms that would in time bring about the legions
people today are familiar with. Even though the Roman legion became the greatest fighting force the world had
ever known this was not what made the
empire grow. What did was a promise that
Marius made to his legionaries, that after
their service to Rome they would each get a
pension in the form of a plot of land from
which they could draw a living. The problem
was the senate refused to give up land for
Marius men, so he conquered some and settle
them on it. This pattern of a legion
conquering land to provide space to settle
veterans was what made the empire grow and
this only stopped with the emperor Hadrian
when the Legion began to garrison land and
not conquer it. This marked the end of the
great Imperial Roman legion as less citizens
wanted to join if there was effectively no
ancient Roman military
pension or loot. Europe would never see an
army like it till the days of Napoleon.
an ancient Roman road- the Roman empire lasted
so long due to its excellent transportation system
and ability to communicate all over the empire
Roman aqueduct- carried water from its source
(reservoir or a lake) to the cities; provided fresh
drinking and bathing water to large expanding
towns/cities