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Roman Expansion
Rome didn't initially set up to conquer the world,
but gradually did so anyway. A side effect of its
empire-building was the reduction of Republican
Rome's democratic policies. Rome started as a
state where farmers provided all their families
needed and went to war to protect their property.
As a result of the expansion a great gap formed
separating the rich from the poor in Rome by the end of the third
century B.C. The landless poor huddled in tenements in Rome, while
the wealthy lived in luxury just a hill away, gaining their wealth from
great plantations in the countryside.
The Roman army was a principle reason
for Rome's success in expanding its
borders. The core of the Roman army was
formed by the units called legions. A
Roman legion was an infantry unit
consisting of heavily armed soldiers,
equipped with shields, armor, helmets,
spears and swords. In the early republic,
the strength of a legion was about 3,000
men; there were 4,800 legionaries in the days of Julius Caesar; the
twenty-five legions that defended the empire during the reign of
Augustus counted more than 5,000 soldiers. They were the backbone
of the Roman army, supported by auxiliary troops. Although in the
third century, large cavalry units gradually superseded the legions as
Rome's most important force, many of them are attested in the fourth
and early fifth centuries.
After becoming the dominant power over most
of Italy, Rome fought the Carthaginians in the
Punic Wars. The treaties Rome had set up with
the nations of Italy had become unimportant
in her fight with Carthage. Rome became
dictatorial, making difficult demands of her
allies. Those who balked or rebelled paid
dearly for it, but Rome wasn't originally trying
to expand her territory. Mostly she was
fighting to defend her friends and allies or
because of a treaty violation. Rome fought wars to protect her trade
routes against piracy, and came to the aid of the Greeks who opposed
Macedon. Then Rome turned north to keep the Gauls from attacking
and to protect the northern borders of Italy. To this end Gaul became
a Roman province. By the end of the first Punic War, Rome controlled
Sicily. By the start of the second, she controlled Corsica and Sardinia.
While Rome was expanding its power base it was becoming less
democratic and more an
oligarchy. The senate decided
some matters without
reference to the assembly of
the people. The commanders of
military units were given
increasing terms, and, with
them, power. Annual
magistrates came from only a
few families. The client-patron
system meant that the big
names received general, popular support. Economically, a select few
had been able to profit during the wars by getting state contracts for
ships and provisions. With the great loss of life during the Punic Wars,
departure from their farms of men who had become professional
soldiers, and the increase in acreage taken by the expansion, land
became available to those wealthy senators who had the wealth to buy
it. They created latifundia (plantations) and destroyed many of the
self-sufficient farmers. In Rome, businessmen bought up houses that
burned and rebuilt insulae, the Roman tenement buildings to house
the new urban poor.
Rome's
Professional
Army