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How did Rome conquer and rule its vast empire?
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Rome conquered and ruled its vast empire through military prowess, strategic warfare, and effective governance. The Roman military was highly organized, skilled, and equipped with advanced weaponry, allowing them to overpower enemies and replenish forces by recruiting from conquered regions. Rome's governance was inclusive, allowing people from various backgrounds to integrate by adopting Roman culture. The Roman government maintained stability through a system of checks and balances, ensuring effective rule and prolonging the empire's lifespan.
The Roman Empire began in 753 BCE, continued on for about 500 years, and stretched over two million square miles. The Roman Empire was incredibly successful in conquering territories far and wide and ruled them with relative ease for an extended period of time.
First and foremost, Rome’s success in conquering such a wide empire was directly connected to its military prowess. Overarchingly, Romans were incredibly skilled in battle and had a variety of successful war tactics in comparison to their counterparts. Perhaps their most important skill was their ability to mobilize thousands of soldiers and maintain organization and precision while doing so. Their numbers allowed them to overpower enemies on the battlefield and quickly replace fallen soldiers with fresh men. Because they took able-bodied men from conquered cities, they were constantly replenishing and adding to their numbers as well.
Some of their other notable skills and strategies included using...
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camps at battle sites, using reconnaissance to inform their strategies in war, the forward march and triple line, and their ability to besiege enemy cities. Additionally, most soldiers had personal weapons such as daggers, swords, spears, javelins, and crossbows, as well as body armor, helmets, and shields. These items put them at a direct advantage in comparison to armies with less advanced technology. Soldiers also carried satchels with food, water, and basic survival supplies so that their chance of survival in the field increased. Though not all soldiers had extensive weaponry and armor, all Romans were incredibly well-trained. They prepared for battle using wooden weapons, practiced hand-to-hand combat, and obeyed the commands of their leaders nearly without question.
In addition to its prowess as a conquering force, Rome was a successful ruling empire. The core values of Roman society were founded on extreme loyalty to Rome. Roman citizens were incredibly proud of their heritage and would stop at nothing to defend what was theirs. Additionally, the Roman Empire was famous for allowing any person from any faith or region to join their republic, so long as that person adopted Roman values, traditions, and culture. Romans also allowed slaves to buy their freedom with relative ease in comparison to other parts of the world, and freed slaves often chose to remain within Rome. Romans also paid taxes, which were used to create beautiful, useful infrastructure, as well as to help fund the military, which provided protection for the citizens of Rome. Because of this, people generally wanted to be a part of Rome, which it made it easy for governmental officials to preside over them and keep the empire running.
The Roman government was also relatively conservative, and they held officials to high standards. The emperor, though powerful, was kept in check by tribunes and the senate, which made it so that tyrannical leaders were not often in power for long, which ultimately prolonged the life of the empire itself.
To put it simply-the Romans were very smart.
To begin with, they had a brilliant and powerful army. They did not always storm in and create mass chaos. They could negotiate. If they wanted to take over a particular area, they could offer protection to that area. There were many other civilizations during this time that were not very civilized so it was better to let Rome conquer peacefully and have their protection at the same time.
Rome was also ahead of it's time. They took concepts from other civilizations and used them to their advantage. They were very advanced for the age.
In addition, Rome was technologically advanced in both its daily life and in its military, so much so that there were few militaries on Earth that could resist them for long, at least as the empire was in its ascension. Think of the US military now and the technology it uses, compared to most other militaries, and Rome had similar advantages.
Diplomatically, they were very sharp in how they dealt with other countries, as they took over vast territories even without war as nations and peoples realized it was better to be subservient to Rome than to be destroyed by them. In many cases, being part of the empire brought more benefits than disadvantages, so there was an incentive to submit. Think of how Puerto Rico is part of the US empire still, but does not want to become a state, nor declare independence, even though their culture and language are very different from most of the US. There are benefits for them to be a part of the US without resistance. Not the same, but the analogy works.
Rome was able to conquer such a large empire partly because of the superb discipline and organization of its armies. It was able to rule the empire because it set up a system of government that allowed people from the various conquered regions to rule themselves, mostly, with just a little oversight from the Romans.
Most of the people the Romans conquered were much less used to fighting in disciplined units and using organized tactics. Roman armies were too strong for such opponents.
When the Romans conquered an area, they usually left its elites in place and just put a Roman governor in over them. That way, the "natives" still had a lot of control and were less likely to rebel.