The Roman Empire

Carthage surrendered soon after.

The militaristic culture of Rome developed alongside Rome i

Instead, its emphasis lies on the provinces which made up the empire. There, a slow sea-change took sullen, conquered peoples and made them contributors to and partners in a civilisation so dynamic and vibrant that it survived the collapse of Roman military and civic power to become the foundation of the Europe we know today.

Over the next five hundred years these peoples came together in religion, language and culture to form a society that largely still exists today. Westerners find Rome in their vocabulary (such as in the word ‘romance’), in the architecture of their civic buildings and in the political and legal structures that govern their daily lives.

What ruined Sparta and Athens, but this? They were mighty in war, but they rejected as aliens those whom they had conquered. Totally different was our father Romulus, who in his wisdom fought [the people of] several nations as enemies and then greeted them as fellow-citizens, all on the same day. We have been ruled by foreigners. The sons of freed slaves have been trusted with public office.

conquest by absorption had become an explicit doctrine.

Rome had made a conceptual breakthrough: the citizens of a city need not live in that city. They could live hundreds of kilometres away, be active in the affairs of a city that they and their families regarded as home, yet still be Roman citizens. In time, these new Roman citizens became the equals of their conqueror; not merely loyal subjects but as Roman in thought and deed as anyone born on Rome’s seven hills.