What empire in history fits the bill of most powerful, perhaps with some colorful history
thrown in as well? For that, we should turn to ancient Rome. Depending on how you look
at it, The Roman Empire stood the test of time and proved its strength by lasting over
a millennium.
Over much of its history, one of Imperial Rome's greatest glories was its military.
Simply put, there was nothing like it in the world. With its mighty army, Rome was able
to expand its borders, bring in new citizens, and establish its historical reputation.
What made Roman soldiers so great? For one, during the time of the Roman Empire, they
were recruited for several years at a time. This contrasted with the earlier military
model used during the Republic when groups of soldiers disbanded after a conflict. Soldiers
had to meet certain standards of fitness and could be sent far afield in service of the
empire, but they were granted landholdings at the end of their tour.
"How can I reward Rome's greatest general?" "Let me go home."
Overall, it was a harsh existence, but it at least offered a kind of stability, especially
in terms of food and money, that wasn't guaranteed to every Roman, citizen, or otherwise.
The Roman Army was also very disciplined. Soldiers could be expected to march up to
20 miles per day when they weren't busy fighting or endlessly training. That training paid
off though, as battlefield tactics could make or break a fight. They also had the advantage
of weaponry like swords, projectiles, and horse-mounted cavalry forces that oftentimes
overwhelmed their opponents.
Investment in the military turned out to be a pretty profitable enterprise for Imperial
Rome. The 2nd century saw increased Roman military expansion into foreign territories.
This meant plenty of war with different non-Romans along the way, and more often than not, the
Roman war machine prevailed. When it did, the Empire sent citizens abroad to establish
colonies in places as far afield as modern-day Spain and Britain.
Expanding the empire opened up access to economic advantages, but this expansion eventually
came with a price. When the Empire extended Roman citizenship to all free people in 212
CE, things got difficult. The vast array of territories grew unwieldy and difficult to
manage in a world where instantaneous communication was only a wild dream.
As much as Imperial Rome seemed set on "bringing Rome to the world," or as the rest of the
world might call "waging war with the world," life within the Empire actually wasn't so
bad. For over a century, Rome was able to maintain a period of peace that was so successful,
we're still talking about it over a millennia later. Called the "Pax Romana," this period
lasted from about 27 BCE to 180 CE. The actual phrase comes courtesy of 18th-century historian
Edward Gibbon, who debuted the concept in The History of the Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire. The relative peace within the empire allowed
many to achieve new cultural and technological advancements that would have been difficult
under more strenuous times. Romans also benefited from tax reform, which may not sound immediately
exciting but did free up resources for the city of Rome in particular. Emperor Augustus,
who kicked off the new tax system, also rebuilt temples, shored up supplies in case of disaster,
and strengthened the ancient city's police force.
Yet, there were occasional hiccups during this period. The reign of Nero comes to mind,
and those foreign people who weren't too happy about Roman expansion into their territories.
Still, compared to the kind of upset that roiled Rome at other times, this was a uniquely
steady period in the history of the empire.
You might think that being the Emperor of Rome was a pretty cushy job. Sure, you might
need to attend a meeting or two, maybe preside over a battle every once in a while, but the
rest of the time you're lounging about being fed grapes and listening to someone playing
the lyre. Right? But the truth is, while Roman emperors enjoyed
plenty of power, theirs was also a position full of paranoia and deadly political intrigue.
"Your loyal subjects bid you welcome highness." "Thank you, Falco. And for the loyal subjects.
Trust they weren't too expensive." After all, that talented lyre player might
also be an assassin sent by your political enemies. And, wait a minute, are those grapes
poisoned? Emperors were supposed to rule for life, meaning
that anyone who was deemed unfit for the role, whether they were mentally ill, overly powerful,
or just simply unpopular, might meet an untimely end. Even if they didn't die via poison or
stabbing, emperors still had to sacrifice much in the name of power. Some had to divorce
beloved spouses, or even kill troublesome family members. All this just to stay on top.
All of those imperial dynasties could get dangerously tangled. Only four of the first
12 Roman Emperors appear to have died of natural causes. Six would meet their ends through
murder or assassination, while two ended their own lives, proving that the imperial throne
offered hardly any protection after all.
Much like the military, the intensity with which Rome invested in technology has been
credited as one of its keys to success. Though some technologies debuted when Rome was still
a republic, these advances were refined and still very much in use by the time the Empire
came around. These technological advancements included
the refinement of the concept of aqueducts, which first came about in the 3rd century
BCE and allowed cities to pop up far from water sources. And those marching men in the
famous Roman military would have had an even tougher time of things if they didn't have
paved Roman roads, which also proved useful for traders, immigrants, and all sorts of
travelers. By the time of the empire, regular folks could also read newspapers and would
even have potential access to bound books. The military was also supported by considerable
advances in battlefield medicine. While Roman medical care still doesn't compare to modern
technologies and anesthetics, it was still a far sight better than in other times and
places. Ancient surgeons advanced the use of tourniquets to stanch bleeding, started
doing basic preventative care like physicals, and even made some of the first steps to sanitize
the notoriously dirty world of the battlefield.
At its height in roughly 117 CE, the empire had control of Britain to the north and Egypt
to the south. The Romans would eventually expand west to the Atlantic Coasts of Europe
and what's now Morocco, and as far east as Babylon, in modern-day Iraq, and Armenia.
Though, it's important to note that this wasn't the largest-ever mass of land controlled by
a single empire. That distinction would go to the British Empire, which controlled nearly
a quarter of the world's land by 1920. Yet, especially in terms of the ancient world,
the sheer amount of land and number of people under Roman control was still utterly staggering.
Foreign policy became critically important as the frontier became a political, as well
as military, realm. The early Empire focused on military expansion, while later forces
were more intent on holding the line and maintaining borders. Slowly but surely, Roman influence
was felt more in the political sphere of these borderlands than in their military forces.
Imperial Rome, like so many other societies, operated on a highly structured and hierarchical
system. Emperors were clearly at the top of the pecking order. They were followed by high-class
Patricians, then the Equites, second-class Plebeians, freedmen, and finally, slaves.
Those stratifications were clearly delineated by social circles, finances, clothing, and
laws. A familiar example of these stratified rules is that the emperor was the only person
in the empire allowed to wear a purple toga. Traditionally, it was incredibly tough to
move between social classes, meaning that social climbers throughout much of Rome's
history would have been very frustrated indeed. Yet, the rise of the empire meant that some
of those structures began to soften. A patronage system opened up routes to power for some,
while others simply leveraged and earned vast fortunes. Eventually, Emperor Augustus opened
up the Equites class to more people and allowed them to take seats in the vaunted Roman Senate.
But that system only applied to a select group of men. Women were typically expected to remain
in the home under the authority of a father or husband. Though, as in many societies,
lower-class women were obliged to work while upper-class ones sometimes got involved in
politics and religion, like the Vestal Virgins. "It is the women of Rome, like the shewolf
that succled Romulus and Remus who have raised a nation of wise statesmen."
Slaves, meanwhile, were solidly at the bottom of society. Quite a few were captured foreigners,
unwillingly contributing to the economic growth of an empire far from their own homes.
Roman emperors have a pretty bad rap. For some of them, that reputation is well deserved,
though the true stories of notoriously naughty rulers like Nero and Caligula are perhaps
more complicated than you might realize. Yet, it's not fair to lump all of them in with
a ruler that legend says made his horse a Roman politician. Some of them might even
rightfully be called "good." At least, that's according to their reputation.
The so-called "Five Good Emperors" were Roman rulers who managed to leave the realm looking
a little better than how they found it. Those five also, maybe not coincidentally, reigned
in succession. It began with Nerva in 96 CE, who was followed by Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus
Pius, and finally Marcus Aurelius, whose rule ended in 180 CE.
What made them so good? The Five Good Emperors presided over a truly grand expansion of the
Roman Empire. The system of government ran relatively smoothly and practically everyone
whose territory was conquered by Roman forces went along and became pretty Romanized themselves.
It wasn't perfect though, as this is the era in which the emperor started to become something
of a dictator, and previously independent institutions like the Senate became filled
with his cronies.
Sometimes, success comes back to haunt you. In the case of Imperial Rome, all of the military
might, cultural expansion, and new territories started to become downright unwieldy. That's
why, around 285 CE, Emperor Diocletian split the empire into Eastern and Western halves.
The new system of government was referred to as a "tetrarchy" that encompassed four
different rulers, also known as a "rule of four." Basically, each half would have a primary
ruler with a subordinate acting as a sort of vice president, only with far more power,
called a "caesar." Diocletian would continue to rule in the east, while his counterpart
in the west was Maximian. But why would Diocletian give up so much of
his power in this dramatic change? The empire had simply grown so vast that it was incredibly
difficult to govern it effectively from Rome. Travel and communication in the Roman world
could be excruciatingly slow. It was also an empire wracked with crises. By the third
century, it was painfully clear that an emperor could be assassinated, leaving behind a potentially
deadly power vacuum. It's very likely that Diocletian wanted to make it almost impossible
to topple the Empire by killing a single ruler, as there would have been three more to take
his place.
As the Roman Empire moved on, its relationship to religion became increasingly tangled. Originally,
pretty much everyone in Rome could be considered a "pagan," though James J. O'Donnell, author
of Pagans: The End of Traditional Religion and the Rise of Christianity, argues that
they wouldn't have called themselves as such. They just would have worshipped the gods like
everyone else, even if those deities had different names elsewhere and the Romans were often
riffing on Greek traditions. Then, Christianity happened. While it's true
that early Christians did experience persecution in the Roman Empire, things softened as time
went on. Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine the Great even converted to Christianity sometime
in the 4th century and officially accepted it in the Edict of Milan. A decade later,
it was the state religion. However, some wonder if Constantine had non-spiritual
reasons for his conversion. Some accounts say that he didn't formally convert until
he was on his deathbed. Other legends maintain that he converted after a vision pushed him
to fight a battle under the ancient Christian symbol of the Chi-Rho. Or maybe Constantine
had a guilty conscience for committing the sorts of crimes emperors tended to commit
and wanted absolution. Perhaps he rightfully predicted that Christianity would become a
major cultural and political force and jumped on the train early. Whatever the motivation,
Constantine's reforms almost certainly helped pave the way for the emerging religion.
Most historians generally agree that the Roman Empire began in 27 BCE. That's when Octavian,
who had previously defeated Marc Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BCE, became Emperor Augustus.
Though one might argue that his predecessor, Julius Caesar, ruled quite like a singularly
powerful emperor, it was Augustus who took the official title and heralded the transition
of the Republic into an Empire. The matter of when Rome ended is a bit trickier.
Some might argue that the end of the empire proper came during the reign of Diocletian
in the late 3rd and early 4th centuries CE when he split the unwieldy empire into western
and eastern halves. While Western Rome fell in 476 CE, the eastern
half did quite a bit better. It eventually morphed into the Byzantine Empire, which then
lasted until the Ottomans took over Constantinople in 1453 CE. Going by that metric, the Roman
Empire was around in one form or another for well over a millennium. And, while it didn't
have the landmass of the British Empire at its height or the relative population of the
Persian Achaemenid Empire, Imperial Rome was generally longer-lasting and more stable than
practically any other historic empire. When it comes to power, permanence, and stability,
there’s no doubt that the Roman empire remains the strongest in human history.
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