Roman Empire Dbq

From 300 BCE to 300 CE there were two major empires that dominated the world. The first one was the Han Dynasty in China, which lasted a little over four hundred years providing Asia with economic prosperity and centuries of peace. The much larger, and very impressive Roman Empire was the European equivalent of the Han Dynasty. “The Roman Empire became a great power ruling 60 to 70 million subjects.” (Tignor 256). It is by far the largest empire the world has ever seen. Their empire would eventually stretch from modern day Scotland to modern day parts of Sudan. Rome did not gain this much territory only for their extreme aggression; there were also several other factors that destined them to be an unmatched world power. The factors that allowed …show more content…
It is clear that for an empire to be a great power it must develop an impressive military, but Rome went above and beyond this need. “Basically, the Romans were more successful and more efficient in killing other humans than any other people in their part of the world.” (Tignor 256). They became so efficient by using the cities they conquered to create great forces of manpower for the military. This was a development not used by most in the Mediterranean at the time and so Rome conquered Italy at a very fast rate. In fact the whole peninsula was under Roman rule after only seventy years of conquering. The Roman military system that had developed enough soldiers for modern day war waged a sixty-year war with the Carthaginians, led by Hannibal. After six decades of constant war, and even with his war elephants, Hannibal was unable to contest the tens of thousands of Roman soldiers that were going against him. He was worn down and Carthage fell to Rome. This war on Carthage became the turning point in Rome’s success. Before the war Carthage was the major power in what is now modern day Tunisia. After laying waste to Carthage the Romans were now virtually in control of the entire Mediterranean. Besides their massive body count the Romans were able to employ a second war innovation. War ethos. The war ethos for the Roman people was far larger than any other empire …show more content…
Rome did something in government that nations before them never really successfully accomplished; they became a republic. This unified state of the Roman Empire was much more efficient than the competing powers of other divided empires. “The Roman Republic inherited Greek ideas of territorial sovereignty and popular government.” (Reilly 145). The new republic that Rome formed would allow them to live in peace amongst themselves for centuries. Rome had elections for the people of this republic so that they could pick two consuls who for one year controlled the military, and ten tribunes who would represent the people in the government. In times of political distress the Roman people would pick one dictator to rule over the empire until everything was back to order. The rules and laws that the tribunes established were used to govern the territories. The cities of these territories would post the rules up in their town forum where all citizens of the cities could see it. One primary source that helps show the efficiency of the Roman Empire is a series of “rules incised on ten plates of bronze for public display in the town’s forum.” (Municipal Charter of a Roman Town). This set of rules was a clear and easy way to get the law out to the Roman people and many city-states of the empire did this. There is no doubt that without these political advances Rome would not have gained so