Most Influential Impact in Roman Technology

Roman Republic vs. Roman Empire.
I think Rome was an Empire under the Republic. Differences were the forms of government. In the Republic the people had voting rights and would elect the officials, the Republic was a system based on the rule of law, and a cleverly balanced constitution that was not a written document, but consisted of an accord between the 3 elements, democracy, monarchy, and oligarchy. On the other hand the Empire or Principate, a system based on an emperor. One man had total, absolute power. In the republic there was a collective form of government; in the Principate it was a one man rule (Emperor). Both the Roman Republic and Roman Empire had periods of instability which ultimately caused their demise. Interestingly, each lasted for almost the same amount of time, so it would be difficult to ascertain one as more "successful" than the other. The Roman Republic controlled most of the Italian Peninsula and soon spread into the Mediterranean, they came in conflicts and things started getting hard. Although the dying republic was ruled for a short time by the famous triumvirate; it soon collapsed with the death of Crassus and Julius Caesar became the first Roman Emperor. The Empire itself lasted no longer than the Republic, but its territorial gains were considerably more extensive. The Empire extended to Britain in the West, and to the banks of the Rhine and Danube Rivers in the East. It encompassed vast numbers of people and thereby spread Roman culture throughout Western Europe. The empire was brought about largely by Caesar who was a man of the people and rose on a popularist platform of protecting the citizens rights against the greed of the senate and redistributing wealth.