What Is The Expansion Of The Roman Empire

The Expansion of the Roman Empire The Roman empire made a tremendous impact over the many years of the pinnacle of their rule. During this time the Romans enjoyed prosperity and made an immense impact in many of their endeavors. Although much of this is what makes a great empire, the Romans were marked by an extremely ambitious motive to expand. Many of the emperors of the Roman empire embraced this need to expand and many of them proved successful in their mission. Just as the scripture mentions of God’s instruction to Adam and Eve that their mission was to be fruitful and multiply, it seems that the Roman empire took the same approach in expanding their power. It is this mindset of constant outward growth, rather than contraction, that
undoubtedly helped to mark Rome as a great society. Expansion for the Roman empire was not swift, but it was methodical and effective.
The history of Roman expansion can be broken down into three stages. Those stages were expanding to the Italian Peninsula, Carthage, and the expansion of the Hellenistic Empires. In the beginning stage of Roman expansion, Rome was simply considered just one city-state. During that time period Rome was able to form treaty with other city states and this formed what was known as the Latin League. Rome used these resources from the surrounding city-states armies, to aid in their plan of expanding. The principal example of this is the well thought out plan of forming these bonds with the other city-states in order to have access to the resources that they need. Although this could be seen in a negative aspect, it was brilliant in the impact that it was able to make in their expanding efforts. With this continued plan of action Rome was able to become one of the major states in the whole of the Mediterranean world. One of the most important aspects that an empire must possess in order to become great is their use of military resources. Rome proved that in this first stage of their expansion efforts, their military prowess would assist them in becoming the powerful empire they intended to
be. The second stage of Rome’s expansion efforts was born out of conflict with a state based in North Africa-Carthage. Just as what has happened in many civilizations in history, Carthage saw the expansion of the Roman Empire as a threat to their well being. With Rome expanding all throughout the Mediterranean, it seemed as if the Carthage decided that the best option was to eliminate this movement before it became a threat. The result of this was three separate wars that were fought between Rome and Carthage. These wars were named the Punic wars. The title Punic was the Latin word for people that resided in Carthage. What triggered this interesting chain of wars is that Carthage was under the control of Sicily but Rome felt that this territory should fall under their jurisdiction. A war ensued and unfortunately Carthage was defeated. War sparked again as a Carthaginian commander decided to launch a surprise attack on Italy. But, again Carthage was defeated in this endeavor. The last war between Rome and Carthage occurred in response to Carthage attacking a Roman ally in North Africa.This proved to be another mistake on Carthage people’s part, and resulted in the city of Carthage being completely destroyed and inhabited by Romans. What is so amazing about this is the ability of the Roman army to defeat a foe, not just once, but several times in an effort to continue their expansion. These events would continue to solidify the strength of the Roman empire and continue to prove the greatness that their society was becoming through expansion. The last notable era of conquest for the Roman empire was their expansion over the Hellenistic Empires.
Up until this point the power of the Roman empire was quickly spreading, and eventually it spread to the effect that the Roman Empire was called upon to mediate issues that were occurring in various Greek kingdoms. This was an extremely important shift, because it could allow the Roman empire to know the ins and outs of various cities, and this would help them to determine week points in these cities. It was during this time that the Hellenistic kingdoms became client states to Rome. Because of this Rome was now responsible to intervene in much of the affairs of the Hellenistic cities, and Corinth in particular did not agree with the necessary participation of the Roman government. This disagreement caused a revolt from some of the Corinth citizens, and the results were detrimental. The response of the Roman empire was to completely destroy the city of Corinth. What is important to note is that the destruction of Corinth and the Third Punic War took place in the same year. What this resulted in for Rome is that they now gained complete control over both Greek and Carthaginian power all in the same year. The result is that now Rome was the undisputed ruler of the Mediterranean world. Their power had been contested many times, but time after time they responded by continuing to expand their power and
rule. Now, it is clear to many that the ideal of expansion may not seem like a respectable attribute to consider a society great. But when one considers the time of the Roman empire, the reality is that expansion was required to become great. In some aspects the effectiveness of a society’s power revolves around how they are able to expand and control those aspects of expansion. In this regards the Roman empire proved as an outstanding model of an empire that was set on expanding their power and influence. When a society can couple this mindset with a mindset of excellence, it is only a matter of time before they influence those around them in a positive way. Even though this was not always the case of the Romans, they did provide a model of expansion and fruitfulness that many civilizations learned from.