Question

How did Rome achieve its empire from 264 to 133 b.c.e., and what is meant by the phrase “Roman imperialism”?

Answer 1

This regime was well-designed to carry on with the new Roman state war's chief concern. At first, the Roman army had the phalanx-around 8,000 foot soldiers armed with helmet, shield, lance, and sword as its basic unit. Yet experience led to the introduction of the much more maneuverable legion, consisting of 5,000 men in groups of 60 or 120, called manipulations, armed with an iron-tipped javelin that could be hurled from a distance at the enemy. Nearly all Rome's citizens had to serve. Iron discipline prevailed; but the officers also understood the significance of generous bravery reward.

The Romans established their political dominance over the other Latin cities, the Etruscan cities, and the Central Italian tribes in a long series of wars. At the beginning of the third century B.C. The Byzantine cities of southern Italy are captured. Elsewhere, a Celtic group, the Gauls, crossed the Alps in the north and settled in the plain of Lombardy. They ended their expansion in 225 B.C. At the Rubicon river, the northern border of the Roman dominion.

Through constructing their first large fleet and destroying at sea the Carthaginians, the Romans won that war. They forced Carthage to abandon all claims to eastern Sicily and also to cede western Sicily, thus obtaining their first province beyond the mainland of Italy. Followed by Sardinia and Corsica in 237. In search of revenge, in the Second Punic War (218-202), the Carthaginians used Spain as the basis for an overland invasion of Italy. Hannibal (247-183), their commander, led his forces through southern Gaul and then through the Alps to Italy. He recruited many Gauls in northern Italy and won a string of victories as he marched south, making excellent use of light infantry.

From now on, the Romans controlled Greece for Macedonia, but as a province they have not yet conquered it. Internal struggles in Greece have come to an end; religious and economic revival has taken place; differences between rich and poor have become more pronounced. Now the prestige of Rome was so high that in 133 Pergamum's king left in his will his thriving Asia Minor state to Rome. It has become Asia's new province.

Within approximately 200 years, Rome's city state expanded militarily to become the dominant power on Italy's peninsula; the same military establishment rose to assume authority over the entire Mediterranean world over the next 200 years. Contemporaries recognized the success of the Roman armies and modern historians marveled at it. In this chapter, we will briefly identify Roman military society's unique characteristics that enabled it to transform itself into a Mediterranean empire.

The idea of helping its allies was heavily built on Roman colonialism. Rome had a history of communicating with friendly lesser states by supplying them with defense from their enemies, while Rome was able to call on them to provide war powers. This was a relationship that caused more involvement in Rome and accelerated more wars.