The Roman Empire

Many believe that Romulus, the son of Mars, the war God, established the city of Rome atop the Palatine Hill. If Aeneas and his troops evacuated Troy, they would have set up the town. Nobody can deny that the Roman Empire had a significant effect on Western civilisation, notwithstanding the various competing tales about the city-state. When the ancient Romans conquered large swaths of Europe and northern Africa in the 4th century BC, they built highways, aqueducts, the Latin language and disseminated it worldwide.

How was the Early Empire?

While the Roman Republic was a mostly democratic society, its rulers were just one man; the Roman Empire had an all-powerful monarch. While the Roman Republic was constantly at war, the Roman Empire’s first two hundred years were tranquil.

Political agencies and institutions were founded and changed during the Early Empire to meet the changing demands of the nation. According to ancient historians, these changes and inventions resulted from a political battle between two social classes, the patricians and the plebeians, that began in the republic’s early years and continued for more than 200 years.

What about the Economic Expansion during the empire?

As Rome’s power grew, it had to change its approach to administering the everyday affairs of its allies. There are several ways the Romans used roads to expand their military and economic might. However, until 211 BC, the Romans began minting coins of their own, coining the denarius, a tiny silver coin that remained in use throughout the Roman Empire.

The use of a common currency aided trade across the expanding Roman Empire. All products and services could be bought or sold with coins, and they were also easy to carry. 

They (Romans) also traded across the Mediterranean Sea. Their political power grew, so did their network of trading ties, as solid political relations were often a prerequisite for successful commerce. Minting coins, Piracy, building roads, and extending military defence over an ever-expanding region provided several chances for commercial interaction and prosperity.

Simply put, The Roman Economic Expansion was characterised by well-developed commercial and financial networks like banking and extensive usage of money.

The formation of the Social Hierarchies:

According to Tacitus, the essential social classes in the early empire were the senators (patres, lit. “fathers”). The Social Hierarchies were: aristocratic and aristocratic-affiliated; the respectable; the untidy lower classes (plebs filthy); and, ultimately, the slaves.

When the Senate had a membership of around 1,000 in the early third century, about half of the senators were of Italian descent.

Aristocracy was united and enlarged under Constantine I’s rule in the early part of the fourth century. However, at least half of all families were of African or eastern descent by the time the late empire began in the early part of the 4th century.

Aristocracy in the early empire:

• The aristocracy of the Roman Empire was tremendously affluent. However, it was less influential in many respects than the military leaders, most of whom were non-aristocratic
• The middle class was now made up of many people who worked for the imperial government and several wealthy merchants and farmers in the eastern provinces
• In Tacitus’ view, this ‘respectable’ middle class was a customer of the great senatorial families. Many of these families were now relying primarily on government services and the State to keep them afloat. The great majority of the population, referred to as humiliores (Latin for “lower”), lived below them
• In addition to migrant workers who supplied much of the labour for the olive and grain harvests and the building industry, there were many casual labourers, especially in the big cities. Of course, there were the many thousands of slaves who were still found all across the country

The Roman Textile Industry:

• Roman textile industries import their raw materials from Italy and Spain and other parts of the Mediterranean region such as Greece and Syria (as well as from Egypt and Palestine). Weavers of the Roman era were prepared to put a lot of time and energy into their work. An international network of imports and exports was at action here, not a small-scale enterprise
• Both the local economies of Rome and the Republic (and subsequently the Roman Empire) relied heavily on textiles
• Roman textiles mainly were made of linen and wool, extensively available in the Mediterranean area. Cotton and silk from India and East Asia and dyes of every type were also imported into Roman markets

A brief on the Third-Century Crisis:

Historians refer to the third century as “The Crisis of the Third Century” because of several major crises that occurred during this period. However, the political and social instability that permeated this crisis can define several broader structural difficulties.

Here are the following examples of the Third-Century Crisis in Rome:

• Constant civil wars plagued the Roman Empire
• Assaults by the Barbarians on the Roman Empire
• The Roman Empire’s economic collapse
• ‘The Crisis of the Third Century’, an economic catastrophe, directly resulted from the two preceding ones
• Natural disasters in the Roman Empire, for example, earthquakes, floods, etc
• Finally, the Roman Empire’s size was a concern as it was too large to be run by a single person, as seen by the slowness with which messages could be sent from Rome to the frontiers

Conclusion:

Herein we have covered all the main features of The Roman Empire, which included the critical facts about the Early Empire, its Economic Expansion, Social Hierarchies, and ultimately the Third-Century Crisis that led to its downfall. As you can see, The Roman Empire was full of diversifications during the several facets of its reign.