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What were the chief features of the Roman empire at its height of the second century?
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago
It depends on what you mean by empire. Historians made a confusing use of this term. They use it both in the usual sense of territorial possessions and to indicate the period of rule by emperors which followed the fall of the Roman Republic. In territorial terms, the Romans already had an empire during the Republic. In fact the greater part of Rome's imperial expansion took place during the republican period.
In the territorial sense, the political features were continuous territorial expansion and political decline. The economic features were a growth in trade, and an enrichment of the rich via the spoils of war, slavery and trade. Slaves were war captives and victorious wars created an abundant supply of slaves. Most were bought by rich landowners and worked in fields of the large landed estates which expanded thanks to this plentiful supply of labour. The poor became poorer. Many came under economic distress during the Second Punic War either because their farms were ravaged by Hannibal's army or because they had been neglected due to prolonged military service. The rich took advantage of this to buy land on the cheap. These landless peasants flocked to Rome to eke out a living and swelled the masses of the poor.
The Roman Republic was brought down by the weight of imperial expansion. The central government had become dysfunctional, and lost control over the provinces (conquered territories), Corruption was rampant. The governors of the provinces became unruly and treated their provinces as if they were their personal fiefs. There were military commanders who used military violence or the threat of it to get what they wanted. In 71 BC Crassus and Pompey encamped their troops outside Rome to have themselves elected as consuls (the two annually elected heads of the Republic). Pompey was not even eligible on the grounds of being below the required age and of not having served in some public offices which were required before the consulship. Sulla was the first man who entered the city of Rome with troops to start his first civil war against Marius, even though Roman religion forbade the bearing of arms within the city walls.
In the last 64 years of the Republic there were 12 civil wars. Most of them were related to clashes between strong military leaders and the conflict between populares(who championed the cause of the poor and wanted reforms to help them) and optimates (who supported the aristocracy and opposed the reforms) spilling into violence. These civil wars eventually led to the fall of the Republic.
If one refers to the Roman Empire as the rule by emperors, its first two hundred years were characterised to what historians have called the Pax Romana (Roman Peace). This was a period of relative political stability in the empire which followed Augusts' creation of absolute rule by the emperor. The emperor was firmly in control of the state through an imperial bureaucracy. The senate was turned into an instrument for the emperor's rule. The central government had control over the provinces and the empire became stable as there was little room for infighting. This helped with the integration of the provinces into the imperial system and the development of thriving trading networks around the empire and beyond. The provinces sold each other goods and goods were also imported goods from Arabia, Ethiopia, Persia, India and China.
Wiki User
∙ 10y ago
Wiki User
∙ 14y agoWiki User
∙ 10y agoThe Roman Empire at its height was the second largest empire antiquity saw.
Wiki User
∙ 11y agoshsfdjgfkfhkhjgk
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