Rome’s Techniques of Imperial Administration & Their Successful Political Forms Jose Mendez, Autumn Macklin, Michaela Easley, Jasmesha Evans 1st Period

Roman Government ●Rome’s centralized government was the Roman Senate, very similar to the United States Senate today.(which eventually failed due to over expansion in 31 bce) ●Elected republican officials were only in office for one year before being kicked off so it was imperative to make themselves known in that one year or service, that of which lead on to Romes reason for such great expansion. ●Conflict between the lower class (Plebians) and the elite (Particians) lead to creation of the twelve tables which served to be romes legal system (law code). ●Some of which include the punishment for stealing, the authority of parents over their children and constitutional principles.

● The lead bureaucrat of this all was the roman king/ emperor which had direct control over the whole empire. ●The best example of an emperor was Julius Caesar who was a great general and Politician that helped Rome reach one of it heights. ●All these aspects helped the Roman empire to keep tabs on its empire and what was going on around it which helped it become one of the largest if not the largest empires of all time.

Rome establishes Diplomacy The Roman Empire maintained diplomacy by granting Roman citizenship to conquered land and choosing the rulers to govern each province, usually Roman officials. This maintained order in Rome and was effective for a while, but it soon made a backwards turn. Rome’s use of diplomacy turned into a bad thing because every year a new leader was chosen to govern and this gave them little time to gain experience and good connections. Also, many leaders were dishonest and used the time of their rule to steal large amounts of money from the empire.

Roman supply lines The Roman Empire was very large and was the first urban empire in ancient times. They created long, precise roads, that were over 53,000 miles long, to connect all of their cities back to Rome. These roads made traveling easier and enabled trade within the empire. The military, merchants, politicians, and others used them to go to one place to another spreading ideas and products.

The Roman Empire’s Expansion ●The Roman Roads linked the empire to other civilizations for trade and for the military to conquer other people. ●The Romans conquered so many civilizations but gave them the chance to become Roman citizens. This made the conquered people not rebel, pay taxes and added people to their military. ●They also appealed to making Christianity legal because they didn’t pay taxes when the Roman gods had to be worshiped but once they were allowed practice their religion, christians they had to pay their taxes.

Trade = Rome success Rome was one of the more successful empire in history because of its’ location and how that affected trade. (Location)- All the land surrounding the Mediterranean sea and substantial portion of continental Europe and middle east. Rome’s location made them the center of trade and this enable trade to be a lot easier. Rome’s perfection of the use of concrete encouraged them to make roads which also made land trade easier. Although it wasn’t a real road Rome was able to establish a route from China called the Silk road. Since Rome included the land surrounding the Mediterranean sea, they reaped the benefit of having access to the riches that came from it. With the silk road Rome was able to trade things such as wine and olive oil for food, raw materials, silk from China and other finished goods. Another reason Rome was successful was because the government coined money which also made trade easier.

Trade = Rome success (cont.) The Romans good use of roads lead them to create a postal system and a daily newspaper. Since the Romans prospered from trade they had money to do other things, and that’s why they were so successful. Wealth and trade meant they had money to spend on other things such as military and urban development. (statues, pools, colosseum, ) The wealth was a curse and a blessing because in a sense it lead to the fall of the empire. As the empire grew (expansion because of the military using the roads to easily acquire new land) they need more soldiers to protect the land and this caused taxes to increase. The increase in tax helped the upper class but upset the lower class. The upper class became more concerned with artificial things and their own riches that they forgot about the empire, and left it open to attack from Germanic invaders.