What is The Roman Empire?

Rome grew from an Italian city into a republic and then an empire around the Mediterranean. Diverse peoples, languages, and local governments existed within its expansive political system.

From republic to empire

Accounts of early Rome blend legend with later sources; tradition dates its foundation to 753 BCE. In the Republic, the Senate, magistrates, and popular assemblies shared a complex system of power, though rights were unequal. Conquests brought land and resources while expanding slavery, inequality, and internal conflict. After civil wars, Augustus established a new order in 27 BCE that preserved republican forms while concentrating power in the emperor. Provincial administration relied on armies, taxation, and relationships with local elites.

Transformation and legacy

Roads, ports, aqueducts, law, and currency connected some regions, though benefits were uneven. Roman society included citizens, freed people, enslaved people, and varied legal statuses. Borders and political centers shifted. The division process associated with 395 and the end of the western imperial office in 476 did not mean the Eastern Roman state ended too; centered on Constantinople, it survived until 1453. Roman legacies influenced law, architecture, and political thought, but later societies reinterpreted them for their own purposes.