Western Civilization Rome and Italy

Western Civilization

Rome and Italy

The early city of Rome was small but its growing population required more land in order to meet the expansion of its people. This fueled a drive for the acquisition of new territory. The overtaking of Italy was however, not immediate.

The reason why Rome was so successful compared to others such as the Etruscans was due to them using a combination of brains and brawn. The Etruscans and others lacked the social grace that the Romans incorporated into their lifestyle. The Etruscan cities were independent states that shared a language and a religion but never formed a political unit. The Roman government was much more politically stable (Radice, 1982). They used reason and often made compromises to settle conflict rather than just the use of brute force.

Rome made very few of their conquered "citizens" of Rome, but a lot were considered privileged subjects. Rome required taxation from its subjects which helped to finance its army. Rome also granted freedom and citizenship to slaves more often than to those people it conquered. One very important aspect of their mindset in conquering others was the acceptance of other belief systems. This must have made the transition of the conquered easier than if they acted primarily as brute conformists (Radice, 1982).