Dayla’s Reviews > Caesar and Christ > Status Update

Rome’s great achievement was turning conquest into administration. Roads, law, taxation, citizenship and local government allowed an enormous collection of peoples to function within one political system.

There’s an interesting echo with the ancient China material you’ve been studying: both Rome and Qin/Han China discovered that lasting empire depends less upon winning territory than upon organizing it.

But victory creates a paradox that becomes one of Durant’s central themes:

Rome conquered the world, but the conquest changed Rome.

Rome steadily expands throughout Italy and then collides with Carthage. The great dramatic figure is Hannibal, who crosses the Alps and nearly destroys Rome, especially at Cannae, but Rome survives.

Eventually Scipio Africanus defeats Hannibal, and Carthage is later destroyed. Rome then conquers Greece and much of the eastern Mediterranean.

The early Roman Republic is dominated by conflict between patricians and plebeians. Gradually the lower classes win political rights, but Rome remains an aristocratic society. Durant admires many of the old Roman virtues—discipline, courage, loyalty, simplicity—but stresses that they were accompanied by harshness, slavery, and relentless warfare.

Rome conquers the Mediterranean

So far…

Durant begins with Italy before Rome, especially the Etruscans, whose religion, engineering, political customs, gladiatorial practices, and artistic traditions influenced early Roman civilization. Rome itself develops as a stern agricultural society built around the family, property, military discipline, religion, and civic duty.

Oh to be Cleopatra! Both boyfriends, Caesar and
Marcus Anthony were under her spell.