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The Roman Empires military had one of the closest relations to the state than any other empire or nation in its time. Rome was always a military state. The military was made up of entirely grown men. An ancient scholar named "Josephus" described the Roman military as being "born ready armed". They were one of the most successful and long lasting military forces they excelled in technology too. The creator of the military and Rome was a man named Romulus. Polybius ran the military around 156 B.C.E. and he was one of the most successful rulers of it. The Roman military was "famed for its discipline, organization, and innovation in both weapons and tactics, allowed Rome to build and defend a huge empire which for centuries would dominate the Mediterranean world and beyond." said James Lloyd. The Romans were thought to fight in a phalanx a type of military formation used by Greeks and many other ancient groups. In the Roman empire if you were at the bottom of the social class you were not able to join the military and serve for Rome. Only higher classes could serve like the elites etc. For a long amount of time the Roman Empire spent almost all of its money on supporting the military and paying for everything they could possibly need. A major key to ancient Rome's military was Julius Caesar, he was said to be Rome's most successful general of all time. Caesar led many attacks; Gaul, Germanic territories across the river, Britain, and many more. Rome never had that much of a navy, but they created one that conquered Carthage, and it was one of "the greatest sea powers of the day".
This is a picture of the Roman empires military using the formation I mentioned above called the Phalanx.
In the Roman Empire around 230 C.E. the empire split into two parts an east and a west. When the empire was divided into two pats they both thrived for around 200 years staying a strong empire. The eastern part of the empire was on the coast of the Mediterranean and adopted Greek traditions, destroying the old culture of the traditional Roman empire. When the Roman empire began to fall the east fell first causing the downfall of the entire empire to begin. Also even though the empire was in two separate parts they both helped each other out and supported them for whatever they needed; like crops or soldiers, or many other things that the other side of the empire would need.
Throughout the Roman empire many items and/ or food was traded. Rome stood as the center of communication and trade in the whole Italian peninsula. A big part of economic development was the opening of the imperial markets because of imperial rule that was occurring. The Roman's issued taxes, tribute, and rent to everyone in their empire. When the Roman's took over an area the soldiers were able to gain a huge piece of land and the empire began to just grow and grow, getting bigger each time they conquered a new place. For trade; luxury trade did exist, which is the people who had a lot of wealth were able to command specialty goods. Rome had to send people out to get these special goods and in return was mostly precious metals,including gold, iron, and many more items of trade that were mentioned on the "Roman Trade Routes" page. People were also traded too. Slaves were a big part of trade during the Roman empire.