History in Your Pocket Pt. Two

Rome`s raise and fall, Philosophy and Vikings

                The first republic in the world was the Roman Republic. Let`s see how it worked back then. Rome was enjoying a great geographical scene. In the beginning Rome served as a bridge of the south and the north of Italy. The Tiber River provided a sufficient flow of water and the geographical location avoided floods. Romans also were more tolerant in religion as the Greeks were; they allowed citizens to believe what they chose to believe. Roman government quickly learned how to make allies and found it beneficial; that helped Rome to rise to its greatness. Nevertheless, every great nation faces some difficulties.

                Rome was expanding fast and it got hard, more and more impossible to keep order all through the Roman republic. It was too large to provide enough force for keeping all of the citizens in order. Italian allies, which were the ones fighting for Rome, asked for more right in the Roman republic, they wanted equal rights, but the government did not respond. Aristocrats also did not cope with the ideology well and started to object to any innovation or changes. Finally, the Civil War brought Roman republic to an end. The Roman republic was then switched to Roman Empire, which was not ruled by a Senate anymore.

                The empire government style worked for quite some time. Roman empire got bigger and covered more and more area. The emperor had trusted praetors to rule the colonized parts of the empire. They where trust wordy because of the army that emperor had in his use. Roman emperor had the largest professional army at the time. Caesar even granted citizenship for other provinces, so the citizens where more loyal to the emperor. Augustus did not status himself as an emperor, instead granting him a name of “first citizen”, which sounded equal enough.