So /his/, how do you explain the enduring success of Rome?
>>17985281Their willingness to incorporate other peoples into the Republic and later Empire, while at the same time still willing to rape their enemy to death (Carthage) if push comes to shove.
>>17985281Militarism was the norm, Rome was just the best at it.
>>17985281Superior values and traditions from religion. Every other reply is materialistic and pseudo spiritual cope.And no, Rome wasn't Christian. Constantinople wasn't Roman.
>>17985281Multiculturalism. Rome just kept absorbing everyone else's coolest stuff, gods, and people, then called it Roman. It was cultural plagiarism as a state-sponsored superpower. They won because they had no original identity to drag them down.
>>17985463Yeah. I get struck by how the Hellenes viewed military service as a privilege and luxury, the Carthaginians viewed it as largely removed from the bulk of the populace (Beyond taxation) while for the Romans it was an integral part of your relationship with them as a conquered people that you'd be providing troops.Livy's numbers are sure to be wrong, but when you compare how much cavalry the Seleucids brought to Magnesia and then how much cavalry just Apulia was expected around the Punic war to provide and it's ridiculous - little heel of Italy according to Livy is able to supply more cavalry than the Sillykids even brought to the big battle. Even if Livy is wrong and the numbers are say, half that or a quarter of that it still shows a remarkable resource that Greeks and Punics either couldn't or wouldn't use.
>>17985781>Rome just kept absorbing everyone>MulticulturalismUh?
>>17985281If enough people buy a lottery ticket, someone's gonna win. There's not a simple answer, because it's a combination of many factors, chief among them being simply luck. Militarism and rule of law were also factors, but by no means the only. Rome could have been wiped out by the vae victus gauls and the survivors just dispersed after that instead of rebuilding, it could have been beaten by Carthage if they went to war earlier, Alexander could have turned West instead of East, etc
People were actevly invested in the institutions so they constantly defended them.These institutions were just more beneficial than other empires.
Their willingness to copy their enemies tactics.
