Roman Empire

Cities governed themselves under local law within an imperial frame.

Emperors ruled behind republican forms; the Senate had little real power.

Little policing of private morals, but treason law and swift repression of disorder.

Rome itself was the world order; citizenship was extended to all free men in AD 212.

Expansion and frontier defence by a long-serving professional army rather than conscripts.

Tolerated local gods and customs while spreading Latin and Roman ways.

Slave-based economy of private estates, tax farming and a 5% inheritance tax.

Mostly free trade in goods; the state ran the grain dole.

Mediterranean-wide commerce with modest tolls and secured grain from Egypt.

Civic religion and the imperial cult were part of the state.

Augustan laws promoted marriage and childbearing; ancestral custom revered.

Great engineers of roads, aqueducts and concrete.