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Dude I've taken classes on this stuff when I was at UCSC... The book was the thousand years of Rome and I'm blankin on the professors name but he was also on the faculty at stanford so I think he knows what he's talking about.
Didn't talk about the dictators because what you were talking about were not the emperors they were the consuls, the consuls were the ones in power for x years that stepped down after their term. There were two of them one to control the army and one to preside over the senate.
To say that everyone in Rome was a citizen is just downright wrong. Most people under Roman Hegemony (the touch of the roman empire and republic) were not citizens as you needed to meet certain criteria they had to be men, had to be from born under roman rule, and could not be a slave son of a slave or a freed man. Women and slaves and freedmen along with people living in newly conquered areas of Rome WERE NOT CITIZENS.
Yeah well Rome really subjugated people they conquered: took their wealth, killed off anyone they thought would pose a threat (leaders etc), and enslaved a sizable amount of the population, not to mention the rest were now subjugated to being second class "citizens" in Rome meaning they had no rules got taxed out the ass and so on.
You don't agree with the third and fourth points... Uhh well you obviously don't know he first thing about roman society and their republic because it was after they created a standing army and not just a militia that they began to take over a significant amount of land and become the powerhouse they were not just a simple city state. How do you thing they did this simply walk in and people gave them all their wealth and goods? No they took it by force.
All I have to say from the final paragraph is wowwwwww...
- they were as civilized and intelligent as us? Dude they had slaves and treated everyone that wasn't a white man of wealth like a piece of shit. Maybe the ruling class was intelligent but the average run of the mill person was illiterate, the senate had an orator whos job it was to read the news and newly decreed laws to the mob because they themselves couldnt read it
- a 2000 year civilization? Really? Where are you getting your facts? Rome from the very conception up until the collapse was 1000 years. I'm talking from the birth of the republic all the way to when they got destroyed by the barbarians In he 5th century was only about 1000 years.
- they were in power for so long because they ruled by force. Also the "republic you speak of was only about 500 yeas long or so for the rest of that time they were an empire and before that a kingdom.
- they did it right? They had a lot of problems because they had a vast empire at a time when travel was very limited they constantly had issues with food shortages being attacked by barbarians not to mention they had continuous issues in Rome itself with sanitation, plague, poverty, hunger, not to mention the politicians were always fighting both verball and physically with one another over power.
Seriously man I studied this shit for 2 quarters if you really want I'll dig up my notes but you sir may wanna double check ur Wikipedia sources before making such bold allegations about Rome being such a wonderful place where everyone were equals and loved each other
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