The Rise of Rome

Between 220 and 167 BC, Rome conquered Carthage and took over the control of Hellenistic Greece. Polybius wrote a book about Rome based on the impression he got from this win. He says, "There can surely be nobody so pretty or so apathetic in his outlook that he has no desire to discover by what means and under what system of government the Romans succeeded in less than fifty-three years bringing under their rule almost the whole of the inhabited world, an achievement which is without parallel in human history. p36). According to Polybius, elements behind their success were; the morality, their principles, well organized and disciplined army and uniqueness of the Roman constitution. The expansion of the Roman boundaries is believed to be god's will which was an order. As a result, Roman Triumph dedicated a piece of his gains to gods (Jupiter) as a show of interest of serving the public good.

Consequently, between 264 and 146 BC during the Punic Wars as Rome tried to dominate the world, many temples were established as an assurance of military success (Jorg 4). This clearly shows that Romans had an outstanding faith and acted in the direction of their gods. It gave them confidence and power to defeat their enemies as long as they were fighting to expand the boundaries to honor the will of their gods. The constitution is a body which consists of laws, rights, and freedom to be adhered to by a state. It defines the right acts and wrong do's and the consequences in case laws are broken. According to Polybius, in his Fouth Book, he vividly outlines the powers assigned to consuls, senate and the people by the Roman Constitution. As a matter of fact, the Roman Constitution was distinct from the rest since it combined aspects of democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy.

For instance, during the second Punic war, where Hannibal fought Romans in the entire state of Italy forcing them to leave their farms and joining guerilla warfare, aristocracy was of great help because the aristocracy bought farms at a fair prices to pay off the debts and use cheap labor from the slaves they captured to staff their farms. Additionally, the manpower of the Romans gave them chance to adopt the Fabian strategy. Henceforth proving superiority and an effective response to the Hannibal. Furthermore, Rome had many allies thus allowed them to have a wide range of military recourses compared to it oppositions. For instance the use of heavy machines and covering fire. Romans fought using the preparatory fire from Onagers and Ballistas. Fighting with gaps is thus feasible" as asserted by Polybius is what contributed to the verge stand up due to the fact that they were larger and more organized compared to any other force.

Unavailability of resource to rekindle back from the effect of war a massive weakness to the enemies of Romans. For instance, the Iberians that had no Greek science as well as agricultural advantage, additionally the Phoenicians had a weakness of unifying their army due to their reckless nature. On the other hand, the Romans had a massive land as their main leverage and in its best position which led them to acquire Greek technology making them stable enough to take care of entire population (Polybius, p. To the Greeks, the problem was that they were not able to grow crops due to lack of land. These elements gave Rome a chance to become dominant worlds for approximately half a century. Works Cited. Jorg Rupke. Roman religion-Religions of Rome: in a companion to Roman religion.

Blackwell. II of the Loeb Classical Library Edition. Retrieved from http://penelope. uchicago. edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Polybius/4*. html.