Empires refers to political constructs where a state dominates another or a series of other countries. An Emperor rules empires. The core idea is that an empire dominates over other territory or state. In the ancient days, the strongest cities grew by taking over other cities to be a part of them. Whenever they succeeded, the other neighborhood became a part of their empire. One state could marshal other states and making them semi-independent. As such, the aggressor state became the core state holding the sway over the other states. The core state became the strongest and powerful state in the region. The core state, therefore, ensured military control over the peripheral states and could also involve other cultural and economic influences. Various reasons were underlying the core state decision to expand and occupy other states. They included conflict resolution between warring states, economic interests, religious ideologies, and the lust for the glory of conquest. Also, during wars, the periphery played a major role in providing collaborations for the stronger states to ensure they had a substantial resistance. This paper discusses the famous Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire through analyzing the three strategies used by these empires in effort to build, maintain, expand, or safeguard their rule. Further, the paper explains the aftermath of these struggles, and offers particular instances retrieved from the scholarly articles to back up the contentions and claims.
The Roman Empire
Rome initially existed as a Monarch which came to an end in 509. BC (Stevens-Díaz, 2014). The power of the monarchs would then be passed to two magistrates. These magistrates were elected by the people from the Senate (Champion, 2007). During the early Roman Republic, the state grew rapidly in both wealth and size wielding a lot of power (Bacon, 2010).
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To become an empire, Rome used the following strategies: the first was a military strategy. Through military action, Rome expanded under the leadership of a military hero Camillus. The Rome state grew to gain control of the entire Italian Peninsula at around 264 BC (Bacon, 2010). After that, Rome fought the Punic Wars with Carthage which was a very powerful city located in the North of Africa. In its first two wars, Rome warned and conquered Cecily, a vast part of Spain and western Mediterranean gaining control over them. The third Punic War occurred in 149–146 B.C., and Rome conquered Carthage selling all its survivors to slavery, an action that made the northern part of Africa its territory (Stevens-Díaz, 2014). Similarly, Rome spread to the East defeating the Macedonian King Philip V. the Macedonian Kingdom also became a part of the Roman Territory. From these incidences, the Roman state grew and expanded to become strong by military action. The military conquest of Rome became an important aspect of cultural growth in the Empire. The growth of culture made the Romans have a sense of belonging which brought about unity (Champion, 2007).
The second strategy was wealth. Rome as a state practiced agriculture and sold the produce to other states (Stevens-Díaz, 2014). Through this Rome became wealthy and was able to use its resources to facilitate the military. Its strong agricultural economy provided the impetus they needed to fight with other territories. Some of the farmers also became a part of the militia which helped in the fight against the invaders. The wealthier the Roman Empire became, the better they were in fighting and conquering other territories. As a result of their wealth, some territories in Europe were willing to be controlled by the Romans in the hope that they will benefit from their protection and wealth that Rome generated through trade. Weaker and economically poor states thus stayed collaborative and would rather join Roman Empire to be annexed than be under the control of other poor states that expressed intentions of conquering them. Such states felt safer in under the rule of Rome than other empires (Stevens-Díaz, 2014). Also, wealth provided the resources that the military needed for the war in capturing new territories. As such Rome could have military ships and weapons and recruit several army men to ensure victory whenever they set out to conquer a new territory.
However, the internal struggles in the state led to the beginning of crumbling in the political institutions of the empire. In a bid to maintain the Empire, Julian Caesar after earning a military glory in Spain received the governorship of three wealthy provinces (Griffin, 2009). He then used the wealth as his strategy to conquer the rest of the provinces for Rome Empire.
Byzantine Empire
Byzantine emperor was established in the Greek-speaking Eastern Part of the Roman Empire - The Mediterranean (Whittow, 2009). It was much of the continuation of the Roman Empire. Byzantium was a name of some small town that separated Asia and Europe. Byzantine became as a result of growing military problems and failing administration following the death of Constantine. In an attempt to contain the failures, the Roman Empire was divided right in the middle (Whittow, 2009). The Easter part was the Byzantium.
The strategies that led to the establishments and survival of the Byzantium include the following: the first was strong administration and political stability. The Eastern Roman Empire, Byzantium had an unyielding administration and was politically stable (Bacon, 2010). The strong administration was brought about by the strong leadership of the Emperors. It, therefore, meant that it was able to exert more control over the economic resources of the empire. This enabled it to gain a lot of wealth and control many resources compared to other states that existed in the medieval period. To have more resources based on its stable political administration made Byzantium stay strong and resist disintegration. The economic resources were necessary in facilitating the military actions of Byzantium. They could also build a wall that ensured their boundary was safe to shield them from attack by other territories. The wall made the military work a lot easier when confronted with an attack from their neighborhoods.
The second strategy was the sufficient human resources for combating any form of invasion. Magdalino (2003) explains that Byzantium was economically strong and its wealth played a significant role in ensuring that it marshaled the required workforce through recruitment of soldiers to fight wars when invaded. This made the Byzantium survive several years after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Also, the geographical position of the Byzantium played an important role in minimizing threats to the Byzantium. It was located between the Infant Western Europe and the infidel world (Whittow, 2009). Based on its economic strength the Byzantium Empire was able to build a wall that made it less taxing for their army to provide a defense during the invasion. Also, Strong leadership ensured an organized military and enough resources for the military operations.
The third strategy was Christianity and culture. Christianity saw Byzantium Empire become the head of the patriarch of Constantinople (Magdalino, 2003). As such Patriarch of Constantinople headed both the church and the state. Consequently, during the fourth century, the Roman Empire was a vastly Christian religion and Byzantium became a Christian state operating on the authority of Christianity. The church would provide the solid backbone of which the Byzantium Empire survived. Together with a strong culture, they offered the identity and sense of belonging to the Byzantines. Byzantium had a strong culture which gave its people a sense of identity united them. As the Byzantium Empire was faced by attacks, which were mostly from the Muslims, their Christianity united them to ensure triumph and survival. The culture of the Byzantium Empire comprised art which included architecture painting and visual arts. The Byzantine art specifically was themed on religion and some of the artistic terms of church theology (Magdalino, 2003). These were from the Christian foundation for which the Byzantines were.
Conclusion
The two Empires all originated from the ancient Rome in Italy. The Roman Empire rose from the change of the political system of the monarchy to an autocratic system of governance. The Senate was second in position after the emperor although it lacked the political power. Under the leadership of Camillus, a military hero, Rome was transformed from a small state to controlling the entire Italian Peninsula. This became the journey of the state of Roman becoming an Emperor. As a state, it uses the military action and wealth as some of the strategies in conquering other states like the Carthage in the North of Africa, West Mediterranean, and Macedonian to become an Empire. However, the first leader to be described as the Empire was Augustus after succeeding Caesar. Byzantium Empire on the other end grew from the fall of the Roman Empire. It was ruled by the fall in administration system and the political instability that marred the leadership of the Roman Empire. However, so as to remain vigorous and fruitful, the Byzantium Empire used the strategy of wealth, military action, and culture as well as a religion which enabled the unity, strength, and resource needed for defense and attack.
References
Bacon, E. K. (2010). Reviewed Work: The Dynamics of Ancient Empires: State Power from Assyria to Byzantium by Ian Morris, Walter Scheidel. Journal of World History, 21 (4), 734-738.
Champion, C. B. (2007). Empire by Invitation: Greek Political Strategies and Roman Imperial Interventions in the Second Century B.C.E. Transactions of the American Philological Association 137 , 255–275.
Griffin, M. (Ed.). (2009). A companion to Julius Caesar . Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Magdalino, P. (Ed.). (2003). Byzantinum in the Year 1000 (Vol. 45). Leiden: Brill.
Stevens-Díaz, A. (2014). William E. Dunstan, Ancient Rome London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Comparative Civilizations Review, 71 , 131-134.
Temin, P. (2006). The economy of the early Roman Empire. The Journal of Economic Perspectives , 20 (1), 133-151.
Whittow, M. (2009). Early medieval Byzantium and the end of the ancient world. Journal of Agrarian Change , 9 (1), 134-153.
