History question...please help?

Question

Please give some suggestions on how the Roman political institutions help explain Rome's successful expansion and ability to control so much territory.

I am not doing too good in my history class, and I have an assignment that I need to do really good on.

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

You need to examine the “Cursus Honorum” the route to political power was linked to military service, one had to have served in the army before one could be considered for political office. Although there was a salary linked to these offices, it was not considered enough to sustain a political career, therefore it was common practice to either; over-tax provinces of the empire (the excess was skimmed off by the various offices); or to expand the empire. Any ambitious Roman could clamber this ladder, but without money to grease palms to gain influence and patronage this climb could turn out to be impossible.

Answer 2

Well, you and I are kinda in the same boat.....Roman history was not my forte....but these may help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Roman_...

http://www.romanempire.eu/

http://www.uoregon.edu/~klio/wc/12-roman...

http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~klio/wc07/1...

Answer 3

You'd probably have got more help if you had given your question a meaningful title. A lot of people skimming these boards aren't going to take the time to open up something as vague as this on the off-chance that it's about a subject they are expert in. If you had asked something like "how did Roman political institutions help Rome expand?", everyone who knew anything about classical Roman history would have opened and read it.