The largest functional difference between the late republic and the early imperial government was essentially that the republic was unable to control the vast empire while the imperial system could. Indeed, one of the surprising things when one reads the histories of Rome is that the transition from republic to imperial changed everything and yet everything essentially remained the same. Our modern conceptions of these forms of government do not necessarily transfer to the times of ancient Rome, rather a look at the functional differences reveals something different. We tend to focus on the philosophical differences and thus conclude that a Republic is fair, just and upheld by some proto-conception of a social contract while an imperial system by nature is harsh, brutal and ultimately a tyranny.
Indeed, much of the expansion of the Roman empire occured while Rome was still a republic.Ĭoming from the US we have very fixed ideas about the words 'republic' and 'imperial'. The terroritory spanned by the late Roman Republic. Historical Background of the Site or Topic
