Question In your opinion, could Rome be perceived as an idea as well as a city that represented an Imperial Dynasty. Perhaps if the city had been destroyed at a point where it endured the concept of Rome and SPQR may have endured?
Answer Hello,
Actually Rome and its great civilization has been a real fact, of course, not only an idea, since first the Roman Kingdom (753 BC-509 BC) within central Italy only, later the Roman Republic (509 BC- 27 BC) over the borders of Italy, and finally the Roman Empire (27 BC- 476 AD) not only lasted over so many centuries and ruled so many countries, as you can see below, but spread its culture around much of the then known world.
As for “How Rome can be perceived”, as you say, it was perceived originally as a great power thanks to its military organization, its legions discipline and courage, its good government, its political strength, later as a great civilization and culture in the fields of jurisprudence, literature, civil engineering and architecture and the road network which sometimes exists still today.
Finally Rome and its SPQR survive still today not as a city that represented an Imperial Dynasty, but as a great culture and civilization that are a part of the European and World heritage.
Note that SPQR is the acronym of “Senatus PopulusQue Romanus“ meaning “The Senate and the people of Rome” as the expression of the government of the ancient Roman Republic when both Senate and People had the power and then were sovereign, and also as the signature of the emperors who were considered the representatives of the people.
To sum up, the Roman Empire was distinguished not only for its outstanding army, the foundation upon which the whole empire rested, but also for its accomplishments in intellectual endeavours, as the Romans were gifted in the applied arts of law, government, city planning, and statecraft, but they also acknowledged and adopted contributions of other ancient peoples(most notably, those of the Greeks), much of whose culture was thereby preserved.
Best regards,
Maria
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
NB.
The Romans were a warlike nation, possessed a powerful army and conquered many territories.
In fact, during the later Republic and most of Empire Rome was the dominant power in the entire Mediterranean basin, most of Western Europe and large areas of northern Africa, as the Roman Empire comprised many countries from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea and the Black Sea, i.e. Italy, Portugal, Spain, France, England, part of Scotland, Western Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria, Jugoslavia, Greece, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Armenia, Syria, Irak, Israel, Palestina, Northern Africa from Maroc to Egypt.
So, by total land, the Roman empire, under Emperor Trajan (98-117 AD) covered 5.7 million km˛ or 2.2 million mi˛.
