The Roman Empire was a major Eurasian power which existed for over a millennium, growing from being a small city state in central Italy to conquer the Mediterranean world between the third and first centuries BCE. It peaked in the second century CE, at which time its rule extended from southern Scotland in the north to the Sahara Desert in the south and from the Atlantic shores of Europe in the west to parts of Arabia and the Caucasus in the east. The Romans ruled through a mix of imperialism and colonialism, which meant that some regions experienced considerable demographic change under their rule as colonies of Roman legionaries and citizens were planted across areas like Gaul (modern-day France and the Low Countries) and Britain. The demographic, cultural, lingual and intellectual legacy of the Roman Empire is vast.[1]
The Roman Empire chronology of events
According to legend the city of Rome was founded by the quasi-deities Romulus and Remus in 753 BCE, who had been raised by a she-wolf on the banks of the River Tiber near the seven hills that Rome grew up around. In reality, archaeological evidence points towards Rome emerging gradually as several villages which had been settled on the seven hills since the eleventh century BCE amalgamated into one and evolved into a city. Rome subsequently progressed from being a monarchy to a republic by the sixth century BCE. Yet it remained just a minor regional power in central Italy for much of its history, dwarfed by the more powerful Etruscans of Tuscany to the north and the Greek colonies of southern Italy or Magna Graecia.[2]

Rome’s ascent to the status of a major power across the Mediterranean began in the fourth century BCE when it came to control all of central Italy and then expanded into the south of the peninsula following a series of wars with the Samnites and other Italian groups. This brought Rome into conflict with Carthage, a major state which had been established centuries earlier as a Phoenician colony in what is now Tunisia and which controlled Sicily, Sardinia and parts of the Mediterranean coast of Hispania (Spain). In the course of the First Punic War (264 BCE – 241 BCE) and the Second Punic War (218 BCE – 201 BCE) Rome defeated Carthage and annexed the Italian islands and much of Hispania, becoming the dominant power of the Western Mediterranean in the process.[3]
In the centuries that followed Rome continued to expand decade after decade, conquering Greece and other parts of Turkey and the Balkans in the second century BCE, before finalizing its control over the Mediterranean in the first century BCE as generals like Pompeius Magnus annexed regions like Syria and the Kingdom of Pontus in what is now northern Turkey. Finally, Julius Caesar began Rome’s northwards expansion away from the Mediterranean when he conquered Gaul in the 50s BCE. Yet these generals had also become so powerful as Rome expanded that civil wars broke out and eventually Caesar’s great-nephew and adoptive heir, Octavian, proclaimed himself as imperator or emperor of Rome in 27 BCE.[4]

Expansion continued under the empire, though at a less rapid pace as the Romans focused on consolidating their territory and establishing defensive borders along natural frontiers like the River Rhine in Germania, the River Danube to the east and the Sahara Desert in the south. The great Enlightenment historian, Edward Gibbon, wrote in the eighteenth century that if any person could chose when and where they would live in any historical period they should have chosen the Roman Empire during the period of the so-called ‘Five Good Emperors’ in the second century CE, a time when the Pax Romana brought unprecedented peace and prosperity to much of Eurasia and living standards that would not be seen again in Europe until Gibbon's time.[5]
Yet this peak was ephemeral. Beginning in the third century CE, Germanic and Asiatic tribes began attacking the northern borders of the empire and this, combined with major problems such as the prevalence of civil wars within the empire and an economic crisis brought about by severe inflation, led to the gradual decline of Rome. Eventually the empire was split into a western and eastern half with two emperors. The Western Roman Empire came to an end in 476 CE when the last emperor there was deposed and the provinces came under the rule of Germanic kings. The eastern part of the empire survived as the Byzantine Empire down to 1453, though it was a very different kind of state after a time than its Roman forbear.[6]
Extent of migration associated with the Roman Empire
Inevitably, given the extent of the territory which it ruled and the length of time which it lasted for at its peak, the Roman Empire profoundly impacted the migratory patterns of Eurasia between the third century BCE and the fifth century CE. As their state expanded the Romans sent out colonies of settlers to newly conquered provinces. Often these were former legionaries who were given grants of land in newly acquired territory with the goal of introducing Roman culture and governance into those same regions. This Roman colonial migration varied in extent from place to place. Because the Eastern Mediterranean was already a well-developed region of Greek cities when the Romans arrived there from the second century BCE onwards they did not introduce many colonies here, instead opting to send out governors with legionaries to rule these regions as imperialists.[7] But in other less developed regions like Gaul, Germania, Britain and parts of central Europe and the Balkans such as Noricum (modern-day Austria) and Dacia (modern-day Romania) they established significant colonies of Roman settlers.[8]
Demographic impact of the Roman Empire
The demographic impact of all of this Roman migration was immense. It transformed the demography of certain regions such as Gaul, western Germania, Hispania and Dacia where the pre-Roman populations of Celts, Lusitanians, Britons and other groups were now living amongst significant numbers of Romans. A good sign of how extensively colonized these regions were is the lingual heritage of these provinces. Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, French and other languages like Occitan and Galician are all derived from Latin. Such was the demographic impact of Roman colonization of these regions between the second century BCE and the third century CE.[9]
A great many cities and towns across these areas also owe their emergence to Roman activity. For instance, the city of Lyon in southern France, was settled as the city of Lugdunum[10] in Roman times and was the capital of Roman Gaul, while Cologne[11] in western Germany was founded as a major Roman settlement called Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippennesium meaning ‘The Colony of Claudius and the Altar of the Agrippians’, a testament to the Emperor Claudius and the family of Marcus Agrippa which played a significant role in the establishment of Roman rule in Germania. Hence, whether from a demographic, lingual or urban perspective the legacy of Roman migration has been vast down to the present day.
Explore more about the Roman Empire
- Marble Greek and Roman Statues Were Actually Painted in Brilliant Colors at the MyHeritage blog
- The Roman Empire at World History Encyclopedia
- Family Tree of Julio-Claudian Emperors at PBS
References
- ↑ https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/ancient-rome
- ↑ https://www.worldhistory.org/Rome/
- ↑ https://www.worldhistory.org/Punic_Wars/
- ↑ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/history-magazine/article/julius-caesar-crossing-rubicon-rome
- ↑ https://historycooperative.org/high-point-five-good-emperors/
- ↑ https://www.history.com/news/8-reasons-why-rome-fell
- ↑ https://www.jstor.org/stable/299492
- ↑ https://www.worldhistory.org/Roman_Gaul/
- ↑ https://www.britannica.com/topic/Romance-languages
- ↑ https://www.livius.org/articles/place/lugdunum-lyon/
- ↑ https://www.livius.org/articles/place/colonia-claudia-ara-agrippinensium-koln/