The great Roman Empire ruled from the years 31 BC-476 AD and had a chokehold on most of the world as we know it. The roman empire dominated with their innovative and advanced society. Inventions such as the aquaduct put them miles ahead of other civilizations, and actually they had concrete then that is better then what we have now. I could self repair and last far longer. These are not so obvious reasons but some of the obvious reasons were they were extremely rich and with that comes with a vast and powerful military. Rome also had major influence on our world today, examples like paved roads were a feat of the Romans. Hence the saying ” All roads lead to Rome”. Lots of the language we know today as the “Romance” languages like Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese came from Latin which derived in Rome. Over the lifespan of Rome through conquest Rome controlled the North African coast, Egypt, Southern Europe, most of Western Europe, the Balkans, Crimea, much of the Middle East, as well as Anatolia, Levant, and parts of Mesopotamia and Arabia. This shows the military force and power they had that at will they could take wherever they wanted. They had roughly 500,000 full time soldiers, as well as fleets and fleets of ships to go with them. Rome also was an economic giant during its peak which is almost an understatement. They were responsible for 30% of the total global economic output which is equivalent to roughly 31 trillion dollars in todays money. To put this into perspective the United States only puts out 25% of it now. Romes military dominance is almost as night and day as the united states and a small third world country. In other words romes millitary had no real match at the time.
