부산대학교 도서관

The face of Roman power was always the legions, but these legions had to be paid and maintained. Doing so at the unprecedented levels the Empire sustained for five hundred years could be accomplished only through the creation and maintenance of a powerful economy from which resources could be drawn (taxes) in huge amounts without breaking the economic engine. During the great expansion of the Roman Republic, war was made to pay for itself, as Rome exploited its conquests to fund further conquests. But most of that expansion ended with the birth of the Empire, forcing the Romans to integrate their conquests into a unified economic system. As a consequence of the Pax Romana, this integrated economic system was able to grow at historically unprecedented rates and maintain this growth for almost two hundred years. The resultant economy was the foundation of Roman power throughout the five hundred years of the Empire. Only after Rome lost sight of the crucial importance of securing its economic core was the Empire doomed.