When opposition to Roman influence developed in Greece in 148 B.C., a commission of ten was appointed by the Roman Senate to settle affairs in the Greek peninsula.  The city of Corinth was burned to the ground and its lands were confiscated.  Thebes and Chalcis were also destroyed.  The walls of all towns which had shared in the revolt against Rome were pulled down.  All confederations between Greek cities were dissolved.  Disarmament, isolation and Roman taxation were imposed on the Greek cities and the oversight of affairs was assigned to the Roman governor of neighboring Macedonia.

Successful wars against Syria and Egypt extended Roman control over additional territory in West Asia and North Africa.  A map of Italy at the time of the Roman Federation in 268 B.C. shows Rome as the most powerful among two score minor associates in the federation.  A map of the Roman Empire at the death of Augustus in 14 A.D. shows a Roman Empire extending from the Atlantic seaboard on the west to Central Europe on the north, the Black Sea on the east and a generous strip of Africa on the south.

Within three centuries Rome had expanded from its position as a minor state in Italy to the effective control of those portions of three continents which bordered the Mediterranean.  Conquests during the following century further extended the Roman frontiers.

Under the Caesars Rome was a society in the throes of political transition.  Roman Emperors, backed and frequently selected by the military, were exercising despotic power.  They still paid lip service to the Constitution, an instrument that had relevance during the life of the defunct Republic.  In the era of the Caesars the law slumbered and might ruled.  The turbulent masses were fed and housed by the Roman Oligarchy to which the Emperors were ultimately responsible.  The far flung territories conquered by military power and held by military occupation were subject to the authority of the same Roman Oligarchy.

Behind the shams, frauds and tyrannies of a political dictatorship paying lip service to the corpse of a defunct Republic lay the stark realities of a bankrupt economy.  Throughout the era of the Caesars the Roman Empire continued to expand geographically.  It also came into contact and conflict with peoples so remote from Italy that for them Rome was only a name for tyranny, extortion and exploitation.  Julius Caesar and his immediate successors penetrated these remote territories, subjugating them, levying tribute, appointing governors and other officials, policing them, pretending to rule over them.  To do this soldiers were marching on foot into regions that lay thousands of miles from the mother city.  To be sure, they marched over Roman roads and bridges so well constructed that some of them are still being used at the present day.

But the excellence of Roman engineering could not match up to the implacable limitations of time and distance.  Nor could they overlook the need for building the physical structure of Roman economy as they advanced into enemy territory.  Equally decisive were the political consequences of the property confiscation and forced labor required to establish and maintain Roman power and enrich greedy Roman officials and their lackeys and overseers.