The Roman empire was nothing special and was not that great

D.I. The Roman empire was only tiny compared to today's standards. In their time, the empire encompassed most of the known world. At the time, the Roman empire basically held every bit of civilized territory except for the far Middle East and China. Another important aspect is percentage of the world population. Britian had 20.00% of the world's population at its height in 1938. But Rome had between 29.20% and 39.50% of the world's population at its height in the 2nd Century AD. [1] So the Roman Empire may not be big by today's standards, but the Roman Empire at its height had most of the civilized world and then some in its sphere of influence. D.II. Most swords were the same at that time. But the Romans used them to greater effect. "The Romans, on the contrary, having excellent points to their swords, used them not to cut but to thrust: and by thus repeatedly hitting the breasts and faces of the enemy, they eventually killed the greater number of them."[2] In the beginning, the Romans copied the Greek phalanx. But by the 3rd Century, they had created a formation all of their own, the maniple. "The main difference between Greek and Roman warfare was the formations that they fought in. The Grecian armies all used the phalanx as a fighting formation while the Romans used the maniple. The phalanx was one mass formation that consisted of infantry eight deep. The maniple formation was actually a group of formations in a checkerboard pattern. Each maniple consisted of about 120 men and when employed in Italy, the Romans used thirty maniples."[3] The Roman ships were only copying the Carthaginian ships during the Second Punic War when they had no other choice. But soon after, they developed their own ships. However, their naval strategy was different than any other seen before. "Before battle it would be raised and then dropped onto an enemy's deck. The spike would embed itself into the oppnent's deck planking and the legionaries could board the enemy vessel across it. This elaborate contraption was called 'the raven' (corvus) This invention gave Rome five victories at sea."[4] And the calvary was diferent in the effect that the Romans were better at using cavalry in battle than anyone else. The Roman armies were very different, especialy later on, than other armies at the time. The Romans did borrow a lot from the Greek with regards to religion, but their were some imporant differences. "The religion of the Romans differed in some respects from that of the Greeks, inasmuch as it was emphatically a state religion. It was more of a ritual and a ceremony.""The Roman religion was more practical and less poetical than the Greek religion.""There were more superstitious rites practised by the Romans than by the Greeks, such as examining the entrails of beasts and birds for good or bad omens.""The festivals were more numerous in Rome than in Greece, and perhaps were more piously observed.""The Romans established a college of pontiffs (religious leaders)" The Greeks never had any pontiffs. [5] Also, some Roman Emperors, such as Caesar and Augustus were defied. No one in the Greek world was ever defied. Not to mention, in the 4th Century AD, Rome offically became Christian, which no other empire had ever done. In architecture, all empires were different. One can easily tell Egyptian architecture from Roman. True, the Egyptians did create the column, but one, they only invented one kind of column, and the Romans invented two that they mainly used, Composite and Tuscan. D.III. Didn't all empires suffer this fate? For example, the Greeks fell because of tensions between the polises and the costly Peloponnesian War. The Egyptians due to dynastic struggles. The Macedonians due to dynastic struggles after the split up of the Empire, and so on. Most empires fall for these reasons. It's a cycle. Small-->Determination to Win-->Victory-->Happiness-->Political Problems and/or overdecadence-->Fall (the Egyptians were a little more complicated because they did this cycle three seperate times). D.IV. I went over some of these things in D.II., so I will not cover them here. "Generally speaking, the Roman rider was equally, if not more, motivated than any of his opponents"[6] Most cavalry was the same at the time, lightly armored, fast moving, and deadly. Siege equipment was mostly the same because there were only a few devices; Catapult, Battering Ram, enclosure, and archers; that's about it. And the archers were the same way; most were lightly armored and most used the same tactics. I like how my opponent makes up the word "Frankensteined". I also like how my opponent completely misses Rome's great victories. The Second Punic War (with Hannibal), wet badly for the Romans at first, but when Scipio Africanus invaded North Africa, he won the victory that won the war at Zama. Rome's successes from the first two Punic Wars were astounding considering that Rome was a lot less greater of a power than Carthage. Then, in a period of a little over 50 years, Rome took over almost all of the Meditteranean. They beat Carthage, the Antigonids, the Achean League, the Aetolian League, the Selucid Empire, and Bythynia, most of the time fighting a larger army (at the battle of Magnesia wih the Selucids, the Romans beat an army three times their size). Then in the next one hudred years, they took over Gaul, some of the Parthians, the Ptolmeic dynasty, and repeled Mithradates's attack and then took over his whole kingdom. After that, they took over most of Britian, Dacia, the Numidians, and Maureitania. I use Sources 7 and 8 for this. Then why did Rome fail after the 3rd Century? Because it wasn't the Roman Army. It was full of mercenaries. The Emperors did not rule effectively and there weren't very good generals. "There are adherents to single factors, but more people think a combination of such factors as Christianity, decadence, lead, monetary trouble, and military problems caused the Fall of Rome. Imperial incompetence and chance could be added to the list. Even the rise of Islam is proposed as the reason for Rome's fall, by some who think the Fall of Rome happened at Constantinople in A.D. 1453."[9]"Increasingly, however, the army filled its ranks by attracting volunteers from outside the empire. In the fourth century, huge numbers of Germans enlisted, and many of them attained high rank. The army itself—once the most powerful Romanizing force in the world—was rapidly becoming Germanized by its own recruits. German terminology and even German customs—such as the barritus, the old German battle cry—became widespread."[10] A.I. The Roman Empire accomplished something no other empire had ever done-conquer the entire known world and the entire Meditteranean. There armies were some of the best ever seen. A.II. Rome helped spread Christianity (however good this may be). Without Rome, Christianity would not have spread and my have eventually died out. Rome helped pave the way through its conquering of all of the Mediteranean and creating the coveted "cosmopolis", making it easier to exchange ideas. The largest religion in the wold owes a great debt to Rome. A.III. But probably the most important contribution Rome ever made was its Government. The Roman Republic was the Government the American Government was based upon. "Ancient Rome was the first nation to create a republic.""Many Romans believed that codified, or written, laws would prevent Roman leaders from abusing their power. Ancient Greek and Roman ideas and practices concerning government eventually spread to Europe and to the United States."[11] Conclusion: So as shown, Rome had many great victories and only fell when the army became non-Roman. Rome copied the other empires at first, but soon, it created its own army and political system. But it doesn't matter if they copied them or not. Their tactics conquered the whole Med. in 100 years. Sources: [1]:http://en.wikipedia.org... [2]:http://www.romanarmytalk.com... [3]:http://www.oppapers.com... [4]:http://www.roman-empire.net... [5]:http://www.roman-colosseum.info... [6]:http://books.google.com... [7]:http://www.scaruffi.com... [8]:http://en.wikipedia.org... [9]:http://ancienthistory.about.com... [10]:http://www.historynet.com... [11]: http://www.dsusd.k12.ca.us...