2 Measuring the Power of the Roman Empire
Year: 2015

By the age of Cicero -the point at which they began to recognize the fact that they controlled a territorial empire and could raise revenue from it -the Romans were accustomed to measure their power with criteria taken over wholesale from Greek theory. In the De Legibus, Cicero says simply that senators ought to know the state of the army, the treasury, the allies, friends and tributaries of Rome and the nature of the attachment of each to Rome. For Cicero this is what it was to "know the State.