Territorial expansion and the Roman Empire

Abstract

As the first state to control all the lands bordering the Mediterranean, Rome had the possibility of exploiting their subsistence surpluses to serve its political ambitions. The relative cheapness of sea transport allowed that surplus to be collected and redistributed with equal ease to and from any point around the Mediterranean. Although the city of Rome itself was the most important consumer of this resource, it is argued that Roman expansion into temperate Europe depended as much on the supply of strategic commodities as it did on cash. Flows of goods northwards can be identified in the archaeological record and their importance can be gauged by the way in which pre‐existing and long‐standing trade routes were over‐ridden by them. Use of such subsistence resources on the frontier overcame the problems of gathering food in a land‐locked environment and of regional shortages, allowed the army to concentrate on military affairs and released it from the necessity of over‐exploiting frontier lands.

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