Ancient Rome



Ancient Rome was an Italic civilization that began on the Italian Peninsula of Terra as early as the 8th century BC and last as late as the 8th century AD. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants (roughly 20% of the world's population) and covering 6.5 million square kilometers during its height between the first and second centuries AD.

Pre Astro History
In its approximately centuries of existence, Roman civilization shifted from a monarchy to a republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it dominated Southern and Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa, and parts of Northern and Eastern Europe. Rome was preponderant throughout the Mediterranean region and was one of the most powerful entities of the ancient world. It is often grouped into "Classical Antiquity" together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world.

Ancient Roman society has contributed to government, law, politics, engineering, art, literature, architecture, technology, warfare, religion, language and society. A civilization highly developed for its time, Rome professionalized and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for republics such as the United States and France. It achieved impressive feats, such as the construction of an extensive system of aqueducts and roads, as well as large monuments, palaces, and public facilities.

By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond: its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia and from the mouth of the Rhine to North Africa. The Roman Empire emerged under the leadership of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia. It would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak. Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a common ritual for a new emperor's rise. States, such as Palmyra, temporarily divided the Empire in a 3rd-century crisis. Soldier emperors reunified it, by dividing the empire between Western and Eastern halves.

Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the western part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark Earth historians use to divide the ancient period of universal history from the pre-mediaeval "Dark Ages" of Europe.

The Eastern Roman Empire survived this crisis and was governed from Constantinople after the division of the Empire. It comprised Greece, the Balkans, Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt. Though drastically weakened by centuries of incessant, resource-wrecking wars against arch rival Sassanid Persia, and despite the loss of Syria and Egypt to the Arab-Islamic Empire the Eastern Roman Empire continued for another millennium, until its remnants were annexed by the emerging Turkish Ottoman Empire. This eastern, Christian, medieval stage of the Empire is usually called the Byzantine Empire by Earth historians.

Roman Influence on Pan Saran Culture and Society
 A Pan Saran expedition visited Earth around 117 AD. and observed the Roman Empire. That Earth civilization had triumphed over the Ancient Egyptians and despite their pre industrial technology were highly organized and culturally developed.

 The Pan Sarans rejected everything of their mother civilization. Anything Saran from food, to clothing, religion and even language was deemed offensive and the Pan Saran society desperately looked for an identity of their own. Earth was known to Saran for a long time, when a Pan Saran Captain and his crew rediscovered Earth at around 117 AD (Earth time) they observed an Earth Civilization that had conquered Ancient Egypt (which was very similar to Saran Culture due to earlier contacts). The Pan Sarans saw this as an omen and closely observed the Romans with their well-organized military and civilization. A covert observation expedition of the Pan Saran Republic landed on Earth and recorded every aspect of Roman civilization. It was then copied and adapted to Pan Saran technology and Culture. The Pan Sarans adopted Latin as their official language, raised Statues to worship Saturn and Jupiter. Roman togas and fashion became the dress of Officials. Like the Roman Empire on Earth, the Pan Saran Republic experienced the raise of Emperors and has Emperors to this day. However the Pan Saran Emperor is elected by the Senate and there are no Dynasties. A Pan Saran Emperor is in office for ten years. When elected the Emperor has almost absolute power, but no say in domestic issues. The Colony world Horax was renamed Spqr.

 While the Roman Empire on Earth collapsed the Pan Saran Empire flourished and developed. While the Sarans and the Pan Sarans were technically at war for the entire time until the formation of the United Stars the war had only a relative short, hot phase and was more or less a life style with constant border incidents rather than an all out war.