Quote Originally Posted by Tiberius
Gah, the Empire was rubbish
I have to take issue with this too, Tiberius. The Empire, even with its various civil wars, largely preserved the peace throughout the Mediterranean world. Trade expanded and wealth increased.

Watchman makes the point that expansion beyond the boundaries of Augustus' domain was not clearly worth the effort.

There is also the internal political dimension to consider. One of Augustus' reasons for drastically reducing the post-civil war army was to prevent any regional commander from gaining control over a dangerously large army and becoming a rival.

During the Imperial period, offensive actions were constrained by similar considerations. Claudius used only 2 full legions (with auxiliaries and a detachment of Praetorians) in his conquest of Britain. Trajan used a much larger force in his Dacian and Armenian campaigns, but commanded in person.

It is also no coincidence that only members of the imperial family were allowed to celebrate triumphs; this was intended to make it more difficult for anyone outside the imperial family to accumulate the military prestige necessary to challenge the emperor.