Roman Empire (Great Empires)

The Roman Empire is a large nation situated in Mediterranean Europe and West Asia.

Name
The Roman Empire is the most commonly used name for the empire, which is sometimes called the Georgian Empire, Eastern Roman Empire and the Bagrationi Empire. The full official name of the Roman Empire is "the Great Christian Empire of Rome and all her holdings".

Founding
The Roman Empire was founded by Augustus on 27 BC. It prospered and grew into one of the mightiest empires at that time. The empire later disintegrated under the pressure of Germanic tribes, the Huns and other "barbarian" people. The empire was split between the Western and Eastern Roman Empire. The Western Roman Empire also collapsed in 476 AD, while the Eastern Roman Empire still exists as the Roman Empire. The Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire reached its greatest extent under Justinian I and Theodora and declined after their deaths. The Byzantine Empire came under the attack of the Bulgarians, the Arabs, the Seljuks and the Mongols.

Second Founding
In 1178 the Byzantine Empire was already in a fragile state and could not take another massive invasion. In the same year Tamar Bagrationi was crowned Queen regnant of Georgia. She expanded the Kingdom of Georgia greatly and started an invasion of the Byzantine Empire. In 1188 Tamar conquered Constantinople and proclaimed herself "Empress regnant of the Roman Empire". However, Pope Clement III refused to crown her Empress, because crowns were reserved only for males in Medieval Europe. Tamar demanded the Pope to crown her or she would take actions. The Pope ignored her demands, but Tamar marched with her army through the Balkans and Italy to personally demand Papal approval. The Pope refused and Tamar removed him from office. At the age of 28 in 1188, she was crowned "Popess" and crowned herself "Empress of Rome". Future Popes have tried to erase her from Papal history (damnatio memoriae) but all attempts have failed. She was later used in the legend of Pope Joan and historians have concluded that Tamar is the mythical Pope Joan. Tamar reunited the Orthodox and Catholic Churches who had been split since the Great Schism of 1054. She continued to hold this title until she voluntarily abdicated in 1191. She continued to expand the empire until it stretched from Italy to Georgia. She died in 1230 at the age of 70, not living long enough to see to Mongols arrive to ravage her empire.

Mongol Invasions
Her daughter Rusudan was crowned Empress of Rome after her death. The Mongol Empire under Ögedei Khan invaded the Roman Empire and with no strong leader the Roman Empire fragmented under the Mongol raids. The Mongol were defeated by the Abbasids in the Siege of Baghdad in 1258 and soon all Mongol raids in the Middle-East stopped and disappeared. They were saved by their neighbors, but not for long. The Kipchak Khanate survived and reinvaded the Roman Empire in 1260. They successfully conquered the Caucasus, but they decided to not conquer Anatolia and made peace in exchange for a large sum of gold. They remained in control of the Caucasus until George V retook it in 1300 when the Khanate was busy with an attack on the Duchy of Lithuania.

Resurgence-Present
George V reunified the fragmented empire and made it once again a mighty power. In the 40 years he reigned, he conquered the Second Bulgarian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary before being stopped at the Siege of Vienna which led to his demise in 1346. In 1490 Empress Mary of the Holy Roman Empire arranged a marriage of state with Roman Emperor Alexander IV in her plot to unify the Holy Roman and Byzantine Empires. The marriage was foiled when a servant told Alexander IV of her plot to domination and he refused on the day of marriage. The empire was still in its golden age after his death. In the following centuries the empire continued to prosper and blossom with no major territorial change or important events. In 1925 the Roman Empire formed an alliance with the Holy Roman Empire as the Roman Alliance. The Roman Alliance allied itself with the Aztec Empire, Maya Kingdom, Inca Empire, Songhai Empire, Mongol Empire and Mughal Empire in the "Alliance of Great Nations". In an attempt to bring the Roman Empire back to its former glory the Roman Alliance declared war on France, Spain,Kenopia ,Arabia and Morocco. The world was plunged into a global war by the events that followed. The Aztec and Maya Empire invaded the United States; the Inca Empire invaded Brazil and Venezuela; the Songhai Empire invaded Morocco, Congo, Lyrobia and the Central African Republic; the Mongol Empire invaded China, Tibet, Russia and Arabia; the Mughal Empire invaded Arabia, the Empire of Bhutan and the Khmer Empire. At its height in the war the Roman Empire was even greater than the original Roman Empire, but when the allied nations began to unite against a global threat the Roman Empire soon lost its annexed territories. When the Allied Nations laid siege to Rome and conquered it the Roman Alliance was forced to make peace or "encounter the total destruction of the empire”. The Roman Alliance continued their war and atomic bombs were dropped on Berlin and Rome, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people and destroying many historical buildings. The Roman Alliance was forced to make peace or it would be annihilated. The Great War ended in 1945 with status quo ante bellum and defeat for the Great Nations Alliance. The alliance was forced to pay an extremely high price for its near destruction of order in the world. The Roman Empire recovered slowly and is now the tenth largest economy on Earth and an important nation.

Government
The Roman Empire is an absolute, hereditary monarchy. The emperor has almost unlimited power. Many people have made a call for a democracy and participation in the governance. The emperor is the most powerful person in the empire. However, his power is not unlimited. The emperor may not commit deeds that bring grave damage to the empire and may be deposed in that case. The emperor may appoint governors to exercise the law and his decisions in the provinces. The current empress is Sophia-Theodora Bagrationi. The Pope of Rome is the archbishop of Rome and is the head of the Christian Church. He is responsible for all matters of state concerning religion and culture. The current Pope is Pope Francis.

Senate
The Roman Senate consists of 600 senators, who reside in the Roman Senate House, in Rome. The Emperor presides over the senate and has some power over it, though no absolute. While technically the senate holds equal power to the emperor, this is actually false. The Senate holds power to declare war and to vote for or against laws proposed by the emperor or by senators. The Senate holds legislative, judicial and electoral powers. One becomes a senator through long and grinding studies of Roman law, history and religion, ensuring that only the most talented and dedicated may hold the position. At the end of the training, one must go through a series of extremely difficult exams, in order for the examiners to see whether one is fit. One holds the position of senator for a period of five years.



Foreign relations
The Roman Empire has foreign relations with most countries. The Roman Empire most trusted partner is the Holy Roman Empire; indeed, many attempts have been made to merge the two empires. However, none have succeeded due to various incidents. The Roman Empire holds a grudge against Arabia for attacking it many times in history.

Economy
The Roman Empire is currently the seventh largest economy on Earth with a value of 6,900,000,000,000 USD. It has a GDP growth of 12%, which is one of the highest in the world. The majority of the people work in the service sector with 60%. 20% work in the industrial sector, 7% work in the primary sector. The Roman Empire's main exports are engineering products, textiles/clothing, production machinery, motor vehicles, transport equipment, chemicals, food, beverages, tobacco, minerals, and nonferrous metals. The Roman Empire's main imports are engineering products, chemicals, transport equipment, energy products, minerals and nonferrous metals, textiles/clothing; food, beverages, and tobacco. Tourism is an important sector for the economy with almost 100 million tourists visiting in a year and with revenue of more than 80 billion USD. In the past the Roman Empire was an economic superpower and one of the largest economies in the world, however the Great War greatly damaged the economy.

Demographics
The Roman Empire has a population of 270,000,000 and a population growth of 2%, which is quite high for an European nation. Its main religions are Christianity 99%; minor religions are Islam 1%. Its main ethnic groups are Romans, Georgians, Armenians, Greeks, Serbs, Hungarians, Romanians, Bulgarians. The main languages spoken are Latin, Greek, Italian, Georgian, Hungarian and many others.

Military
The Roman Empire has a large military budget and is a powerful country. The Roman Empire has a standing army comprising of infantry, tanks, submarines, helicopters, destroyers, carriers and atomic weapons. The Roman Empire has a large military budget of 600,000,000,000 USD.

Geography
The Roman Empire is situated in Southern Europe. The Roman Empire borders (in clockwise from north) the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Russian Empire, the Abbasid Caliphate, France and the Holy Roman Empire. The Roman Empire has a mainly Mediterranean climate with colder climates in Hungary, Romania and Georgia and Armenia.

Architecture
Roman Architecture is as old as Roman civilization. It adopted many elements and aspects of Greek architecture. Certain elements which are typical is its grandeur, most monuments are very large. Also domes are used in the Pantheon and many Christian Cathedrals as the Hagia Sophia. Byzantine architecture developed out of Roman architecture and is classified as one of its subgroups. Typical elements of Byzantine architecture are its grandeur, domes and half-domes. Examples of Roman architecture are: the Hagia Sophia, the Flavian Amphitheatre, the Pantheon and the Hagia Irene.

Sculpture
The study of ancient Roman sculpture is complicated by its relation to Greek sculpture. Many examples of even the most famous Greek sculptures, such as the Apollo Belvedere and Barberini Faun, are known only from Roman Imperial or Hellenistic "copies." At one time, this imitation was taken by art historians as indicating a narrowness of the Roman artistic imagination, but in the late 20th-century, Roman art began to be reevaluated on its own terms: some impressions of the nature of Greek sculpture may in fact be based on Roman artistry.

Examples of Roman sculpture are abundantly preserved. Latin and some Greek authors, particularly Pliny the Elder in Book 34 of his Natural History, describe statues, and a few of these descriptions match extant works. While a great deal of Roman sculpture survives more or less intact, it is often damaged or fragmentary.

Cuisine
Roman cuisine changed over the long duration of this ancient civilization. Dietary habits were affected by the influence of Greek culture, the political changes from kingdom to republic to empire, and the empire's enormous expansion, which exposed Romans to many new, provincial culinary habits and cooking techniques. In the beginning the differences between social classes were not very great, but disparities developed with the empire's growth. Traditionally in the morning, a breakfast called the ientaculum was served at dawn, at around 11 AM Romans ate a small lunch, and in the evening, they consumed the cena, the main meal of the day. Due to the influence of the Greeks and the increased importation and consumption of foreign foods, the cena increased in size and diversity and was consumed in the afternoon. The vesperna, a light supper in the evening, was abandoned, and a second breakfast was introduced around noon, the prandium.

In the lower strata of society, the old routine was preserved, because it corresponded more closely to the daily rhythms of manual labor.

Originally flat, round loaves made of emmer (a cereal grain closely related to wheat) with a bit of salt were eaten; among the upper classes, eggs, cheese, and honey, along with milk and fruit were also consumed. In the Imperial period, around the beginning of the Christian era, bread made of wheat was introduced; with time, more and more wheaten foods began to replace emmer bread. The bread was sometimes dipped in wine and eaten with olives, cheese, crackers, and grapes. They also ate wild boar, beef, sausages, pork, lamb, duck, goose, chickens, small birds, fish, and shellfish.

Language
The native language of the Romans was Latin, an Italic language the grammar of which relies little on word order, conveying meaning through a system of affixes attached to word stems. Its alphabet was based on the Etruscan alphabet, which was in turn based on the Greek alphabet. Although surviving Latin literature consists almost entirely of Classical Latin, an artificial and highly stylized and polished literary language from the 1st century BC, the spoken language of the Roman Empire was Vulgar Latin, which significantly differed from Classical Latin in grammar and vocabulary, and eventually in pronunciation.

While Latin remained the main written language of the Roman Empire, Greek came to be the language spoken by the well-educated elite, as most of the literature studied by Romans was written in Greek. In the eastern half of the Roman Empire, which later became the Byzantine Empire, Latin was never able to replace Greek, and after the death of Justinian, Greek became the official language of the Byzantine government. The expansion of the Roman Empire spread Latin throughout Europe, and Vulgar Latin evolved into dialects in different locations, gradually shifting into many distinct Romance languages. Today Latin is still spoken in the empire, although to a lesser extent then Greek.

Trivia

 * The Roman Empire is one of the oldest still existing monarchies