Empire
While preparing for a class on the history of architecture and its evolution from Egypt to Rome, I read about villages created for Roman soldiers in lands far away from Rome. It occurred to me that there were similarities between what the United States is doing today and the final days of the Roman Empire.
The extent of the Roman Empire during the rule of Augustus.
What caught my attention initially was that there were small towns which were created to house soldiers in occupying countries in Europe, Greece, Turkey, part of the Middle East touching the Mediterranean and Africa. These towns were designed on a grid system. This was an innovation and would be considered the initial idea of “town planning” as we know it today. The streets were numbered or named and each house had a number that we would consider an address. It was easier with these designations to find a specific soldier. If you look at ancient towns in Egypt you see a labyrinth of pathways and streets. Not so with these Roman constructions.
The labyrinth of streets in ancient Cairo.
To house, feed, arm and outfit soldiers was expensive and with each conquered land came another occupation to the point that more Roman money was being spent outside of Rome rather than on Rome itself and its citizens.
From that viewpoint, it was the beginning of the implosion of an empire.
