The Roman Empire grew rich off the backs of other nations. There’s no question about that. War and conquest, but also bequests, made Rome the richest state in the ancient world by the second century BC, a time when wealth was all about gold, silver, land and food production, and slaves.
Rome was also lucky. The death of Alexander in 323 BC saw his vast empire fragment into the Hellenistic kingdoms, mainly of Macedonia, the Seleukid kingdom of Syria, and Ptolemaic Egypt. They enervated themselves over decades of inconclusive wars and were easy pickings for Rome. The people who lived there, exhausted by and sick of endless fighting, acquiesced easily into Roman rule. The Eastern Mediterranean grew richer than had ever been thought possible.
