LOL! That is certainly an appropriate response for my
overgeneralization.

O.K. In any culture or civilization there will be forces pulling
things together and forces pulling things apart. Some of these will
be technological, some geographical, some cultural. This is on topic!
Empire-building is a going Birthright concern!

I'm too tried to deal thoughtfully with this, but a very preliminary
thought is that Rome got is start as a major state by the combined
military improvements of the maniples of the legion, and by the
political genius of incorporating conquered cities as citizens, and a
source for new legions, rather than as conquered and suitable for
pillaging territories. Eventually the temptation to treat conquests
as spoils rather than as new recruits became overwhelming ... my Roman
Republican history is dusty at the moment, but I think sometime
between the 3rd Punic War, and the start of formal Empire the new
conquests gradually became more
something-to-plunder-and-enrich-sentators and less new citizens who
would stand shoulder to shoulder with you againt the rest of the
world.

Birthright application is: How do you treat and assimilate new
provinces? As conquered territory? As second class citizens? How do
you persuade them to raise reliable units for you, especially against
their former lord?



On Sat, 25 Oct 1997 17:51:43 -0600, you wrote:


>
>Which wasn't possible before gunpowder; only petty empires like the =
Roman,
>Chinese, and Mongol empires were possible. 8-).