Quote (JohnnyMcCoy @ Sep 30 2021 03:51pm)
more like 500 years until they were the biggest power in the mediterranean and the timeframe goes without saying when the fastest "machine" was a horse
you should get your history straight, the borders were packed with roman troops, they built hadrians wall and the limes just to mention two well known structures
By "packed with Roman troops" you mean an occasional fort along convenient border structures.
Hadrian's wall and the limes were not delimiters of the Roman empire. They were locations of convenient fortification where they could station troops to harass invading forces if necessary. They didn't exercise strict border control in the sense of a modern nation, where you have checkpoints for everybody entering or exiting the country. You could walk between empires unmolested by governments.
Rome built up over several hundred years and for a lot of that time they weren't anything special is my point. They were a very slow and steady buildup over a period of time far longer than the entire history of the United States