== Geografi og demografi ==
Romerriget er et af de største imperier i historien med magt i både Europa, Nordafrika og Mellemøsten.<ref name="Kelly, The Roman Empire, side 3">Kelly, ''The Roman Empire,'' side 3.</ref> Det latinske udtryk ''imperium sine fine'' ("imperiet uden ende"<ref>Nicolet, ''Space, Geography, and Politics in the Early Roman Empire'', side 29; translated as "power without end" in Pat Southern, ''The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine'' (Routledge, 2001), side 16.</ref>) brugtes til at udtrykke ideologien, at hverken tid eller rum begrænsede imperiet. i [[Vergil]]s episke digt ''[[Æneiden]]'' skrives det, at det grænseløs imperium var givet til romerne af deres øverste guddom [[Jupiter (gud)|Jupiter]].<ref>Vergil, ''Aeneid'' 1.278; Nicolet, ''Space, Geography, and Politics,'' side 29; David J. Mattingly, ''Imperialism, Power, and Identity: Experiencing the Roman Empire'' (Princeton University Press, 2011), side 15; G. Moretti, "The Other World and the 'Antipodes': The Myth of Unknown Countries between Antiquity and the Renaissance," in ''The Classical Tradition and the Americas: European Images of the Americas'' (Walter de Gruyter, 1993), side 257; Southern, ''The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine,'' side 16.</ref> Denne påstand om universel herredømme blev fornyet og foreviget, da imperiet kom under kristent styre i det 4. århundrede.<ref>[[Prudentius]] (348–413) in particular Christianizes the theme in his poetry, as noted by Marc Mastrangelo, ''The Roman Self in Late Antiquity: Prudentius and the Poetics of the Soul'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), side 73 og 203. [[St. Augustine]], however, distinguished between the secular and eternal "Rome" in ''[[De civitate Dei|The City of God]].'' See also [[J. Rufus Fears]], "The Cult of Jupiter and Roman Imperial Ideology," ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.17.1 (1981), side 136 ''et passim'', on how Classical Roman ideology influenced Christian Imperial doctrine; Peter Fibiger Bang, "The King of Kings: Universal Hegemony, Imperial Power, and a New Comparative History of Rome," in ''The Roman Empire in Context: Historical and Comparative Perspectives'' (John Wiley & Sons, 2011); and the Greek concept of globalism ''([[ecumene|oikouménē]]).''</ref>
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