A grand strategy would be concerned with primarily the empire’s allocation of resources among several military and policy goals, and it would be intertwined with politics, diplomacy, economics, and questions of peace and war (Kagan, 333).  Ancient historians have come to the conclusion that the Romans did not conceive of an imperial grand strategy.  This is because there was not a coherent systematic plan through the development of the empire.

Luttwak claims the Roman grand strategic goal “was to provide security for the civilization without prejudicing the vitality of its economic base and without compromising the stability of an evolving political order.”  The Romans did not explicitly write down and spell out their strategy, but it is still likely they had some goals.  The evidence of military movements, frontier defenses and road networks suggests and plan, a grand strategy.  A grand strategy may be shaped through time, with a modern day example of this being the United States changing its systematic plan rapidly through centuries.  The Romans had security systems set up and those systems could identify that priorities were being met under the Roman rule.  But would their systems be effective, and accomplish the desires of the state?

 

Religion

Religion played a large role in the Roman strategy, especially after Constantine adopted it as the official religion of the empire. It was believed that the victories in battle and the peace on the frontier were due to the cooperation of the emperors with the gods. The Romans believed that God ordained the success of the empire in order to spread the gospel. Therefore, adoption of Christianity did not lead to pacifism, but rather provided the spreading of the gospel as a new motivation for war.