What factors enabled republican and imperial Rome to establish its hegemony over the Mediterranean world for nearly a millennium when the earlier Assyrian, Babylonian, Greek, and Persian empires collapsed much more quickly? Your response should demonstrate your knowledge both of Rome's imperial record [differentiating between the Republican and the Imperial eras] and those of its less successful predecessors [e.g. explain how the different empire builders acquired and attempted to retain their possessions by considering administrative, commercial, legal, military, and religious factors].