TetaEglantina
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Rome's expansion peaked in 117 AD during the early empire. This was the most militarily dominant period of its history and it is estimated that the empire fielded 400,000 regular professional Italian drawn legionaries to maintain control over 33% of the world's population.
It has already been studied and evidenced that Rome's military remained majority Italian derived up until about 200AD. The reason for this is pretty obvious. The Edict of Caracalla was put into effect 212AD at which point most free inhabitants of the empire could enlist as legionaries. Citizenship prior to this point was nearly exclusive to Italians living in Italy and the descendents of Italians living in veteran colonies with few exceptions.
On this topic the decline of the empire in terms of military strength occurred precisely during this time period as seats of power began to move eastward and with the ascendance of barbarian emperors who took their seats of power through civil wars funded by mass monetary inflation. This also coincided with the same period which decoupled Rome's national interests to Italy and broadened its citizenry body to the rest of the empire, eventually leading to barbarian incursions and barbarian control of Italy, itself. The Roman Italy that "lost" such wars to the barbarians on its borders was one that was practically undefended and seriously neglected by the ruling Byzantine class of its since co-opted empire.
In contrast the Romans during the Iron age they were a small war like city state that was seen as mostly insignificant by the much larger and more powerful Etruscan and Greek city states of the day. Their competitive advantage was that they were willing to assimilate the Italics they conquered which allowed them to swell their numbers rapidly as they consistantly made oppurtunistic wars of expansion. They only really became a large regional power in Italy after the Pyrrhic Wars (275BC), and they only became dominant in the western Mediterranean after the Second Punic War (201BC). So if you're looking to pinpoint a date in which Rome became an international heavy hitter, the iron age is not it. You're looking at a period that comprises roughly the last half of the republic and the first half of the principate (275BC-200AD).
You mentioned Byzantine but not Western Roman empire which completely fell much earlier and was gone before 500AD. This is after the near east migration which can also be traced in Roman Britain and shortly after Christianity became the main focus and was imposed upon the locals. I think these 2 things led to general unrest and "civil wars"
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