Ancient Italy, like Greece, was also dotted with a number of city- States, among which was that of Rome. Like the Greek city-States, Rome also began as a monarchy and then became an aristocracy, and a republic and, finally, an empire. By this transformation it repeated, to some extent, the history of despotism of the ancient oriental empires. But there were also differences between .the two. Unlike the oriental empires, the Roman Empire was, to some extent, a city-State writ large. The Roman ruling classes realised very early in their career of conquest and expansion that their vast empire thus they preserved only by extending the rights and privileges of citizenship to the cqnquered peoples also. So they were made citizens and not subjects.
But they were given civil rights only and not political rights, which were reserved for the old citizens of Rome only. Another achievement of ancient Rome was her system of universal laws before which all citizens were equal. The Roman Law was based on the law of nature and of nations. The Romans also created a strong and firm administrative machinery. Thus they preserved peace and order over Europe, Asia and North Africa, called Pax Romana.
It lasted for several centuries, which was in itself a great achievement. Trade and commerce, industry and agriculture flourished over vast territories of Europe, Asia and Africa under these conditions of universal peace. These achievements are the contributions of the Roman Empire to political science. They are, for example the Roman Law, the ideal of world peace and unity, international law and strong administration. But the Roman Empire type has also revealed certain weaknesses. They were the denial of political liberty, the destruction of local self-government, a soulless bureaucracy, heavy taxation, depraved ruling classes, slavery, religious persecutions, and irresponsible despotism. These weakness and deflects became the causes of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.