From reading the history of the west from the Bronze Age through the Roman Empire, I have seen numerous instances of cause and effect in almost all things that happened.  Every culture affects every other culture, but history seems not cyclical but spiral.  I will focus on the Roman Empire and show a few instances of how it evolved: how it was affected and shaped by neighboring cultures, past cultures, their perception of those cultures, and geography.

 

First, the very location and land fertility of Rome greatly influenced the nature of Roman culture.  Early Rome could easily be attacked from the sea by the Carthaginians and from the land by the Greeks and Etruscans.   As a result of these threats, Rome strongly embraced the military spirit and developed and nurtured iron discipline and strong sense of national identity in her citizens.  The characteristics enabled Rome to win many wars.  This feeling of winning and experiencing power associated with the need to expand agricultural resources (land acquisition) led a few ambitious and power-seeking but good- for-Rome leaders to pursue hegemony.  They motivated the Roman masses (this was difficult given the spirit of national identity and the oligarchic nature of government) to go along with the idea of fighting over Sicily and eventually even destroying the city of Carthage.

 

Second, due to the Roman hegemony, the later Romans were influenced by the Greek and Hellenistic cultures they had conquered.  Their whole system of Mythology was based on the Greek gods.  And the Hellenistic cultures sparked in them a strong sense to become builders of great cities, something that they already were predisposed to due to stories that their ancestors of Troy were great builders of cities.  They must have learned a great deal about city building from the Carthaginians as well, as described by Aneas’ awe in Virgil’s Aneid.    The very stories of the conquests of Alexander may have inspired Roman leaders to consider hegemony.

 

Third, since Hellenistic culture was already influenced by the Persian culture, Rome was later influenced by Persian culture as well.  After the good years for the Roman empire starting 27 B.C.E. (when Octavian became Augustus, the First Citizen and Emperor, Rome headed back to the class tensions that existed in the early Oligarchic Republic and the situation was worsened by incompetent, self-centered, and excessively (to the detriment of the Empire) power hungry leaders.  The early leaders like Octavian were no saints, they were power seeking too, but they were intelligent, reasonable, and somewhat gave back to the communities they were leading.  Later leaders were not only self-indulgent but they did nothing productive to ease the class tensions.  Rome did have a few truly altruistic leaders, but these were rare and not surprisingly got assassinated early.

As a result of this perception that their system was failing, some Romans began embracing Mithraism, which was the result of their contact with Zoroastrianism (a Persian-Hellenistic invention).  This eventually paved the way for Christianity.

 

Fourth, the very Punic Wars were fought not only due to Roman military nature, but they must have seen in Carthage the same spirit they had for expansion.  They perceived Carthage as a threat, very much like America perceived (or created the illusion) the Soviet Union a threat.

In conclusion, perception, conformity/assimilation, nature of system (Oligarchy, Republic, or Democratic to mention a few), geography, past and neighboring cultures are some of the factors that caused Roman Empire to be the way it was.  History is driven by the past and the present; it depends on how people interact with one another.  They are motivated to interact by Darwinian, Nietzschean forces, and sometimes and rarely by truly altruistic need for them to affirm a beautiful (creative and equitable) life for themselves and others around them, which is also one of the end goals of Nietzsche, in my opinion and little understanding of his works.  His goal was a Jesus like person who embraced the Dionysian with himself while still retaining the Jesus too (Quite religious for a man who claimed that God wad dead).