ABSTRACT
Edward Gibbon included the first, and larger, part of the period among the epochs to which he allotted the highest possible praise. The empire was made up of a huge number of provinces, by proconsuls and legati Augusti propraetore. The eulogies of the empire by Aristides and Gibbon have often been criticized. Maternus was a soldier in the Roman army, who had a courageous record but who deserted at about this time. Herodian writes that he soon collected a huge mob of desperadoes. "Democracy' in the Greek or other cities of the empire was just a farce. The speech by Aelius Aristides lavishing superlative praise upon Rome asserted that the Roman empire was the finest, ideal kind of democracy. An expanded bureaucracy brings with it increased centralization. This happened to Rome in the Antonine Age, and in the light of our current preoccupations.
