By 146 BCE, Rome had conquered its archenemy, the Carthaginians, and taken control of all their lands and possessions, which allowed the Romans to expand in most of Europe. The apparent conclusion drawn from this success would be that Rome was now unquestionably the most powerful empire in the world and any sort of decline would be unimaginable. However, upon closer inspection, it would appear that the newly conquered lands put Rome in a position of weakness rather than strength, almost as if it were marching towards its own death. In fact, Backman states that “the problem was that the Romans hadn't exactly planned for success. Their political system, designed to govern a compact land republic, unexpectedly found itself in embarrassing possession of a vast, dispersed maritime territory. empire founded” (183). Unfortunately, the Romans lacked a clear vision on how to integrate the newly conquered lands into their empire. The lack of preparation only got worse day by day, and very quickly it became impossible to solve the problem. Rome entered a phase of economic decline, which transformed the already miserable lives of its citizens into an even harsher reality. Specifically, lower-class Romans, who made up the vast majority of the population and who were also generally deprived of basic needs, found themselves in a situation of unemployability. This is evident in the following