How did Roman Empire legitimize its rulership over the provinces?

I was always wondering why after such a long time, there was no common identity, and how Roman Empire could dissolve so easily.
But I think that the lack of moral legitimization explains it, most people in former Roman land were probably happy that the foreign opressors were gone

>foreign opressors
opressors were not gone they were just replaced, and people did not had a nationalistic concept on world politics, being a cuck for romans was more or less tha same with being a cuck to the local hispanian / celtic lords or later on visigothic lords.

I like that attitude in the ancients tbqh, a lot of explotation is brushed away nowadays since they guy exploit you shares your language and nationality etc, what an absurd belief.

local opressor is better than a foreign one, since he is closer to the people and thus has more empathy for their suffering

Yes the people in spain must have danced in the streets when the centuries of peace and order under the roman opression came to an end and the barbarian liberator hordes came raping and plundering through every major city.

It's an empire. So yes.

I think most of conquering was done without raping and plundering.
There was a power vacuum that was filled with Germanic warriors who quickly adopted local culture.
Way better than to pay far taxes to a faraway land

Rome appealed to local warlords and nobles, they werent supreme conquerors, none of the nobility aristocracy of conquered areas was touched only shifted loyalties to roman state

No, they don't harbor the same feelings of camaderie and brotherhood like you do. Most will gladly fuck you over and they would not give a flying fuck.

Hence the outsourcing and immigration being popular tools of your local oppressors, they are impoverisihng you while enriching themselves and a little bit the 3rd world through factories and outsourcing and immgiration, while not giving a fuck about you

>No, they don't harbor the same feelings of camaderie and brotherhood like you do.
Local Opressors have the same culture and values as the people of the country. They speak the same language, go to their celebrations etc. Sure, they will fuck you over if their own wellbeeing is at stake, but they wont be happy about it.

>Hence the outsourcing and immigration being popular tools of your local oppressors, they are impoverisihng you while enriching themselves and a little bit the 3rd world through factories and outsourcing and immgiration, while not giving a fuck about you
My local opressor? I am not ruled by feudal lords

I thought the usual method of Roman conquest was to enslave people and steal everything to make profit

Why would they fall apart quickly if everyone left were loyal to them and unable to rebel against them. Simple logic. It's very cruel but useful and practical method.

because there was no moral justification for roman rulership.
Sure, you can opress people as long as you are strong, but once you show any kind of weakness, people will rebel and your Empire will collaps.
Roman Empire was inheritly unstable and it is a mircale it lasted so long

>Sure, they will fuck you over if their own wellbeeing is at stake, but they wont be happy about it
They really don't, am an ivy grad, was surrounded by sons and daughters of those folk, in an ironic way they are marxist in this sense, they share a class camaderie not a national camaderie. They are more close to a rich french than a poor american.

>My local opressor? I am not ruled by feudal lords
I think feudal lords would fuck you even less tbqh, excessive work hours, excessive taxes, while tax breaks / tax heavens / subsidies for the rich. We don't bow down but we are still fucked.

For example if you take a risk open a business and fail they will forceclose your home, if a wall st wanker fails he will be bailed out with the tax money that you contributed.

Not that I care, geez I sound like a marxist, but I belong to the "upper middle" class, enough for me to live as a neet and not have to work a single day (around 1.5m) so can't say I give a shit about the sufferings of the average joe. But from what I see a lot of the blue-white collar folk the rich have some kind of a camaderie with them, when in reality they don't. The old money is a bit more humble about it in my opinion, the new rich tend to be far more brutal and want to disassociated themselves with the hoi polloi with greater passion.

anyways should go to sleep, sorry for derailing the thread

>once you show any kind of weakness, people will rebel and your Empire will collapse.
Well, that pretty much is one of the reasons WRE fall to those Germanic "barbarians". But still their method was worked during first two hundred years of imperial period.

eh, I don't know about America, but here in Germany, we don't really have such an upper class. The social mobility is pretty high, and most politicians come from the middle class, so they are well aware of the living conditions of the average joe.