The Roman Empire and Italia

Italia was fat and happy during the imperial period, protected from vasion by the buffer of the provinces. Except for the detour through hadrian's very unpopular administrative reforms, italians also enjoyed a great deal of local autonomy. The rich soil of the island provided the food that almost single candidly fed the empire until augustus claimed the even bigger bread basket of egypt for rome. Corse and sardinia had little political or economic impact on the greater empire, but for a time, they practically held the fate of the mediterranean in their hands.