Society in the Era of the Empire

During the Empire social classes underwent an evolution that affected the nobility, the middle class and the army.
Among the nobles there was a change; many of the new rich people of the Provinces had become members of the Senate. The signs of their richness were their houses and sumptuous feasts.
In the cities of the Provinces, the Romans favoured the rise of an active middle class: landowners, traders, professionals and state officers.
In the Roman middle class we can include the artisans who owned flourishing workshops and were grouped in associations called "collegi".
Under the Flavian and Antonini dynasties the army was very efficient.
Many people from the Provinces had joined the army and at the end of the period of service, received Roman citizenship. Being in the army did not only mean fighting, but colonizing, building roads, bridges and fortifications. The soldiers founded the first settlements of future cities and supervised their civilization and security.
The condition of the Roman plebe, instead, had not changed. The State had still to pay for the support of about 200,000 idlers, who pretended as a right to have free food and free shows (panem et circenses). On the other hand the Emperors preferred to gain the plebes' favour in this way.