Size of the Empire

Imperium sine fine, or Empire without end, was a phrase used to describe the Roman empire; and it wasn't far off! The Roman empire at it's height spanned the entirety of the Mediterranean, stretching from northern Britain to the north of Africa. Originally, Augustus had put into his will that the empire would grow no larger than it was at his death, but Claudius expanded anyways in order to cement his position. The empire would finally reach it's height under Trajan in 117 AD encompassing an area of 2.5 million square miles and ruling over 60 million people. After Trajan, the policy of maintaining borders rather than expanding the empire became the norm and the empire began to decline steadily till its split into the eastern and western halves (the western half fell in the middle of the 5th century AD, where the eastern half went on for another 1000 years under the Byzantines)