The Roman Empire is the first-ever experience of world globalization, the creation of a universal multinational society, in which the main directions of historical development with its ups and downs, unprecedented progress, and wild barbarism were identified. In this sense, the Roman state has been going on, taking one form or another, for 2000 years. And all because Rome never considered itself as a state in the modern sense of the word, i.e., as one state among other states. The Roman Empire claimed to be not just a state but a universal state, the only state in the universe, coinciding in scale with the entire civilized world. In this sense, the Roman Empire thought of itself rather not as a state but as all civilized and politically organized humanity. What really distinguished the Roman Empire from its predecessors and contemporaries is that it really managed to combine cultural universalism and political isolationism and put them into practice – it was, in fact, multi-ethnic, turning into a formation where ethnic differences had no political values. The political order hovered over ethnic division, just as our civilization hovers over national borders, and is not a pretext for chauvinism.
The creation of popular religions that spread around the globe played a huge role in the globalization of the world. When the Christian religion appeared, it influenced whole countries of the Roman Empire, changing people’s vision of life, culture, and traditions. Religion was a key thing, which gathered a lot of nations, and ethnicities together under a common belief. The spread of religions resulted in a number of global events. A lot of wars were started on a religious basis, which covered big territories. Cultures, languages, and knowledge was also spreading along with the spread of religion. Even though religion was changing and transforming depending on the traditions of particular ethnical groups or nations, it was the thing that was connected nations that culturally and physically far from each other. A separate group of clergymen themselves became the owner of land, property, and slaves demanded a significant share of the product produced and captured trophies to increase their wealth and make sacrifices. Along with state power, religious power appeared, which had common interests with other strata of the ruling class, but often came into conflict with the secular ruler.