@kara There seems a very strong self image of what "a Roman citizen" should be, and a surprising amount of formalism and bureaucracy around that idea from an early time, especially for 400 BC Italian city states. Those traits were quite militaristic, engendering conquest, and successful conquests this self-reinforced this ideal. They ended up with a weird balance of liberty and convention and organization that many empires did not; id est, the Moguls.

I am not an expert on the topic, I confess.