[roman wargamer]

Ursus, on Apr 15 2005, 01:32 AM, said:

but I would say the conquest of Italy .

yes , it is the beginning, the conquest of Italia .
and they slowly get into conflict with , as Carhage own some of the near territory.
the Punic War begins... with the Roman expansion and conquest.

[Augur]

I agree. Any discussion of the relative importance of Roman "conquests" must begin with the centuries-long conquest (and organization/governance) of Italy itself. The centuries of perserverence, effort and sacrifice required to accomplish this was, in my view, one of the most remarkable of all Roman accomplishments, and was obviously an absolute prerequiste to everything else that followed.

As for the listed "conquest" options, I would say the most important of these must be Greece. It was through contact and eventual rule of the Greeks that Rome's traditionally conservative traditions, values and habits began to be erroded (some would say corrupted) and were eventually replaced by those from the East (one example: the obscure cult known as Christianity). Here I part with Ursus regarding Pergamum. Yes, the remarkable wealth (and taxation model) that came out of the Pergamum inheritance did greatly influence future Roman development, but, in my opinion, not as much as did the earlier initial exposure to Eastern culture, philosophy and religion that came primarily as a result of Rome's exposure to and conquest of the Greeks.

[Caesar]

I would have to argue for Gaul. It was a key point in the invasions of Spain and Brittania, a resource heavy region, and later a strongly Romanized cultural center.