The Roman Empire was not a republic or a democracy (the “Roman republic” was just a fascist oligarchy; the addition of a permanent full-time executive branch was a necessity, too bad for them they never worked out a system of orderly succession, Diocletian tried to) — from a political standpoint. But the economic system underlying it was a weird mixture of aristocratic rule over slaves and other subordinates, and wild-eyed, full-bore, whole-hog free marketeering. As a neighboring territory became economically stitched into the Roman markets, it like as not would eventually be added to the empire proper.
This practice ended with the mincing, unrepentant homosexual Hadrian, who hated the Jews, had no clue about business, loved new taxes, and had to be talked out of giving up territories. When his catamite drowned in the Nile, Hadrian was so heartbroken he had the little homo elevated to deity, set up the cult throughout the empire, and built a city named after the butt-buddy, right at the site of the drowning. The crews employed in building a road across mountains and desert to the Red Sea ports, in an attempt to give some kind of economic life to the city, appears to have been used only by those construction crews. The city basically vanished after perhaps twenty years, and apparently never had much of an existence anyway.
Churchill may have indeed made that point (or borrowed it with proper citation); the discovery over ten years ago of the remains of a Roman-era trading post / fort / frontier fort in Ireland suggests the way that Britain was colonized and conquered, which is through trade, cultural influence, and (as in Germany) sponsorship / bribery of local chieftains. Claudius’ invading force grabbed most of the island in a walk. Vespasian (later to be one of the better early emperors, imho, despite some problems) reduced the hillforts using Roman artillery (catapaults, crossbows, etc) and rolled across.
Even the Boudicca revolt wasn’t much, and was utterly destroyed by a very small Roman force. If the Boudicca revolt had never happened, the Romans might have done well to invent it, since there was hardly a peep out of anyone in Britain for over three hundred years thereafter.
What, that egghead Greek stuff?
Sunkus: "Hail Caesar!"
Hadrian: "You have a nice ass."
Sunkus: "Which I devote to the Republic of Rome!"
Hadrian: "Yeah, I gotta do something about that frickin' Senate."
Sunkus: "The Senate is as your moat to the mob, Caesar!"
Hadrian: "That's that democracy crap, right? Some bread and circus and they're happy."
Sunkus: "Long live the Empire!"