Well, a big part of not most of the plebs in the city of Rome literally lived off handouts from their patrons. They also got free grain from Egypt. They definit

Well, a big part of not most of the plebs in the city of Rome literally lived off handouts from their patrons. They also got free grain from Egypt. They definitely benefited from the conquests and willingly participated in them for the spoils of war. I'm not saying you are not right, but it is a too broad generalization to be useful, especially as the imperial expansion phase took more time than the entire history of the US.