By today's standards, it is. However, we should not use today's worldview to judge another era's way of thinking. Also, a citizen was not just a "subject". A ci

By today's standards, it is. However, we should not use today's worldview to judge another era's way of thinking. Also, a citizen was not just a "subject". A citizen from a conquered province could rather easily become senator [1], and some even became emperors (e.g., Septimius Severus was born in Leptis Magna, in modern-day Lybia, from a Punic family). Also: > "they are now your subjects" Nope, they were always the subjects of the emperor. That's the point of calling yourself an emperor. And it's not limited to Rome: the Persian and Chinese emperors also claimed their power to be universal. [1] That was also true in Republican era. There's even a running joke in the Asterix comics series, where the chief of the Gallic village recurringly says that Caesar offered him a seat in the Senate if he surrendered.