I know, Paullus, it IS a wide-ranging question. But I tend to focus so much on the late Republic that I forget there was an additional 4 1/2 centuries after Caesar's murder to be a member of the Roman empire . . . and I found myself wondering how even to approach such a massive era of time.

Some of the things I think would be highly attractive about the Empire would include:

a) Relatively stable laws applying throughout the Empire and the stability that implies;

b) Trade and a stable economy - you could make enough money to survive without either lawlessness or the kind of excruciating taxation that darkens the last centuries of the Empire;

c) Frankly, I'd just as soon live in Pagan Rome - the Christians spent so much of their time arguing and fighting among each other after they became a large enough group to be powerful. And I frankly cringe at the repressive moves made by Diocletian and other Emperors trying to please the Church. So I'd pick a time when the Roman religion still had some credence, but where tolerance for many religions was also apparent.

d) I'd love to live in a time when arts flourished, but does anyone else have the feeling that, the more monarchial and intrusive the Emperors became, the less true creativity flourished in either art or literature? I know, sweeping thought, but I feel it - so I'd probably NOT pick, say, the time of Septimus Severus, but would consider, say, Hadrian;

e) You'd want to live when the infrastructure was still in good shape, when the roads were repaired and the temples not decaying;

f) And most importantly, I suppose you'd want to live during a time when the Empire was more or less at peace, rather than the constant wars of Marcus Aurelius, let alone the assassinations of Commodus, Heliogabulus, (??) Septimus Severus, et al.

g) And I suppose I'd like to live during a time when Rome was still Roman, as opposed to the increasingly Orientalized Emperors of the latter (particularly, post-Constantine) Empire. Just a personal quirk - I LIKE those old Romans.

So, I wonder where this puts me - somewhere between Trajan and Hadrian, I suspect!