The proposed "Essays" arose from a course of lectures given several times at Moscow University since 1899. The main goal of the course was to explain the social conditions for the emergence of the Roman Empire, describe the society that rushed into the movement of imperialism, and then show how the fact of the creation of a colonial power, in turn, affected the social structure of the metropolis, that is, Rome and Italy, and, finally, as a result of the same reasons, a major political crisis occurred, replacing the republic with a principate. The book also adds an essay on the social history of Rome before the formation of the empire and a description of the first period of imperialism, and the simultaneous performance of Roman democracy.