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I know the economics behind why somebody like Augustus or Claudius is unlikely to invade Germania. However, give it a couple centirues, and does the answer change? Say a century or two has passed and now Germania is more developed and has the kind of quasi-romanised leadership Gaul had in the 1st century BCE. Do the economics make sense now? Could we see an emperor that invades Germania to distract from domestic issues or to keep ambitious generals occupied, hinting to one of them that if all goes well he might adopt that general as his son?
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