What was life like in Rome, and what was it like in the provinces?

In the late eighteenth century the English historian Edward Gibbon dubbed the stability and relative peace within the empire that Augustus created the pax Romana, the “Roman peace,” which he saw as lasting about two hundred years, until the end of the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius in 180 C.E. People being conquered by the Romans might not have agreed that things were so peaceful, but during this time the growing city of Rome saw great improvements, and trade and production flourished in the provinces. Rome also expanded eastward and came into indirect contact with China.