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'Evil' is subjective, but the question asks whether the Roman Empire was evil from our perspective. Defining 'Evil' is pointless - it remains an opinion and therefore everyone has a different conception of what evil is (though most of us would be somewhere in the same ball park). Further, the idea is clouded by modern perception of what a nation state is, and a suprising number of people imagine SPQR to be some kind of centrally controlled totalitarian state much like Humanity experienced in living memory. Of course Rome was never like that. It was a city state with interests in a large swathe of self governing but ostensibly loyal provinces. Control was never absolute. It can be easily said that there were evil people within the empire, some of whom in positions of power and influence, but this was always balanced by the actions of the good or the disgruntled. I agree that Rome was tyrannical in some respects - that was a reality of ancient politics.

One must define "evil". Once that has been done, perhaps communication can begin. If we think of it in terms of barbarism, I can't help thinking of the Mongols killing everything within a city from the humans down to the pets. WWI, WWII..... The end is listless. Sadly.

I think for this thread the main sticking point would be the definition of 'evil'. Do you mean that they did things to hurt people on purpose with no 'valid' reason behind it? That they acted in a selfish way in order to get what they wanted, without taking the feelings of others into account? Or their 'atrocities'? Or are you talking about the individuals who ruled and ordered such things? Or some other reason? By defining the term 'evil' you could open the whole debate.