ah the fake narrative of the 'always the victims' people.
in fact the Romans came to the East because of the tyrannts and pirates and being sick of it decided to conquor it all.
and freed people and gave whole cities their freedoms and dealt fairly with the elites, making them citizens.
even to the point where they tried to create lasting peace through intermarriage.
but your narrative is easy and justifies that mentality of a thousand eyes for one eye that we've seen displayed lately.