The Roman Kingdom certainly didn’t divide itself to conquer its enemies. The Crisis of the Third Century included some of the Empire dividing itself, but certainly not conquering anyone - Rome lost territory during the Crisis. The Dominate likewise was a period in which land was largely lost, not gained.
Hum… People do have a really strong bias toward looking at only the republic era and the first few decades of the empire.
… what?
The Roman Kingdom certainly didn’t divide itself to conquer its enemies. The Crisis of the Third Century included some of the Empire dividing itself, but certainly not conquering anyone - Rome lost territory during the Crisis. The Dominate likewise was a period in which land was largely lost, not gained.
Where you got that it was to conquer its enemies? (Edit: Oh, reading my post again I see where you got that idea.)
It was always dividing itself and conquering itself again. Unless you count parts of it as enemies (what would be reasonable).