The Romans very famously had a concept called Imperium sine fine which translates to, roughly "Power without end" or "Empire without end in time or space"- meaning, that the Roman system would be around forever in some way, shape, or form. They did expect political change to occur, but they expected it to be gradual.

Most Romans thought of their future as unending conquest over the rest of the world, which meant steadily improving quality of life for the long-time inhabitants of the Empire. When it came to "innovation" from a technology perspective, again the Romans saw themselves as part of a tradition. They learned how to make roads and aqueducts from the Persians and Egyptians, but they built them bigger and on a larger scale than anyone had done before.