[1] The violent characteristics of the empire are made painfully clear with the tragic death of [2]Palinurus, who, in all ways, is the epitome of a good Roman man.

Here is a good illustration of what I mean by transitions bringing out the relation between paragraphs, thereby making the paper "flow" more smoothly.

[1] summarizes the point of the previous paragraph (i.e. that the empire is held together by violence).
[2] summarizes the point of the current paragraph.

The sentence as a whole connects the two points.