Origins of the Roman empire

1200 beginning of the first iron age. The Prisci Latini migrate to Italy from the Danube region.
c. 1000 Latins settle in Latium
c.1000 Beginning of Etruscan migrations into Italy
10th century BC First settlement on the Palatine Hill on the future site of Rome
753 Foundation of the city of Rome
c. 750 Beginning of Greek colonization in Italy: foundation of Ischia, Cumae (754), Naxos in Sicily (735), Syracuse (c.734)
c. 700 Etruscan civilization begins to flourish
c. 750-670 Septimonium: union of settlers of Palatine, Cermalus, Velia, Fagutal, Cuspius, Oppius and Caelius c. 650 Etruscan expansion into Campania
c. 625 Historical founding of Rome

The founding of Rome goes back to the very early days of civilization. It is so old, it is today known as 'the eternal city'. The Romans believed that their city was founded in the year 753 BC. Modern historians though believe it was the year 625 BC.

The Roman Republic

Early Rome was governed by kings, but after only seven of them had ruled, the people of Rome took power over their own city . A council chosen by the free subjects of the city, known as the 'senate',governed on their behalf. From this point on one speaks of the 'Roman Republic'.

The word 'Republic' itself comes from the Latin (the language of the Romans) words 'res publica' which mean 'public matters' or 'matters of state'.

Previously the senate had been there to advise the king. Now the senate appointed a consul, who ruled Rome like a king, but only for one year. That way, the consul would not rule as a tyrant, as he knew that would be punished by the next consul once his year was up.

Roman society was divided into 4 classes. The lowest was the slave classes. Slaves were owned by other people. They had no rights at all. The next was the plebeians. They were free people. But they had little say in how society was run. Next came the equestrians (sometimes they are called the 'knights'). They were rich. The name means the 'riders' - they were given a horse to ride if they were called to fight for Rome.
The highest class were the nobles of Rome. They were called 'patricians'. All the real power in Rome lay with them.

The Roman Republic lasted until AD23. The greatest challenge it faced was the Carthaginians. Carthage was a very powerful city in North Africa which, much like Rome, controlled its own empire.

The war between the two sides was long and took place on land and on sea. It’s most famous incident was when the Carthaginian general Hannibal crossed the mountain chain of the Alps with all his troops, including his war-elephants, and invaded Italy. Rome eventually won and Carthage was completely destroyed in the year 146 BC.

Rome's most famous citizen was Julius Caesar, a Roman politician and general who conquered the vast territory of the Gauls to the north of his province in France. In the year 49 BC Caesar crossed the small river between his province and Italy, called the river Rubicon, and conquered Rome itself which he then ruled as a dictator. His military campaigns also took him to Egypt where he met the famous Cleopatra. His life ended as he was murdered in the senate in Rome. In the English speaking world, a month of the year is still named after him  (July) and the Shakespeare play about his death, Julius Caesar, is still peformed and studied.

Other famous emporers included Augustus (Rome’s first); Claudius (who conquered Britain); Nero (who murdered his mother and his wife and threw thousands of Christians to the lions); Titus (who destroyed the great Jewish temple of Solomon in Jerusalem); Hadrian (who built Hadrian’s wall in northern England); Diocletian (who split the empire in two – west and east); Constantine (the first Christian emporer, who reunited the empire and chose its capital Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople) and Constantine XI (last emporer of Constantinople who died defending his city against the Turks).

Finally the Roman empire was overrun by the mass immigration of barbarians from the north and east of Europe. Their armies were designed to defeat other armies, not mass population shifts. The collapse was completed when Rome was conquered by the Visigoth Odoacer and his men in the year AD 476. 

But what is generally referred to as 'the Fall of Rome' doesn't include the eastern empire. This, with its centre in Constantinople managed to cling on for almost another thousand years until it was eventually conquered by the Turks under their leader Mohammed II in the year AD 1453.

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