The Birth of Rome

People were living in Italy long before Rome was founded, and a people called the Etruscans created an advanced civilization in the northwest of the country between 800 and 400 BC.

According to legend, Rome was founded in 753 BC by the twins Romulus and Remus, who were raid to have been brought up by a she - wolf.

By 550 BC Rome had turned into a big city ruled by Etruscan kings.

In 509 BC, the Roman people drove out the kings and formed themselves into an independent republic.

Republican Rome was ruled by the Senate, assembly made up of 100 patricians (men from leading families). Senators were men from leading citizen families who had served the Roman republic as judges or state officials. They made new laws and discussed governmental plans.

The first rules of the Roman legal system were recorded in 450 BC in a document called the Twelve Tables. The Roman system forms the basis of many legal systems today.

In theory, Rome was governed by the people. However, real power was in the hands of patricians; plebeians (ordinary citizens) had little. Slaves had no power or rights at all.

Plebeians fought for power and, by 287 BC, gained the right to stand as consuls, the highest official posts.

In the 400s BC and 300s BC, Rome extended its power all over Italy, by both brute force and alliances.

In 264 BC, Rome rivaled Carthage, the North African city that dominated the western Mediterranean. In 164 BC, Rome destroyed Carthage totally after the Punic Wars.

By 130 BC, Rome had built a mighty empire and stretched from Spain to Turkey and along the North African coast.