Antik EARLY ROME hen the ancient Greeks were reaching the height of their glory the power of Rome to the west was slowly rising The genius of the Greeks lay in art literature science and phi losophy The Romans were best in warfare engineering and government Rome rose to power gradually with no set plan for world conquest The Romans fought many wars and enslaved many people By the reign of the emperor Augustus 27 BC AD 14 most of the known world was unified and at peace under Roman rule CITY OF THE SEVEN HILLS Halfway down the Italian peninsula on the west coast is a small river called the Tiber The coastal plain south of the river was known as Latium in ancient times after the people who lived there the Latins These people were shepherds and farmers In the hill country to the west lived the Sabines distant kinsmen of the Latins They had moved into the peninsula from central IO
EARLY ROME WELL Bridge over the Tiber River Anik Messier Flickr Getty Images Europe before 1000 BC and had vanquished the original inhabitants The people con quered by the Sabines had probably begun to move from Africa about 10 000 BC as the Sahara gradually turned to desert II
ANCIENT ROME On the left bank of the Tiber River rise Seven low hills At this point the river is shallow and easy to cross Latin merchants built a village on one of the hills called the Palatine to trade with the wealthy Etruscans who lived north of the river Settlements were later built on the other hills also The towns on the seven hills finally joined to make one city Rome THE KINGS OF EARLY ROME The early Romans kept no written records Their his tory is so mixed with fables and myths that historians have difficulty distinguish ing truth from fiction Only two existing works give the continuous early history of Rome Both works were written long after the events they depict and neither I I ROMULUS Romulus Hulton Archive Getty Images 12
EARLY ROME is complete They are the histories of Livy and the Roman Antiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus These men used inaccurate literary works for their information about early Rome The old legends say that Romulus founded the city in 753 BC when the settlements on the seven hills were united This date is probably too late for the actual founding of the city Romulus was a mythical person but there is some evidence that the kings who are said to have followed him actually existed Legend says that Numa Pompilius suc ceeded Romulus He is described as a wise and pious ruler One of his accomplishments is supposed to have been the adding of two months to the 10 month calendar Inder his successor Tullus Hostilus the Romans conquered Alba Longa the reli gious center of the Latin people There is a legend that Tullus was killed by lightning when he was meddling with the weather During the reign of Ancus Martius the next king a number of troublesome Latin cities were conquered and their inhabitants were brought to Rome Ancus Martius is said to have built Rome s seaport Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber 13
