CHAPTER ONE FROM KINGDOM TO EMPIRE ome wasn't built in a day In fact it took about seven hundred years to progress from a small town on the Tiber River to an empire that straddled the entire Mediterranean world mean ing Italy Greece Egypt and North Africa as well as the many islands of that inland sea Myths and Legends Romans felt they were special right from the very beginning One of their foundation stories which is probably mythical is that Aeneas one of the princes of Troy escaped the Greek destruction of his city and wandered for many years before founding the city of Rome Another story is that two brothers Romulus and Remus who were raised by a she wolf founded Rome together During the early years roughly 753 509 BCE the Romans developed a complex religious belief
Romulus and Remus raised by a she wolf were believed to be the founders of Rome The city fathers marked the traditional date as 753 BCE based on the worship of many gods and god desses The gods and goddesses of ancient Rome were a jealous envious and rather human like group They fought each other frequently and sometimes they involved humans in their quarrels Roman Government The first settlers of Rome were people known as Latins The area around Rome
DISCOVERING ANCIENT ROME HERCULES VS MARS One of the best known quarrels in classical mythology was between Mars the god of war and Hercules They fought many times with Hercules usually the winner The nastiest of their fights came when Hercules killed Mars's mortal son Cycnus Mars descended from the heavens to take revenge but Hercules wounded him with a pitchfork Mars was the god of war and as such he was worshipped by virtually all the leading politicians and generals The city state of Rome showed its martial prowess early on and this only continued as the city state evolved into a republic and finally an empire was called Latium Sometime around 600 BCE Rome was con quered by the Etruscans a people to the north Rome was then ruled by a series of Etruscan kings But in 509 BCE the Romans overthrew the last Etruscan monarchTarquin the Proud and started a republic During the early years of the republic Rome was small enough that the general IO
DO body of the male citizens could be sum moned whenever a major decision was needed Over time this became unwork able because the Roman population grew so rapidly There just was not enough room for all the citizens to gather in one place Once that level was reached Rome became a rep resentative republic meaning that the citizens voted for men to represent them Developed over about two centuries the Roman Republic was a clever combination of NVD monarchy aristocracy and democracy Two Consuls elected each year by a military body called the centuriate assembly comitia centuriata were the chief executives of the republic Rome believed in hav ing two men at the top so that if one were injured or disabled the other could fill his shoes These two consuls coequal Imagine the United States hav chief executives of the republic ing two presidents leading the areshadowed by servants carrying the fasces or symbols of country authority The consuls as well About three hundred as senators and tribunes were senators chosen through sacrosanct meaning that no one could physically harm them on pain of death II
