Rome TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Rulers of the Roman World 11 Serving Gods and Country 19 Life among the Masses 27 At the Bottom 35 End of the Empire 43 TIMELINE 45 ENDNOTES SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 47 WEBSITES 47 INDEX
Rore INTRODUCTION ome began as a small city near the Tiber River in central Italy in the eighth century B c Its people were humble farmers who also formed a pow erful army Over the course of 10 centuries that army brought much of Europe western Asia and northern Africa under Roman control As the Romans con quered new lands they brought their culture along In the thousand plus years of its existence Rome was ruled by three distinct governments At first the city functioned as a monarchy with a king as its head By 509 B C the monarchy had collapsed It was replaced by a republic in which citizens took part in electing rul ers and passing laws In 27 B C the republic gave way to an empire ruled by an emperor with absolute power Roman emperors such as Hadrian built structures in the capital city that remain
