Chapter 1 THE REPUBLIC Ancient Rome was a vast empire that dominated the classical world for over 1,000 years The city of Rome was founded around 750 BCE but soon grew into an empire which at its greatest covered most of Europe North Africa and the Middle East an area of over 2 million square miles Although it eventually grew from a city to a powerful empire in its early years Rome was one of the world’s first democracies From the 5th century BCE until about 40 BCE Rome was a republic where power was shared and citizens could vote Rome 4
THE REPUBLIC 1 The legendary founders of Rome were the brothers Romulus and Remus According to the story they were abandoned on a riverbank where they were discovered by a she-wolf who fed them and cared for them The image of the two baby boys nursing from the wolf is still a popular symbol of Rome and is even the emblem of the AC Roma soccer team 2 In the earliest days of Rome the city was ruled by a succession of kings The last king Tarquin II was overthrown and the Roman Republic was created in 509 BCE 3 By the middle of the 1st century BCE the city of Rome had more than a million inhabitants Welcome to Rome Pop 1,000,000 5
4 In early Rome it was illegal to bury gold along with the body of a dead person with one exception gold teeth were allowed into the grave 5 The English word candidate comes from the Latin candidatus which means whitened and refers to the specially bleached togas that politicians wore during campaigns 6 During the period of the republic Rome was ruled by a senate made up of 600 members The word senate comes from the Latin word senex which means old man Latin was the language of Ancient Rome who you calling old 6
THE REPUBLIC 7 Speaking of whitening a popular method of bleaching clothes was to soak them in urine The natural ammonia had a whitening effect on garments and that’s not all Romans also used urine to whiten their teeth Blech I hate Campaigning 7
