There are a huge number of pages that have been written about the Roman Empire, both in print and on the internet. I'm certainly not going to try to replace all of those pages with my little meanderings, but I am going to try to perhaps provide some information that either might not be readily available in other places or might be fragmented and difficult to digest as a whole. Maybe in the course of writing some of this, I might even manage to slip in a few little original insights of my own. You just never know...
Also on this site are my brief list of Roman Empire resources and some information about the Colosseum
From its humble beginnings as a farming village near the Tiber River in central Italy, Rome grew into one of the most powerful empires of the ancient world. We still feel the effects of Roman civilization in our life. Many of the languages spoken around Europe are based on ancient Latin, much of our law comes from Roman legal practices, and our art, literature and architecture still show the influence of the ancient Italian civilization.
The area that would later become Rome was actually settled around 1000 BCE by Latin people. They and the neighboring Sabines created the village of Rome on three of the seven hills of the area (the Palatine, Capitoline, and Quirinal). The Etruscan people, from the neighboring northern area of Etruria, or modern Tuscany, established control of most of the area, including Rome, by the latter part of the 7th century BCE. The Etruscans formed the aristocratic elite, and established a monarchy in Rome.
There are a pair of legends that are generally told about the founding of Rome. According to the first legend, Rome was founded in 753 BCE by the twin brothers Romulus and Remus. In the second legend (which may have actually been the more popular during Roman times), Rome was founded by the Trojan hero Aeneas. The two legends are sometimes melded together, in the form that Aeneas founded the city of Lavinium, which later became Rome, or that Romulus and Remus were the descendants of Aeneas. In any case, the founding is definitely shrouded by time and the lack of any definitive recorded evidence.
After the founding, with Romulus as the first king, Rome went through a period of several hundred years as a monarchy under Etruscan domination. According to the legend, there were seven kings. The last was deposed in 509 BCE and a republic was established in Rome. The original republic was ruled by the two consuls, who were the annually-elected military leaders and administrators of Rome. These were assisted by the Senate, which was originally a group of 300 elected members of the elite patrician class, but which was later expanded and opened up to the plebeians, or common citizens.
Over the course of the 250 years following the establishment of the republic, Rome established its dominance over the other people of Italy. It founded colonies in strategic locations and fought wars almost continuously. In the course of fighting these wars, Rome eventually came into conflict with the Greek city-states of southern Italy and with the growing power of Carthage.
Here is a little sketch of some of the things that I plan to explore more as I get more time to put into this page. Thanks for your patience.
In addition to just exploring the historical (mostly politico-military) timeline of Rome, I also plan to add some detail about the cultural and religious aspects of the empire, life in the provinces, some of the other empires who co-existed with the Romans, and whatever other details of the Roman world I can envision.
Thanks for visiting the site, and if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please feel free to drop me a line here
Created on ... February 22, 2006
Last updated ... March 12, 2006