what civilization bordered rome to the north? to the south?

Start in the eighth century B.C., Ancient Rome grew from a pocket-size town on primal Italy's Tiber River into an empire that at its peak encompassed most of continental Europe, Britain, much of western Asia, northern Africa and the Mediterranean islands. Among the many legacies of Roman dominance are the widespread use of the Romance languages (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanaian) derived from Latin, the modern Western alphabet and agenda and the emergence of Christianity as a major globe organized religion. After 450 years as a commonwealth, Rome became an empire in the wake of Julius Caesar'south rise and fall in the first century B.C. The long and triumphant reign of its first emperor, Augustus, began a golden age of peace and prosperity; past contrast, the Roman Empire's turn down and fall by the fifth century A.D. was one of the most dramatic implosions in the history of human civilization.

Origins of Rome

Every bit fable has it, Rome was founded in 753 B.C. by Romulus and Remus, twin sons of Mars, the god of war. Left to drown in a basket on the Tiber past a rex of nearby Alba Longa and rescued by a she-wolf, the twins lived to defeat that rex and found their own urban center on the river's banks in 753 B.C. Later on killing his blood brother, Romulus became the kickoff rex of Rome, which is named for him. A line of Sabine, Latin and Etruscan (before Italian civilizations) kings followed in a non-hereditary succession. There are seven legendary kings of Rome: Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Martius, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus (Tarquin the Elder), Servius Tullius and Tarquinius Superbus, or Tarquin the Proud (534-510 B.C.). While they were referred to as "Rex," or "King" in Latin, all the kings after Romulus were elected past the senate.

Rome'southward era as a monarchy ended in 509 B.C. with the overthrow of its seventh king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, whom ancient historians portrayed as cruel and tyrannical, compared to his benevolent predecessors. A popular uprising was said to have arisen over the rape of a virtuous noblewoman, Lucretia, by the rex's son. Whatever the cause, Rome turned from a monarchy into a democracy, a earth derived from res publica, or "property of the people."

Rome was built on seven hills, known equally "the vii hills of Rome"—Esquiline Hill, Palatine Hill, Aventine Hill, Capitoline Loma, Quirinal Hill, Viminal Loma and Caelian Hill.

The Early Republic

The power of the monarch passed to 2 annually elected magistrates chosen consuls. They likewise served as commanders in main of the army. The magistrates, though elected by the people, were drawn largely from the Senate, which was dominated by the patricians, or the descendants of the original senators from the time of Romulus. Politics in the early on republic was marked by the long struggle between patricians and plebeians (the mutual people), who eventually attained some political power through years of concessions from patricians, including their own political bodies, the tribunes, which could initiate or veto legislation.

The Roman forum was more than just home to their Senate.

In 450 B.C., the get-go Roman law code was inscribed on 12 bronze tablets–known as the Twelve Tables–and publicly displayed in the Roman Forum. These laws included issues of legal procedure, ceremonious rights and property rights and provided the basis for all hereafter Roman civil law. By effectually 300 B.C., existent political ability in Rome was centered in the Senate, which at the time included only members of patrician and wealthy plebeian families.

Military Expansion

During the early commonwealth, the Roman country grew exponentially in both size and power. Though the Gauls sacked and burned Rome in 390 B.C., the Romans rebounded under the leadership of the military hero Camillus, eventually gaining control of the entire Italian peninsula by 264 B.C. Rome then fought a series of wars known as the Punic Wars with Carthage, a powerful metropolis-state in northern Africa. The kickoff two Punic Wars ended with Rome in full control of Sicily, the western Mediterranean and much of Spain. In the Third Punic War (149–146 B.C.), the Romans captured and destroyed the city of Carthage and sold its surviving inhabitants into slavery, making a section of northern Africa a Roman province. At the same time, Rome too spread its influence east, defeating King Philip 5 of Republic of macedonia in the Macedonian Wars and turning his kingdom into another Roman province.

Rome'southward armed services conquests led directly to its cultural growth as a social club, as the Romans benefited greatly from contact with such advanced cultures equally the Greeks. The first Roman literature appeared around 240 B.C., with translations of Greek classics into Latin; Romans would eventually adopt much of Greek fine art, philosophy and religion.

Internal Struggles in the Belatedly Republic

Rome'south complex political institutions began to crumble under the weight of the growing empire, ushering in an era of internal turmoil and violence. The gap between rich and poor widened as wealthy landowners collection small farmers from public land, while access to authorities was increasingly limited to the more than privileged classes. Attempts to address these social problems, such as the reform movements of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus (in 133 B.C. and 123-22 B.C., respectively) ended in the reformers' deaths at the hands of their opponents.

Gaius Marius, a commoner whose military prowess elevated him to the position of consul (for the starting time of half-dozen terms) in 107 B.C., was the first of a serial of warlords who would dominate Rome during the belatedly republic. By 91 B.C., Marius was struggling confronting attacks by his opponents, including his fellow general Sulla, who emerged as armed forces dictator around 82 B.C. After Sulla retired, ane of his former supporters, Pompey, briefly served equally consul before waging successful military campaigns against pirates in the Mediterranean and the forces of Mithridates in Asia. During this same flow, Marcus Tullius Cicero, elected consul in 63 B.C., famously defeated the conspiracy of the patrician Cataline and won a reputation every bit one of Rome's greatest orators.

Julius Caesar's Rise

When the victorious Pompey returned to Rome, he formed an uneasy alliance known as the Beginning Triumvirate with the wealthy Marcus Licinius Crassus (who suppressed a slave rebellion led by Spartacus in 71 B.C.) and another rise star in Roman politics: Gaius Julius Caesar. After earning military glory in Espana, Caesar returned to Rome to vie for the consulship in 59 B.C. From his alliance with Pompey and Crassus, Caesar received the governorship of three wealthy provinces in Gaul showtime in 58 B.C.; he and then set almost conquering the residual of the region for Rome.

After Pompey's wife Julia (Caesar'due south girl) died in 54 B.C. and Crassus was killed in battle against Parthia (present-solar day Iran) the following year, the triumvirate was broken. With old-manner Roman politics in disorder, Pompey stepped in every bit sole delegate in 53 B.C. Caesar's military celebrity in Gaul and his increasing wealth had eclipsed Pompey's, and the latter teamed with his Senate allies to steadily undermine Caesar. In 49 B.C., Caesar and one of his legions crossed the Rubicon, a river on the border betwixt Italia from Cisalpine Gaul. Caesar's invasion of Italian republic ignited a ceremonious war from which he emerged as dictator of Rome for life in 45 B.C.

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From Caesar to Augustus

Less than a year afterwards, Julius Caesar was murdered on the ides of March (March 15, 44 B.C.) by a grouping of his enemies (led past the republican nobles Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius). Consul Marker Antony and Caesar's great-nephew and adopted heir, Octavian, joined forces to shell Brutus and Cassius and divided power in Rome with ex-delegate Lepidus in what was known as the Second Triumvirate. With Octavian leading the western provinces, Antony the eastward, and Lepidus Africa, tensions developed by 36 B.C. and the triumvirate soon dissolved. In 31 B.C., Octavian triumped over the forces of Antony and Queen Cleopatra of Egypt (also rumored to be the onetime lover of Julius Caesar) in the Battle of Actium. In the wake of this devastating defeat, Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide.

By 29 B.C., Octavian was the sole leader of Rome and all its provinces. To avoid meeting Caesar'due south fate, he made sure to brand his position as accented ruler acceptable to the public by apparently restoring the political institutions of the Roman republic while in reality retaining all existent power for himself. In 27 B.C., Octavian assumed the title of Augustus, becoming the first emperor of Rome.

Historic period of the Roman Emperors

Augustus' rule restored morale in Rome after a century of discord and corruption and ushered in the famous pax Romana–two full centuries of peace and prosperity. He instituted diverse social reforms, won numerous armed services victories and allowed Roman literature, art, architecture and religion to flourish. Augustus ruled for 56 years, supported past his great ground forces and by a growing cult of devotion to the emperor. When he died, the Senate elevated Augustus to the condition of a god, start a long-running tradition of deification for popular emperors.

Augustus' dynasty included the unpopular Tiberius (fourteen-37 A.D.), the bloodthirsty and unstable Caligula (37-41) and Claudius (41-54), who was all-time remembered for his army'due south conquest of Britain. The line ended with Nero (54-68), whose excesses drained the Roman treasury and led to his downfall and eventual suicide. Iv emperors took the throne in the tumultuous twelvemonth later on Nero's decease; the fourth, Vespasian (69-79), and his successors, Titus and Domitian, were known as the Flavians; they attempted to atmosphere the excesses of the Roman courtroom, restore Senate authority and promote public welfare. Titus (79-81) earned his people'south devotion with his treatment of recovery efforts after the infamous eruption of Vesuvius, which destroyed the towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii.

The reign of Nerva (96-98), who was selected by the Senate to succeed Domitian, began another gold age in Roman history, during which four emperors–Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius–took the throne peacefully, succeeding one another by adoption, as opposed to hereditary succession. Trajan (98-117) expanded Rome's borders to the greatest extent in history with victories over the kingdoms of Dacia (now northwestern Romania) and Parthia. His successor Hadrian (117-138) solidified the empire's frontiers (famously building Hadrian's Wall in nowadays-day England) and continued his predecessor'southward work of establishing internal stability and instituting administrative reforms.

Under Antoninus Pius (138-161), Rome continued in peace and prosperity, but the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161–180) was dominated by disharmonize, including war against Parthia and Armenia and the invasion of Germanic tribes from the north. When Marcus savage ill and died near the battleground at Vindobona (Vienna), he broke with the tradition of not-hereditary succession and named his 19-twelvemonth-onetime son Commodus as his successor.

Decline and Disintegration

The decadence and incompetence of Commodus (180-192) brought the golden age of the Roman emperors to a disappointing finish. His death at the hands of his own ministers sparked another menstruum of ceremonious war, from which Lucius Septimius Severus (193-211) emerged victorious. During the tertiary century Rome suffered from a cycle of near-abiding conflict. A total of 22 emperors took the throne, many of them coming together violent ends at the hands of the same soldiers who had propelled them to ability. Meanwhile, threats from outside plagued the empire and depleted its riches, including standing assailment from Germans and Parthians and raids past the Goths over the Aegean Sea.

The reign of Diocletian (284-305) temporarily restored peace and prosperity in Rome, merely at a high price to the unity of the empire. Diocletian divided power into the so-chosen tetrarchy (rule of four), sharing his title of Augustus (emperor) with Maximian. A pair of generals, Galerius and Constantius, were appointed as the administration and chosen successors of Diocletian and Maximian; Diocletian and Galerius ruled the eastern Roman Empire, while Maximian and Constantius took ability in the due west.

The stability of this system suffered greatly afterwards Diocletian and Maximian retired from office. Constantine (the son of Constantius) emerged from the ensuing power struggles as sole emperor of a reunified Rome in 324. He moved the Roman capital to the Greek city of Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople. At the Council of Nicaea in 325, Constantine made Christianity (once an obscure Jewish sect) Rome's official religion.

Roman unity under Constantine proved illusory, and thirty years after his death the eastern and western empires were again divided. Despite its continuing boxing against Western farsi forces, the eastern Roman Empire–afterwards known as the Byzantine Empire–would remain largely intact for centuries to come. An entirely dissimilar story played out in the west, where the empire was wracked by internal conflict as well equally threats from abroad–especially from the Germanic tribes now established within the empire's frontiers similar the Vandals (their sack of Rome originated the phrase "vandalism")–and was steadily losing coin due to constant warfare.

Rome eventually collapsed under the weight of its own bloated empire, losing its provinces one by i: Britain effectually 410; Kingdom of spain and northern Africa by 430. Attila and his brutal Huns invaded Gaul and Italy around 450, further shaking the foundations of the empire. In September 476, a Germanic prince named Odovacar won control of the Roman army in Italy. After deposing the concluding western emperor, Romulus Augustus, Odovacar's troops proclaimed him male monarch of Italy, bringing an ignoble end to the long, tumultuous history of ancient Rome. The autumn of the Roman Empire was consummate.

Roman Compages

Roman architecture and engineering innovations accept had a lasting affect on the modern world. Roman aqueducts, first developed in 312 B.C., enabled the ascension of cities by transporting water to urban areas, improving public wellness and sanitation. Some Roman aqueducts transported h2o up to 60 miles from its source and the Fountain of Trevi in Rome still relies on an updated version of an original Roman aqueduct.

Roman cement and concrete are role of the reason ancient buildings like the Colosseum and Roman Forum are still continuing potent today. Roman arches, or segmented arches, improved upon earlier arches to build potent bridges and buildings, evenly distributing weight throughout the structure.

Roman roads, the most advanced roads in the aboriginal world, enabled the Roman Empire—which was over 1.7 million square miles at the pinnacle of its ability—to stay connected. They included such modern-seeming innovations equally mile markers and drainage. Over fifty,000 miles of road were built by 200 B.C. and several are nonetheless in use today.

PHOTO GALLERIES

Roman Leaders and Emperors

Roman Architecture and Engineering

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Source: https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/ancient-rome

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