Don't know your Latin from your Latium? Never heard of a Mamertine
before? Fear not — this is Rome's entire history, start to finish.
Archaeologists have found that continual habitation of the Palatine Hill,
one of seven hills that form the city of Rome, began close to the year 1000 B.C.
This means that the so-called Eternal City has actually only been a site of
human habitation for about 3,020 years — which, in fairness, is quite a decent run.
According to legend, the Palatine Hill was the place where Romulus founded the
city of Rome after slaying his brother, Remus. According to another legend, this
was where the Trojan hero Aeneas settled after fleeing the destruction of his home. In truth,
the Palatine Hill was settled by groups of farmers and shepherds looking for a
more defensible place to raise crops and livestock — while also allowing for trade
with the wealthy Etruscans to the north. These settlers were the Latins, named for Latium,
the region from which they had migrated. They were the forebears of Roman civilization.
The Ancient Romans held that their civilization was founded in 753 B.C.
In fact, they even pinpointed a specific day, which correlates to
our modern calendar's date of April 21st. The story goes that Rome was founded by Romulus,
who chose to settle on the site of the future city after killing his brother, Remus.
Many Romans also believed that these quarrelsome brothers were the ancestors of the Aeneas,
and that Rome was named for a woman called Roma, with whom Aeneas and his fellow Trojan exiles
traveled. The veracity of these accounts is easily doubted by the modern scholar, but for Romans,
753 B.C. was seen in much the same way as the year 1776 is for Americans. Before that year,
there simply was no true Rome in the minds of the ancients. As it happens, though,
Rome's actual founding can be traced to a date that lies more than 125 years later.
The actual founding of Ancient Rome took place sometime between the years 625 B.C. and 600 B.C.
It was around these years that several groups of Latium villagers came together to form a larger,
more permanent settlement. People had lived on the Palatine Hill for
some four centuries by then, but now a truly permanent town took shape,
one that archeologists have confirmed was fully established by around 600 B.C.
However, it's not certain whether this larger city was founded to ward off Etruscan aggression or
whether it arose in the wake of an Etruscan victory over the Latiums. The histories of
these two groups would be closely intertwined for hundreds of years, right up until Etruscan power
began to wane following the ascendance of the Roman Republic. It's therefore possible that a
group of Etruscans took over a Latium settlement, built it up, and, in so doing, sowed the seeds of
their own fate. That's because we do know that, over the course of the centuries that led up
to the so-called Common Era, Rome gradually wiped the Etruscan civilization off the map.
"Long live… the king."
The Regal Period, also known as the Period of Kings, is where you'll find the divide between
mythology and history. The Romans held that their first king was none other than Romulus himself,
who is thought to have ruled from 753 to 715 B.C. Next came the kings Numa Pompilius and
Tullus Hostilius, who ruled from 715 to 673 B.C. and from 673 to 642 B.C.,
respectively. Then came the Roman king Ancus Marcius, who ruled from 642 to 616 B.C.
The next king was of Etruscan descent; he was named Tarquinius Priscus, and he ruled
from 616 to 579 B.C. Tarquinius was followed by Servius Tullius,
who was king from 579 to 535 B.C. until he was murdered by his successor,
Tarquin the Proud. Tarquin ruled from 534 to 509 B.C., which you might recognize as
the date of the founding of the Roman Republic. After Tarquin's tyrannical rule was cut short,
the Roman people decided they were quite done with kings, and the Period of Kings came to an end.
The year 509 B.C. saw the founding of the Roman Republic. Historians believe that, in 509 B.C.,
a group of Etruscans led by the Etruscan king Porsenna defeated Tarquin in a battle and took
his throne. Porsenna tried to take over as the new king of Rome, but he was frustrated by the
efforts of the Senate, a political body that existed to advise the king. The people of Rome
subsequently took power, appointing consuls as rulers who led without absolute power.
In the early days of the Roman Republic, most actual power resided in the hands of men from
a few powerful families; they were known as the Patricians. Over the ensuing centuries, however,
a new system of government emerged. After years of conflict between the Patricians and the less
powerful but more numerous Plebeians, several other political bodies were formed to represent
other demographics. Notably, the Plebeian Council gained the power to create new laws,
while Roman citizens acquired a higher degree of self-rule.
This method of government would persist, in some form or another, for nearly 500 years.
The 12 Tables of Law were created in either the year 451 or 450 B.C. They represent some
of the earliest known codified laws and have served as the basis for law throughout history,
even influencing some modern legal documents. Some — not all.
"Now what's say you and I go toe-to-toe on bird law and see who comes out the victor?" "You know,
I don’t think I’m gonna do anything close to that."
Scholars believe that, in the year 451 B.C., the Roman Senate formed
a committee called the decemviri and sent them to Athens to study the work of Solon,
a celebrated Greek politician who had lived some hundred years before.
Guided by the advice of this committee,
a group of patricians then created the legibus scribundis, or written laws,
which came to be known as the 12 Tables. These laws limited the power of the wealthy and elite
and enshrined equal protections for all full citizens — women and slaves excepted, of course.
In the year 390 B.C. foreign soldiers sacked the city of Rome, a feat nobody else would manage for
the next 800 years. This particular fall of the Roman capital followed a Roman defeat at a battle
that took place a short distance north of the city. The conflict followed Roman intervention
on behalf of an Etruscan city the year before, in 391 B.C. Though defeated in that particular
battle, a Gallic army under the chieftain Brennus regrouped and routed a Roman army,
before marching on Rome itself, which was largely undefended at the time.
Two days after the battle, the Gauls invaded and looted Rome, burning much of the city and killing
scores of Roman citizens. A number of Romans held out on the fortified Capitoline Hill and a
months-long siege commenced, eventually leaving both the encircled Romans and Gauls starving,
sickened, and weak. The Romans sued for peace and agreed to hand over 1,000 pounds of gold,
but, during a squabble over the weighing of the ransom,
a Roman army led by the general Camillus arrived. And that's why you never get greedy.
"Kaching! Kaching!"
Prior to the Punic Wars, Rome had been the major power on the Italian Peninsula;
afterwards, the Republic became dominant across the Mediterranean.
In the 280s B.C., a group of Italian mercenaries known as the Mamertines invaded the town of
Messana in northern Sicily. In 265 B.C., the people of the Sicilian-Greek city-state Syracuse
attempted to oust the Mamertines, who appealed to the Carthaginians for help. Carthage was a major
naval power at the time, and their forces quickly drove the Syracusan troops back out of Messana.
Worried by an ongoing Carthaginian occupation, the Mamertines then appealed to Rome for help; Rome,
uncomfortable with a major regional power sitting so close by, agreed. The ensuing war began with a
number of battles fought all around the island of Sicily. By 256 B.C., Rome had built up a powerful
navy and brought the war to North Africa, the Carthaginian homeland. After a handful of early
Roman victories, the Carthaginians dealt the Romans a number of dramatic defeats. Helped along
by ravaging storms that ruined entire fleets, Carthage put Rome on the defensive. The tide
finally turned again in the late 240s B.C. when the Roman Senate pushed for a major offensive
against the Carthaginians. After 23 years of war, Carthage capitulated and evacuated Sicily;
in the end, Rome's overwhelming manpower and resources secured the Republic's victory.
The Second Punic War began with the occupation of a city that lay only marginally under the auspices
of Rome. Saguntum was an independent city allied with Rome yet surrounded by Carthaginian lands.
In 219 B.C., Carthage's leader, Hannibal, took Saguntum. Not that guy — this guy.
"Love your suit."
Some of the people of Saguntum went to Rome for help. Negotiations for a peaceful settlement
failed, war loomed once more, and Hannibal decided to take the fight right to Rome.
Knowing Rome's navy outmatched his and hoping to head off an attack on the Carthaginian homeland,
Hannibal led his armies over the Alps to attack Rome from the north. These
armies consisted of 38,000 foot soldiers, 8,000 mounted troops, and, famously, 37 war elephants.
Though some 30% of his troops and almost all of his elephants died in the mountain crossing,
when Hannibal arrived in Northern Italy, his forces were able to wage a successful
war against the Romans. Hundreds of towns fell to the Carthaginians over the next few
years. Nevertheless, by the time Hannibal finally reached the outskirts of Rome,
his armies were too depleted to properly besiege the city, and the tides of war turned.
Rome subsequently regained all of the territory it had lost and then began
to capture land in Hispania and North Africa, largely thanks to the leadership of the Roman
general Scipio Africanus. By 201 B.C., Carthage had sued for peace and surrendered all of its
lands outside of Africa. Rome had become the greatest power in the Mediterranean.
In the decades that followed the Punic Wars, Rome consolidated its power by defeating a
number of barbarian tribes to the north. Many of the troubles faced by the Roman Republic in those
years were internal: These included uprisings among the restive populace and a slave revolt
led by an escaped gladiator named Spartacus. You probably know how that one turned out.
"I'm Spartacus!"
"I'm Spartacus!" "I'm Spartacus!"
Rome also struggled with the threat of civil war. At the time,
armies tended to be loyal primarily to their leaders, not the state. In 60 B.C.,
three generals, Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus,
banded together to form an alliance that would come to be known as the First Triumvirate.
After seizing control of the state, the members of the First Triumvirate shared an uneasy
alliance for seven years, until Crassus was killed following a defeat in battle against the Parthians
to the east. With Crassus dead, the rivalry that had long simmered between Pompey and Caesar
finally flared, and the alliance fell apart. In 48 B.C., Pompey and Caesar met in battle;
Caesar won and Pompey fled to Egypt where he was promptly murdered. Julius Caesar then took
on the title of dictator, effectively becoming the first emperor of Rome.
Following the defeat and death of Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar took power as the
unchallenged ruler of Rome, serving a role not known in that civilization since the end of the
Period of Kings. Unlike previous dictators, who had held unchecked rule for only the duration
of a significant threat to Rome, Caesar's power was to be total; in early 44 B.C.,
he was declared Dictator for Life. Caesar began ignoring the Senate and passing his own laws,
he had coins minted with his image on them, and he personally accepted or rejected the results
of low-level elections, thereby negating their legitimacy. But what most concerned members of the
formerly ruling parties was the fact that, despite his autocratic ways, Caesar was gaining popularity
with the people — largely by promising to give his own land and money to retiring soldiers.
Determined to stop the dictator once and for all, a group of senators calling themselves
"Liberators" conspired to assassinate Caesar. The murder was carried out in the chambers of the
Senate on March 15th — the Ides of March — in 44 B.C. A group of Senators stabbed Caesar 23 times;
they hoped that, in doing so, they might restore the Roman Republic. The result was
the exact opposite: outraged at the killing of a popular ruler, many Romans rose up in revolt,
and most of the conspirators were killed. A civil war then broke out between Mark Antony,
Caesar's one-time deputy, and Octavian, Caesar's great-nephew and prescribed
heir. With the death of Julius Caesar, the fate of the Republic was sealed.
16 years after the murder of Julius Caesar, Rome's first true emperor took power. This
was Caesar's heir, Octavian, who became known as Caesar Augustus on his ascension to power.
"Who will speak against the motion?"
Augustus' appointment came straight from the Senate, but thereafter Augustus, and all
subsequent Roman emperors, would be considered the undeniable heads of the Roman state.
Caesar Augustus commanded Rome until his death in the year 14 A.D. During his reign,
the tumult that had blighted Roman society for decades was calmed, peace was restored,
and Rome became a powerful and influential civilization once more. Augustus proved himself a
capable military commander overseas and a skilled politician in Rome. Shortly before his death,
he even took on the title pontifex maximus, making him the head of the Roman religion as well.
On August 24th, 79 A.D., Mount Vesuvius erupted for the first time in hundreds
of years. The eruption destroyed the city of Pompeii and the town of Herculaneum,
both prosperous Roman settlements. Many thousands of people were killed; their bodies were buried in
volcanic ash and rock until their rediscovery by archeologists some 1,700 years later. The
eruption of Mount Vesuvius was a tragedy that was well-noted across much of Ancient Rome,
and it was famously written about by the famed orator and historian Pliny the Younger,
who witnessed the event first-hand. Despite the tragedy that followed,
the eruption of Vesuvius later became the source of great learning for modern scholars.
Because Pompeii and Herculaneum were so well preserved under many feet of rock and ash,
their excavations have offered a treasure trove
of artifacts and information from Rome during the days of the Empire.
The Battle of Milvian Bridge marked a significant milestone in Roman history,
as it saw Emperor Constantine assert his rule over the Western Roman Empire
after defeating his rival and ending a civil war. But what made the battle so
important to the history of humanity is the fact that, shortly before the fight,
Constantine converted to Christianity. Long story short, that's kind of a big deal for mankind.
"Get on with it!"
After securing his victory, Constantine lifted the ban on Christianity in the Roman Empire and soon
made it the primary religion in the land. He also moved his seat of power from Rome to Byzantium,
which would later become Constantinople and, eventually, Istanbul. In 330, however,
Constantine again officially divided the empire into east and west and,
in so doing, badly weakened the western region.
On August 27th, 410 A.D., the city of Rome was sacked by foreign invaders for the first time
in 800 years. Not since the Gauls had entered the city in 390 B.C. had Rome been invaded,
and this three-day rampage through the city marked the beginning of the end for the Roman
Empire. Ironically, the Visigoths who took the city that August had quite a lot in common with
the Romans. Like the Romans of the day, they were Christians, and their leader, Alaric,
had even sought to ally with Rome in the past, though his appeals had been firmly rejected.
During the sacking of Rome, the Visigoths laid waste to much of the city — but dutifully
protected the Christian relics and treasures that were housed in the city's churches. Notably,
at the time of the attack, Rome wasn't even considered the official Roman capital;
the seat of power had previously been moved to Ravenna, two hundred miles to the north.
476 is the year generally accepted as the end of the Roman Civilization. Having already been sacked
again in 455 by the Vandals, it was in 476 that Rome "officially" fell, following the deposition
of the last emperor, Romulus Augustus, by the Ostrogoth leader Odoacer. Never again would the
Western Empire have a true ruler, and never again would it have an emperor or take lands from other
peoples. Persisting from about 625 B.C. until 476 A.D., from the Period of Kings through the Roman
Republic and until the end of the Roman Empire, Ancient Rome stood for approximately 1,100 years.
The Fall of Rome is commonly regarded as the end of antiquity and the beginning of
the early Medieval period. In the east, however, Rome persisted in many ways.
Though the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 A.D.,
the Eastern Roman Empire evolved into the Byzantine Empire, which held on strong for
another thousand years or so. During the reign of Justinian I, which lasted from 527 to 656 A.D.,
the church of Hagia Sophia was built, which remains one of the world's most
impressive and celebrated structures. But the good times didn't last forever.
In the 15th century, the larger and more powerful Ottoman Sultanate threatened Byzantium. Finally,
following a brutal two-month siege, Constantinople fell to the forces
of Sultan Mehmed II. In that sense, May 29th, 1453, could be considered the final end of Rome.
That said, Roman architecture lives on in ruins around Europe, while its style is
mimicked in countless buildings and monuments erected in the subsequent centuries. Roman law
and the republican approach to government is still very much alive today, too. Meanwhile,
Latin greatly influenced many modern tongues — and, of course, Roman Christianity played
a pivotal role in the history of mankind. In the sense that so much of this ancient civilization's
influence can still be felt, you could say that the age of Rome persists to this day.