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The Etruscans rule Rome. Romans society divides into two groups, Patricians (Wealthy) and Plebeians (Poor).
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The Patricians learned to resent the Etruscans. Soon, they rebelled and drove out the Etruscan King. In a republic, elected officials work for the interests of the people. To the patricians, "the people" meant the patricians themselves, not the plebeians so the plebeians were still poor.
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During these 454 years, the Romans had a republican government. It would be disrupted in B.C.E 45 when Julius Caesar became a dictator in charge of Rome. He would be assassinated by people who hoped to bring back the republic, but it didn't work. The Roman republic would be gone forever.
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The struggle took a dramatic turn in 494 B.C.E. By then, Rome
was a city of between 25,000 and 40,000 people. Most of the
population were plebeians. Angry over their lack of power, the
plebeians marched out of the city and camped on a nearby hill.
They refused to come back until the patricians met their demands. -
Rome was in crisis. Work in the city and on the farms came
to a halt. Without the plebeians, patricians feared that the army
would be helpless if an enemy struck at Rome. The patricians had little choice but to compromise. The patricians agreed to let the plebeians elect officials called Tribunes of the Plebs. -
The plebeians had to fight for what they wanted. They began to demand more political rights. Plebeians had to fight in the army even though the patricians decided whether to go to war. Plebeians resented this.
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Plebeians demanded that the laws be written down. That way, the
patricians couldn't change them at will. Around 451 B.C.E., the patricians agreed. The laws were written down on tablets called the Twelve Tables. -
Romans made a truce with Latin League to take over Italy. The war would go in the Romans favor, except having minor setbacks in 390 B.C.E against Gauls and the Latin League betraying the Romans which would create a war for two years (340-338 B.C.E). The decisive battle of Sentinum (295 B.C.E) made Rome supreme over all central and northern Italy. Romans would soon defeat the southern part of Italy 20 years later (275 B.C.E).
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In 367 B.C.E., a new law said that one of the two Roman consuls had to be a plebeian. Former consuls held seats in the Senate, so this change also made it possible for plebeians to become senators. In the picture, the white shirted man could stand for a Plebeian senator and the black shirted man could stand for a Patrician senator.
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The Latin League had become restive under the growing power and arrogance of their ally and attempted to break away from its control. Rome won the two years' war which followed (340-338 B.C.E). Some towns were reduced to vassalage, others were given full Roman citizenship, and others partial citizenship (the "Latin right").
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In 287 B.C.E., the plebeians gained the right to pass laws for all Roman citizens.citizens. Now, assemblies of all Roman citizens could approve or reject laws.After 200 years of struggle, the plebeians had won their fight for equality.
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Two centuries of warfare had turned Rome into a nation of soldiers. Its only remaining rival in the western Mediterranean was the Phoenician colony of Carthage. The first war was in 264 B.C.E. The war with Hannibal tested the courage and endurance of roman warriors. The stern devotion to duty, which was the keynote of Roman character, triumphed in the end, however. Fifty years later, in the Third Punic War, Rome again savagely attacked its defeated rival and razed the city.
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Rome was now well launched on its way to world domination. One conquest led to another. Upper Italy, Sicily, Spain, Macedonia, Greece, and Asia Minor were subdued and made Roman provinces. They fought ruthlessly and ruined the countries they conquered. Lots of the conquered lands were administrated by governors. Wealth poured into Rome from all over the world.
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Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March by Marcus Brutus, only one year after becoming dictator of Rome. They hoped to bring back the republic that was broken by Julius Caesar, but civil war breaks out instead.
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In mid-60 BC, Pompey joined Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gaius Julius Caesar in the unofficial military-political alliance known as the First Triumvirate. The deaths of Pompey's wife, who was also the daughter of Julius Caesar, and Crassus lead to Pompey and Caesar's fight for leadership of the Roman state, leading to a civil war. Julius Caesar became the first dictator of Rome after defeating Pompey in the civil war. This destroyed the Roman Republic and it would never be brought back again.
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The Roman empire started 27 years after the assassination of Julius Caesar who was the first dictator of Rome. In the process, the Roman republic had been lost, although people tried to bring it back. Octavius appoints himself "Augustus", which means the first emperor.
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The Great Fire of Rome was an urban fire in the year 64. It caused wide spread devastation, before being brought under control after six days. Some either blamed Emperor Nero for initiating the fire or thanked him for containing the fire and providing relief for refugees. According to Tacitus and later Christians, Nero blamed the devastation on the Christian community in the city, starting the empire's first persecution against the Christians.
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After the Romans invaded southern Britain, they had to defend it. So, in A.D. 122 the Emperor Hadrian ordered his soldiers to build a wall between Roman Britain and Scotland. In A.D. 140, the Romans added another wall further north. It was called the Antonine Wall. In the third century, there would be lots of fights along the Hadrian Wall.
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Rome never solved the problem of how to peacefully transfer political power to a new and capable leader. After 180 C.E., Rome had a series of weak—and sometimes dishonest—emperors.
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The huge size of the empire made it hard to defend. By the 300's, Germanic tribes were pressing hard on the western borders of the empire. Many of these people settled inside the empire and were recruited into the army. But these soldiers had little loyalty to Rome.
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In 330 C.E., the emperor Constantine took a step that changed
the future of Rome. He moved his capital 850 miles to the east,
to the ancient city of Byzantium. He renamed the city New
Rome. Later it was called Constantinople. (Today it is known
as Istanbul, Turkey.) From then on, there were two emperors, one in Rome, and one in Constantinople. Rome became the capital of just the western part of the empire. -
Christianity had started as a tiny religion, but was spread in many ways which would help Christianity grow into a large religion. Theodosius I proclaimed Christianity as the sole religion of the Roman Empire in 380 AD.
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The Sack of Rome occurred on August 24, 410. The city was attacked by the Visigoths led by King Alaric. The sack was a major shock to contemporaries, friends and foes of the Empire alike. This was the first time in almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy. The previous sack of Rome had been accomplished by the Gauls under their leader Brennus in 390 B.C.
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In 476, the last emperor in the west was driven from his throne. The western half of the empire began to dissolve into separate kingdoms ruled by different tribes.
