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- Later kings expanded the city and its territory through warfare and diplomacy.
- The later rulers were Etruscan, bringing Etruscan culture, engineering, and architecture to Rome.
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- According to legend, the city was founded by the twins Romulus and Remus, who were raised by a she-wolf.
- Romulus killed his brother Remus in a dispute over the city's location and became its first king.
- Rome started as a small Iron Age settlement on the Palatine Hill.
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- Political power was transferred from a king to two annually elected magistrates called consuls, advised by the Senate.
- A class struggle between the common people (plebeians) and the aristocracy (patricians) was a defining feature of the early Republic
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- The last king, Tarquin the Proud, was a tyrant whose son's actions (the rape of Lucretia) led to a revolt.
- Led by Lucius Junius Brutus, the aristocracy expelled the royal family and established the Roman Republic.
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- To address plebeian grievances, Rome published its first codified laws, inscribed on 12 bronze tablets. This act provided a foundation for Roman law and gave plebeians greater legal protection from patrician magistrates.
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After repelling invasions, including a sack by Gauls in 390 BCE, Rome gradually defeated its neighbors and brought all of Italy under its control.
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- A series of three wars against Carthage for control of the Mediterranean.
- First Punic War (264–241 BCE): Rome won control of Sicily, its first overseas province.
- Second Punic War (218–201 BCE): Hannibal famously invaded Italy by crossing the Alps with elephants, but Rome ultimately triumphed and became the dominant power in the Mediterranean.
- Third Punic War (149–146 BCE): Rome completely destroyed Carthage, ending its rivalry.
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- A populist tribune, Tiberius Gracchus, tried to pass land reforms to benefit the poor.
- His assassination by senators marked a turning point, with political violence becoming a tool to resolve conflicts and leading to decades of instability.
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- Caesar formed the First Triumvirate with Pompey and Crassus.
- After conquering Gaul, he defeated Pompey in a civil war and became "dictator for life".
- Fearing he would become king and destroy the Republic, a group of senators assassinated him on the "Ides of March," 44 BCE.
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Following Caesar's death, his great-nephew Octavian defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra, leaving him in sole control of Rome.
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- Octavian was given the title of Augustus ("revered one") and became the first Roman emperor.
- He maintained the facade of the Republic but held absolute power, beginning the Principate.
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- A 200-year period of relative peace and stability ushered in by Augustus.
- The empire reached its greatest extent, with vast trade networks and flourishing urban centers.
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Much of Rome burned under Emperor Nero, who was rumored to have caused the fire.
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- A period of internal chaos marked by repeated foreign invasions, economic collapse, and rapid imperial succession (with over 20 emperors in 50 years).
- The empire briefly split into three competing states.
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- 284 CE: Emperor Diocletian ends the crisis and formally establishes the Dominate, ruling as an absolute monarch.
- 313 CE: The Edict of Milan legalizes Christianity.
- 330 CE: Constantine the Great dedicates Constantinople as the new capital, shifting power eastward.
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- 395 CE: The empire is permanently divided into Western and Eastern halves upon the death of ***Emperor Theodosius I.*
- 410 CE: The Visigoths sack the city of Rome, a major blow to the Western Empire.
- 476 CE: The last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, is deposed, traditionally marking the end of the Western Roman Empire.