ANCIENT ROME.
In historiography, the term ancient Rome refers to Roman civilization since the founding of Rome (an Italian city) in the 8th century BC up to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire around the 5th century AD, encircling the Roman Kingdom, Roman Empire and Roman Republic until the fall of the western empire. The start of the civilization was in form of Italic settlement in the Italian Peninsula, that was founded in around 753 BC, later grew into the Rome city and later on gave its name to the empire which it ruled.
The Roman Empire grew and expanded to become one among the largest empires in the ancient world. This empire was however still ruled from the city, that had an estimate population of 50 to 90 million which represented 20% of the population of the world. It is also known to have covered an area of 5.0 million square kilometers at around 117 AD.
ROMAN CIVILIZATION’S TERRITORIES.
CAPITAL
The capital was Rome. However, there were several other capitals during the late Empire, some of these important capitals to note are Ravenna and Constantinople. The common language was Latin.
GOVERNMENT
Some of the important dates to note are:
The Roman state, in its many centuries of existence evolved from a monarchy into a Classical Republic and later into an increasingly autocratic semi-elective empire. Through assimilation and conquest, it eventually took dominance over the North African coast as well as most parts of Western Europe, the Crimea, Balkans and even most parts of the Middle East. It is mostly grouped into classical antiquity along with ancient Greece, and their cultures and societies which are similar are referred to as Greco-Roman world.
The ancient civilization of Rome has made a great contribution to the modern language, technology, religion, society, politics, law, warfare, art, literature, engineering and architecture. The military of Rome was expanded and professionalized and a system of government was created referred to as the res publica, which was the inspiration for the modern republics like France and the United States. It achieved great architectural and technological feats, like the construction of an extensive system of roads and aqueducts, and the construction of large palaces, public facilities and monuments.
In the period between 66 and 63 BC, General Pompey conquered a majority of the Middle East. Despite the success of Pompey in war, in 60 BC, the Senate ruled that Pompey had to share power with Julio Caesar. In 48 BC, Caesar defeated Pompey but was later assassinated in 44 BC.
The Roman Empire reached its territorial peak under Trajan. It stretched from the Mediterranean Basin to the North sea’s beaches in the North, to the shores of the Caspian and Red seas in the East.
The Empire broke up temporarily during the third century crisis.
