The Growth of RomeFrom a humble settlement to a world power.

The site of the city

• Rome was built on a strategic location• The river Tiber provided easy access to the sea• The seven hills provided natural defenses• The fertile soil could support a substantial population• The site was probably inhabited before 753, the

traditional date of the foundation of the city in Roman legends.

Foundation MythsAmulius, Rhea Silvia + Mars = Romulus and Remus

Aeneas

The conquest of Latium

The sources

• The She-Wolf myth is probably the older one• The Trojan myth becomes more significant in the Augustan age,

as it links Rome to an epic past• In reality the beginnings of Rome were humble (the hut of

Romulus).• The first histories of Rome were written in Greek in the 3rd c.

BC• Dionysius of Halicarnassus Roman Antiquities• His sources for the early years seem to be family and state

archives and traditional legends and stories. He spent 22 years in Rome

• Livy Ab Urbe Condita (From the Foundation of the City)• Enhances and augments the history of Dionysius, and

brings it down to his own time.• Rome in the early years establishes itself through both,

ruthless military campaigns and skillful diplomacy• One by one the surrounding peoples, the Latins, the

Volscians, the Aequi, the Sabines, the Etruscans, and the Samnites become allies, friends or subjects of Rome.

Rome and her allies

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