Rome was said to be found in the year 753 B.C. Modern historians think that it was not founded until the year 625 B.C. That is a long time ago! Rome was ruled by emperors at first. They only had seven emperors rule them.
The emperors that ruled them in order were Augustus, Galba, Hadrian, Nerva, Sallust, Vespasian, and Julius Caesar. After the seven emperors ruled, the Romans took over and formed a council that they called the "senate." Though it did not work out to well, it ended up separating Rome into four classes.
The first class was the slaves who were owned by other people and had no rights. Next there were the Plebeians, they were free but hardly any rights. Following that there were the Equestrians they were the warriors for Rome. All Equestrians had to be rich. The greatest group of all were the Patricians. They basically ruled Rome. Rome grew because it was an empire and emperors went to conquer others and rule over who they conquered. That probably explains why they fell to ruins in the end by Visigoth Odoacer and his barbarians in AD 476.
The greatest challenge for Rome was the Carthaginians. Cartage was a powerful city in North Africa. The war was on land and sea. The most famous incident was when the Carthaginian general Hannibal crossed the mountain chain of the Alps with all his soldiers including his war elephants! He invaded Italy. In the end Rome won and Carthage was completely destroyed in the year 146 B.C.
Rome was unlike other places and did not paint murals on ceilings in their churches. Instead there were murals in wealthy people’s homes. Most of the murals were of coins, jewelry, and weapons. Romans spoke many languages which were called Romance languages. Rome’s culture was not unique to Rome because they learned from different cultures, such as those they took over. For example, the great goddess Aphrodite, she was the goddess of love and beauty. They admired her so much that they changed one of their goddesses, Venus, the goddess of vegetation, into the goddess of love and beauty. They also made up Cupid who became Love’s messenger. Though Venus and Aphrodite were two different goddesses, their pictures and statues were very much alike.
The most famous citizen of Rome was Julius Caesar. He was a politician and General and conquered the vast area of the Gaul's. In 49 B.C. he conquered Rome itself which he then ruled as emperor. He is the one that started Caesar's English and made up the building blocks of words and sentences up.
Click here for a timeline of The Rome Empire created in the program "Timeliner" by Tom Snyder Productions, Inc.
