RR4: Roman History from 1000 - 31 B.C.E

The B.C.E History

Roman history is divided into three distinct phases: the rule of the early kings, the republic, and the empire.

At about 1000 B.C.E groups of Balkan settlers moved into the Italian peninsula among these men were Latins. Roughly 300 years later, it is believed, the Etruscans moved into the area north of Rome which is now Tuscany. The Etruscans gradually began to dominate the neighboring tribes including the Latins.

The Etruscans forced a king upon the city of Rome but Rome soon rebelled in 509 B.C.E and became a republic governed by a senate.

To gain more control of the surrounding lands the Romans fought a series of rigorous battles which gained them control of the Greek colonies. So by 265 B.C.E Rome was in control of the entire Italian peninsula.

The fight for power did not end at Greece but traveled to North Africa which consisted of the Punic wars, which gained Rome access to North Africa. 

The disadvantage to the growth of the Roman Empire resulted in many annexed colonies around the Mediterranean Sea which led Romans to call the Sea mare nostrum,"our sea."

In 46 B.C.E., Julius Caesar was appointed dictator by the senate for ten years in hope of ending the civil wars, but two years later, he was assassinated by those who wanted the old Republic back. 
Then in 31 B.C.E, Julius Caesar's nephew Octavian defeated Mark Anthony and Cleopatra extending Rome into Egypt.

This victory gained Octavian emperor and head of the army which gave him the title of Augustus. He reined for forty-one years marked by peace and the establishment of imperial bureaucracy that functioned smoothly even after his death.

Erin Matthews
Non- Major