History of the Roman Empire

It has been said that Rome was founded by Romulus, who killed his brother and named the city after himself. It is also believed by some people that they are the descendants of the city of Troy. Either way, Rome was believed to rebel against the Etruscans, who ruled them, taught them how to make and use weapons and armor, and taught them agriculture. Rome started with the SPQR which stands for Senate and People of Rome. They were very small, but by the year 340 B.C., it is believed that Rome had conquered the middle part of modern day Italy, controlling estates such as Rome, Capua, and Arettium. Rome had been founded on a republic, which is when the people vote for other representatives to vote for them, who then vote for the senate council.

By 270 B.C., the SPQR owned all of Italy, except for one Greek province, Syracuse, which was later captured. Once that was completed, Rome began to push through and around the Alps to take settlements in the North and Eastern coast. The western area of Gaul would be conquered by Gauis Julius Caesar. He would be assassinated shortly after his successful military campaign in Gaul, by Brutus and other conspirators. The Romans, by the 100's B.C. would have weaponry such as the gladius, a short steel sword, and different types of laminar armor along with spears and shields.

Rome began pushing into Greece and Dacia, along with Thrace and Macedonia during the 100's B.C. which would lead to the story of Spartacus, who led a rebellion against the Romans in 109 B.C. The Romans have invented many things useful to us by then, such as the arch, aqueduct, and dome. All of these are used today. By 325 A.D., Constantine, the current ruler of the Roman empire at the time, made a decision to split the empire in 2 to make the Western Roman empire, and the Eastern Roman empire, which would outlast the Western empire by almost 1000 years. Then Constantine officially made Rome a christian empire. The Byzantines (Eastern Roman empire) fell in the 1400's by the turns who used gunpowder to destroy the walls of Constantinople and destroyed it. The 2000 year legacy of Rome ended that day.