The introduction to Ancient Rome covers Rome's earliest days! Rome began as a monarchy, with its first king being Romulus, in 753 B.C. Rome would be ruled by seven kings, and with the deposition of Rome's last king, Tarquinius Superbus, Rome transitioned into a republic, and this video demonstrates how it functioned.
The Roman Empire came into existence long before it had emperors. Before the Punic Wars, the republic of Rome ruled much of Italy, having overcome first.
The enduring fascination of a monstrous and brilliant society
Toward the end of
SPQR, her survey of ancient Roman history, Mary Beard writes, “I no longer think, as I once naively did, that we have much to learn directly
from the Romans or, for that matter, from the ancient Greeks, or from any other ancient civilization.” Quite an admission, this, on the part of an English classicist who has spent the better part of her adult her life acquiring as much knowledge as possible about Rome and its empire and whose splendid book traverses its story from 750 b.c.e. to 212 c.e. She does avow that