Hello and welcome to the history of Rome.

It had been 200 years since the founding of Rome, and since that time the Romans had

undergone a massive transformation.

In the beginning they were a collection of pastoral herdsmen and unsavory castoffs making

their way in the world by flock and trade, and since that time they had learned to become

sub-farmers, telling the land and raising crops.

They had gone from being a collection of armed rabble to a society of laws with a well-equipped,

well-disciplined army.

They had gone from upstarted village to regional capital and now stood ready to challenge

a wider pool of neighbors for control of all Italy.

The Etruscans laid to the north and the Greeks to the south, and having conquered the central

lowlands during the reign of the kings the Romans now turned to the hills and mountains

of east Italy for fresh conquest, and as always, were forced to parry the thrust of the

Etruscan cities to the north.

This is the world into which the republic was born.

According to the legendary chronology the kings were overthrown in 509 BC, though the

date is highly suspect.

Most likely later patriotic Roman historians changed the timing of the event to slightly

predate the establishment of democracy and Athens by clistonies in 508 BC.

The Romans had a hard time believing they were not first and best in everything, especially

in the democracy they took so much pride in, so they altered their history to outdo the

Greeks.

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