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Music 396 BC and a city is a flame. Situated close to the River Tiber, it had been a prominent centre in central Italy for centuries.

But now its time had ended.

Its buildings had been raised, its people either killed, enslaved or displaced, its gods

taken away, never to return.

Never again would this ancient city be repopulated. Never again would it be a competitor

for influence along the Tiber. That city's name was Vey, destroyed by another city

situated along the Tiber that was keen to remove this rival from the area for good.

Rome. Rome's brutal destruction of A marks one of the earliest examples of Roman imperialism that survives.

But fast forward six years, and the Romans would get their comeuppance and suffer their own devastating sacking.

Nevertheless, both these events proved pivotal moments in the development of a Roman state

and a Roman identity intrinsically linked to warfare and imperial expansion.

This is the ancients.

I'm Tristan Hughes, your host, and this is The Origins of Rome's Empire.

Our guest today is Dr. Jeremy Armstrong, Professor of Ancient History at the University of Auckland,

and the author of Children of Mars, The Origins of Rome's Empire.

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