The city of Rome grew from farming settlements in the middle of the 8th century BCE. It was ruled by Latin, Sabine and Etruscan kings until the Romans established a republic in 509 BCE.
The oligarchic rulers were in constant conflict with small landowners (plebeians) and the neighbouring Etruscan, Latin and other tribes of central Italy until they established the state of Latium. The Roman rulers gradually expanding the areas under their control by conquering the Gauls, Osci-Samnites and the Greek colony of Taranto in southern Italy and by the first century BCE, Roman had conquered the whole of Italy and most of the Mediterranean making Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Hispania (Spain), Macedonia, Greece, Syria, Iran, Egypt and north Africa Roman provinces.
The Macedonian Wars (212–168 BCE)
Perseus of Macedon, ruler of the Antigonid Kingdom (one of four dynasties* established by Alexander's successors), was unable to stop the advancing Roman legions and Macedon's defeat at the Battle of Pydna 179-168 BCE was the end of the dynasty.
(*the others being the Seleucid dynasty, Ptolemaic dynasty(Egypt) and Attalid dynasty).
Seleucid Empire
In the east, the unwieldy Seleucid Empire gradually disintegrated, although a rump survived until 64 BCE. The Greek Aetolian league, wary of Roman involvement in Greece, sided with the Seleucids in the Roman - Seleucid War; and, when the Romans were victorious, the league was absorbed into the Roman Empire.
Ptolemaic Kingdom
The Ptolemaic Kingdom continued in Egypt until 30 BCE, when it too was conquered by the Romans.
Greece
The Hellenistic period lasted until Greece was defeated by the Roman Republic in 146 BCE. Although the Greek Achaean league outlasted both the Aetolian league and Macedon, it was ultimately defeated and absorbed by the Romans bringing an end to the independence of all Greece. Although this meant the end of Greek political independence, Hellenistic society remained virtually unchanged until the advent of Christianity.
The Punic Wars (Rome v. Carthage 264–146 BCE)
The First Punic War (264–241 BCE) began when the Romans sent a garrison to help secure the city of Messina in Sicily and, when the Carthaginians sent aid to their allies in Syracuse, a full-scale war ensued.
Rome defeated the Carthaginians in a land battle in 262 BCE but Carthage defeated the much smaller Roman navy in 260 BCE. Within months, the Romans rebuilt their navy with a fleet of over one hundred warships, some equipped with an assault bridge that enabled Roman legionaries to board and capture Carthaginian ships. Rome was successful in almost every following battle and, in 241 BCE, Carthage signed a peace treaty, evacuated Sicily and agreed to pay Rome a large war indemnity. However, the Roman popular assembly was not satisfied with this and Rome occupied Corsica and Sardinia and the Carthaginians were forced to accepted the loss of these islands and an increased war indemnity.
The Second Punic War (218–201 BCE)
The Carthaginian general, Hamilcar Barca, blamed for the loss of Corsica and Sardinia and the increased war indemnity, moved his army to Iberia (Spain) where he subdued several tribes, captured rich silver mines and added native troops to his army. The silver mines paid not only for his army but also the war indemnity to Rome. When Hamilcar died in battle in 228 BCE, his son-in-law, Hasdrubal, became Carthaginian commander in Iberia.
When Rome learned of an alliance between Carthage and the Celts of northern Italy, the Romans pre-emptively invaded the Po river region in 225 BCE. But Hasdrubal was assassinated in 221 BCE and his brother Hannibal, surprised the Romans in 218 BCE by attacking the town of Saguntum (near modern Valencia, Spain). This action was a reprisal for the massacre of pro-Carthaginian factions. Although Rome had no legal responsibility to protect tribes south of the Ebro River, the Roman senate demanded Carthage hand Hannibal over and, when the Carthaginian oligarchy refused, Rome again declared war on Carthage.
In 218 BCE, Hannibal marched his army through northern Spain across southern France and through the Alps, to invade northern Italy. On the way, he lost his siege engines and most of his elephants, but he surprised the Romans and defeated the Roman legions in the Battle of the Trebia (December 218 BCE). He continued south toward Rome and defeated another Roman army at the Battle of Lake Trasimeno (217 BCE) but lacking siege engines he was unable to take the city of Rome and continued south to the small village of Cannae (now Canne della Battaglia) on the east coast opposite Naples. There, in 216 BCE, he almost annihilated a larger Roman army, killing almost 70,000 Roman legionaries in a single day.
Hannibal's army devastated the Italian countryside but Rome was able to draft recruits for new armies after each disastrous defeat while keeping Hannibal cut off from aid. Hannibal received no significant help from Carthage despite his many pleas.
But the Roman legions were embroiled not only in Italy and Spain but also in the first of the Macedonian wars against Carthage's ally Philip V. In Italy, the Roman general was not capable of defeating the Hannibal's Carthaginians, so he intentionally avoided battle while preventing Hannibal from easily foraging for supplies.
Hannibal's campaign continued inconclusively for sixteen years as he ravaged Italian farmlands to feed his army. Eventually, Rome attacked Carthage and when Hannibal rushed home to defend Carthage, he was finally defeated in 202 BCE by Scipio Africanus at the Battle of Zama.
At the end of the war Rome seized all of Carthage's territories in the Mediterranean, north Africa and Spain leaving only the city itself.
The Third Punic War (149–146 BCE)
After fifty years, Carthage had paid its war indemnity to Rome and formed an army to end constant raids from neighbouring Numidia, which was a Roman client state. This resurgence of militarism alarmed many Romans and in 149 BCE Rome demanded three hundred children of the nobility as hostages and later demanded that Carthage be demolished and rebuilt inland. When this was refused, Rome declared the Third Punic War.
The Carthaginians repulsed the first Roman assault but a second offensive began with a three-year siege and the Romans utterly destroyed the city in 146 BCE. At the end of the war, the surviving 50,000 Carthaginians were sold into slavery and all Carthaginian territories were reconstituted as Roman provinces.
In 2nd century BCE, many small farms were converted into large slave estates while the dispossessed farmers moved to the city of Rome. The almost continuous warfare required a professional army and this caused conflicts between the generals and Rome while, at the same time, two groups of Roman aristocrats contested for power.
The first civil war followed a slave revolt under Spartacus which led to a Triumvirate with Caesar, Pompey and Crassus ruling Rome in 60 BCE. Following his conquest of Gaul (France) Caesar won a second civil war against Pompey and the Roman Senate named him dictator for life.
But Caesar was assassinated and a second Triumvirate, with Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus, resulted in another civil war. Finally, Octavian defeated Antony in 27 BCE and assumed the title of Augustus. After Augustus conquered Britain, Rome became officially an empire reaching its maximum size in the second century CE when it controlled about 6.5 million square kilometres (2.5 million square miles) of land surface between the Atlantic Ocean and the Euphrates (Iraq) and from Britain to Egypt.
After 235 CE, because of the weak government in Rome many generals sought independent control of parts of the empire. To meet expenses the government minted coins with a lower percentage of gold or silver which debased the currency causing a rapid rise in inflation, more instability and a deteriorating economy.
From 250 CE the Germanic tribes sent giant raiding parties across the Rhine and through the Balkans causing more disruption. The Emperor Diocletian stabilized the empire and, in 296 CE, he appointed Maximian to rule the western half of the empire while remaining in charge of the eastern half. In 292 CE, he appointed two assistant emperors (known as Caesars), Constantius (for Britain, Gaul, and Spain) and Licinius for the Balkans.
Under this 'tetrarchy' (rule of four), each emperor ruled over a quarter of the empire. Diocletian defeated the Sarmatians and Carpi during several campaigns between 285 and 299 CE, the Alamanni in 288, and usurpers in Egypt between 297 and 298 CE. Galerius campaigned against Sassanid Persia, the empire's traditional enemy, and in 299 he destroyed their capital, Ctesiphon.
Diocletian reorganized the empire's civil and military services and established new administrative centres closer to the empire's frontiers than the traditional capital at Rome. From 297 CE, he standardized imperial taxation at generally higher rates but made it more equitable. However, he failed to control inflation with price controls.
He also failed to eliminate Christianity in the empire, despite persecutions between 303 and 312 CE but his reforms stabilized the empire enabling it to remain united for another 150 years. Diocletian and Maximian retired from imperial office on 1 May 305 CE and Tetrarchy was abandoned as civil wars broke out between rival claimants to imperial power.
Constantine became emperor at the end of 324 CE, and undertook major reforms. He confirmed the freedom of worship for everyone and ordered the restoration of confiscated church properties. He transformed the town of Byzantium into his new residence which was renamed Constantinople in May 359 CE.
The creation of Constantinople profoundly effected Europe as it became a bulwark against invasion from the east for a thousand years.
An edict of the three emperors, Gratian, Valentinian II, and Theodosius I made Christianity the official religion of the empire in 380 CE. Theodosius was the last emperor of a unified empire because, after his death in 395 CE, his sons, Arcadius and Honorius divided the empire into an eastern and western part. From the 430's CE, the two emperors resided in Constantinople and Rome respectively.
Rome was sacked in 410 CE by the Visigoths under Alaric I. The population of the city had fallen from 800,000 to about 500,000 by the time the city was sacked again in 455 CE by Genseric, king of the Vandals. The weak emperors of the fifth century could not stop the decay and when Romulus Augustus was deposed on 22 August 476 CE it marked the end of the Western Roman Empire.