Ancient Rome

In

historiography

, ancient Rome is Roman civilization from the founding of the Italian city of

Rome

in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the

Western Roman Empire

in the 5th century AD, encompassing the Roman Kingdom (753 BC–509 BC), Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) and

Roman Empire

(27 BC–476 AD) until the fall of the western empire.
The

civilisation

began as an Italic settlement in the

Italian Peninsula

, traditionally dated to 753 BC, that grew into the city of Rome and which subsequently gave its name to the empire over which it ruled and to the widespread civilisation the empire developed. The civilization was led and ruled by the Romans, alternately considered an ethnic group or a nationality. The Roman Empire expanded to become one of the largest empires in the

ancient world

, still ruled from the city, with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants (roughly 20% of the world's population at the time) and covering at its height in AD 117.*
*

In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from an elective monarchy to a democratic classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic semi-elective military dictatorship during the Empire. Through conquest, cultural, and linguistic assimilation, at its height it controlled the North African coast,

Egypt

,

Southern Europe

, and most of

Western Europe

, the

Balkans

,

Crimea

and much of the

Middle East

, including Anatolia,

Levant

and parts of

Mesopotamia

and

Arabia

. It is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world.

Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern language, religion, society, technology, law, politics, government, warfare, art, literature, architecture and engineering. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called ''res publica'', the inspiration for modern

republic

s such as the United States and France. It achieved impressive technological and architectural feats, such as the construction of an extensive system of aqueducts and roads, as well as the construction of large monuments, palaces, and public facilities.

The Punic Wars with Carthage were decisive in establishing Rome as a world power. In this series of wars, Rome gained control of the strategic islands of Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily; took Hispania (modern Spain and Portugal); and destroyed the city of Carthage in 146 BC, giving Rome supremacy in the Mediterranean. By the end of the Republic (27 BC), Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond: its domain extended from the Atlantic to

Arabia

and from the mouth of the

Rhine

to North Africa. The Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of

Augustus

. Seven-hundred and twenty-one years of Roman–Persian Wars started in 92 BC with the first struggle against Parthia. It would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires.

Under

Trajan

, the Empire reached its territorial peak. It stretched from the entire Mediterranean Basin to the beaches of the

North Sea

in the north, to the shores of the

Red

and

Caspian

Seas in the East. Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the

Palmyrene Empire

, would temporarily divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century

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