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Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew
from a small agricultural community founded on the
Italian Peninsula in the 9th century BC to a large
empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea. In its twelve
centuries of existence, Roman civilization shifted
from a monarchy, to a republic based on a
combination of oligarchy and democracy, to an
increasingly autocratic empire. It came to dominate
Western Europe and the area surrounding the
Mediterranean Sea through conquest and assimilation.
The Roman empire went into decline in the 5th
century AD. Plagued by internal instability and
attacked by various migrating peoples, the western
part of the empire, including Hispania, Gaul, and
Italy, broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th
century. The eastern part of the empire, governed
from Constantinople, survived this crisis, and would
live on for another millennium, until its last
remains were finally annexed by the emerging Ottoman
Empire. This eastern, medieval stage of the Empire
is usually referred to as the Byzantine Empire by
historians.
Roman civilization is often grouped into "classical
antiquity" with ancient Greece, a civilization that
inspired much of the culture of ancient Rome.
Ancient Rome contributed greatly to the development
of law, war, art, literature, architecture,
technology and language in the Western world, and
its history continues to have a major influence on
the world today. |
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