A short history of ancient Rome

Rome started out as seven villages built on seven hills. Over time, more villages were built, until they joined together to form the city of Rome. Legend says that Rome was set up by a man named Romulus. He and his brother, Remus, had been left by the Tiber river as babies to die. A wolf found them, and fed and looked after them until they were rescued by a shepherd. When the boys grew up, Romulus saw seven hills and decided to build a city there. But the brothers had a violent quarrel. Romulus killed his brother and named the city after himself. Tradition says this happened in 753BC.

Rome was ruled by kings until about 509BC. Then, the last king was driven out and Rome became a Republic. The Roman Republic was ruled by two men called consuls. Each consul kept the other from getting too much power. The consuls listened to the advice of the Senate. The Senate was made up of a group of men (called senators) that came from Rome's most important families.

In 49BC, a general named Julius Caesar marched his army to Rome and seized power. Caesar brought peace, and eventually, Romans didn't look up to or obey the consuls. They only obeyed Caesar. The Senate thought that Caesar was going to make himself king, so they stabbed him to death.

After Julius Caesar died, his great-nephew, Octavian, defeated his rival, Mark Antony, and took control of Rome. He changed his name to Augustus, which means "respected one". He became Rome's first emperor.

The Roman Army was one of the most powerful armies in the ancient world. The soldiers were well-trained and well-armed. A Roman legionary (foot soldier) had a sword, a shield, armour, and a javelin or a spear. A group of 80 soldiers was a century. Centuries were grouped into cohorts, and ten cohorts made a legion. Soldiers got into walled cities using a siege tower. A siege tower was a large tower on wheels, covered with strong metal plates. The Romans built a ramp leading up to the city wall and wheeled the siege tower up it. When it was at the wall, soldiers climbed to the top of the tower, lowered a drawbridge, and rushed into the city.

Roman troops were grouped in centuries, cohorts, and legions. One century was originally 100 men, but it was soon changed to 80. One cohort was made up of 6 centuries, totalling it up to 480 men. Ten cohorts made a legion, with a total of about 4,800 men. Later, the first cohort in a legion had double the amount of men, bringing a legion up to a total of about 5,280 men.

The Romans enjoyed games. Lots of them went to large stadiums called amphitheatres to watch the games. There were chariot races, plays, and lots of other stuff. But the peoples' favourite were gladiator fights. Gladiators were slaves or criminals who were forced to fight each other to entertain the crowd. At the end of a fight, the spectators decided if the loser should live or die. Hundreds of gladiators died this way.

In AD284, Diocletian came to the throne. At that time, the Roman Empire was at its largest. In fact, the empire was so big that its army couldn't protect it. So Diocletian split the empire in half. He ruled the eastern half of the empire, and a general named Maximian ruled the western half. Later, in AD312, a man named Constantine took control of the Western Roman Empire. He later took control of the east half as well, reuniting the empire. He moved the capital to a town named Byzantium. He rebuilt Byzantium and renamed it Constantinople, after himself.

In AD395, the empire was split permanently in two, and barbarians swept across the Western empire. The city of Rome was attacked by the Visigoths in AD410, and by the Vandals in AD455. In AD476, the Western Empire ended. The Eastern Roman Empire wasn't even called the Roman Empire anymore. It was then called the Byzantine Empire, after Byzantium. The Romans had given us many new inventions, including books and our alphabet, but the Roman Empire itself was gone forever.