General Historical Background

Ancient legend and modern archaeology converge in the story of the Palatine Hill. On this hill, situated in the lower valley of the Tiber River on the central Italian plain of Latium, tradition asserts that Romulus founded the city of Rome on the 21st April of 753 bc.

The earliest Rome was an agricultural community: the mass of the population was composed of small freeholders and economic life was based on cattle-raising and the cultivation of the land. Political power was in the hands of a landowning aristocracy, the patricians, who dominated the most important political body, the senate, out of which the highest magistrates of the state were chosen. Social life revolved around the family (familia), the basic social unit, whose head (paterfa­milias) had absolute authority over all persons and all property in his family group. A turning-point in the history of this period was the overthrow of the monarchy, Rome’s earliest system of government, at the close of the sixth century bc and the establishment of an aristocratic republic. During the period from the sixth to the mid-third century bc Rome’s social and political organization underwent a series of important changes derived from the so-called ‘struggle of the orders’: the internal political strife between the old aristocracy, the patricians, and the lower classes, the plebeians.

Rome’s social and political development during the early republican age was directly related to her steady expansion throughout Italy. In 493 bc, Rome concluded a treaty with a league of Latin cities whereby each party undertook to aid the other in the event of war. Thereafter, the Romans concentrated on quelling the power of opposing tribes to the north while gradually dominating the Latin cities. During the fourth and early third centuries, the Romans fought a series of wars against the Samnites (a tribe from the Apennine area); the Latins who rose in revolt; the Celts and the Etruscans; and finally the Greek city-states of southern Italy. By the time these wars were over in 272 bc the Romans had gained control over most of the Italian peninsula. This did not entail the formation of a single state; rather, the various Italian communities were more or less allowed to govern themselves but they were made subordinate to Rome in different ways.

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