Rome started as a small community centered on 7 hills by the Tiber River. Rome is the name of a city and the name of the great ancient power that spread as an empire through western Europe, into the Middle East and northern Africa. Rome was the capital of this empire until around the time the empire split. From then on, the capital(s) were elsewhere, most notably, Constantinople.
Here are some of the major places in the ancient city of Rome.
Also see Names for Rome.
1. 7 Hills of Rome
Xerones - From Flickr Creative Commons License
Monuments of the seven hills of Ancient Rome.
2. Cloaca Maxima
Public Domain. Courtesy of Lalupa at Wikipedia.
The cloaca maxima was the sewer system built in the sixth or seventh century B.C., by one of the kings of Rome -- probably Tarquinius Priscus, although Livy attributes it to Tarquin the Proud -- to drain the marshes in the valleys between the hills into the Tiber River.
3. Colosseum
James Martin (goeurope.about.com)
The Colosseum is also known as the Flavian Amphitheater. The Colosseum is a large sports arena. Gladiatorial games were played in the Colosseum.
4. Curia - The House of the Roman Senate
Judith Geary
The curia was part of the political center of Roman life, the Roman forum's comitium, which was at the time a rectangular space mostly aligned with the cardinal points, with the curia to the north.
5. Founding of Rome
Claire Campbell
Rome was founded, according to the most common founding legend, by Romulus, the eponymus son of Mars and Rhea Silvia, a Vestal Virgin.
6. Insulae and Roman Apartments
CC Photo Flickr User antmoose
Insula is the word for the apartment complexes many ancient Romans piled into.
7. Lacus Curtius
The Lacus Curtius was an area located in the Roman Forum named for a Sabine Mettius Curtius.8. Pomoerium
The pomoerium was originally an area circling the inhabited area of the city of Rome.
10. Servian Wall
The Servian Wall that surrounded the city of Rome was supposedly built by the Roman king Servius Tullius in the 6th century B.C.11. Aurelian Gates
Public Domain. Courtesy of Lalupa and Wikipedia.
The Aurelian Walls were built in Rome from 271-275 to enclose all seven hills, the Campus Martius, and the Trans Tiberim (Trastevere, in Italian) region of the formerly Etruscan west bank of the Tiber.
12. Tiber River
Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
The Tiber River is the main river of Rome. The Trans Tiberim is referred to as the right bank of the Tiber, according to "The Cults of Ancient Trastevere," by S. M. Savage (Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, Vol. 17, (1940), pp. 26-56) and includes the Janiculum ridge and the lowland between it and the Tiber. The Trans Tiberim appears to have been the site of the annual ludi piscatorii (Fishermen's Games) held in honor of Father Tiber. Inscriptions show the games were held in the third century B.C. They were celebrated by the City Praetor.
