Ancient Rome, Republic, Empire & Fall of Rome

Roman History from the kings through the Roman Republic and Empire, with charts of battles, wars, and emperors, timelines, maps and social and cultural history, including foods and clothing.

A List of Roman Terms for Beginners

This list of Roman terms for students gives a dozen basics from only the early and Republican periods. You'll learn about the famous road that was the site of executions and at least one famous murder, the famous Roman circus, the two original social classes, Rome's most hated/feared enemy, its founder and more.

Here is a large assortment of photos and illustrations highlighting a nation that spanned 1-2 millennia. It features architectural marvels and ruins, maps, sculptures, important figures, including emperors, mosaics, artwork showing scenes from Roman legend, illustrations, armor, enemies, and more.

Roman culture includes its architecture and technology, entertainment system, which includes gladiators and Roman theater, its literature, medicine, religion and myth, and philosophy.

Browse through this ancient Roman timeline to examine more than a millennium of Roman history. Rome started as a city in Latium, spread to the surrounding area of the Italic Peninsula, then to the islands, then elsewhere in the Mediterranean world all the way to the Danube before it slowed down and barbarians from Central Eurasia began to...

Maps of Rome, Italy, and the Roman Empire showing the growth and then diminution of Roman power.

We think of gladiators as strong, heroic, and defiant, the heroes in movies about Rome. The reality is that some gladiators were admired, others were defiant, but in ancient Rome, gladiators, who were usually slaves trained in special schools, fought to the death in arenas to entertain the crowds. It was considered dishonorable for an emperor to step into the arena to fight.

Much of Roman history deals with wars, which means Roman soldiers in Roman legions fighting first Italians, then as the Empire expanded, other peoples around the Mediterranean. The Roman Empire depended on the Roman army. Not only did the legionaries conquer, but they spread the language and culture of Rome to Europe to the Rhine, and much of...

Although we translate the Latin word familia as family, the ancient Roman family "familia" was not the same as ours. For one, slaves were a part of it.

Italy is the name of the country that was the start of the Roman Empire. Its rivers, mountains, fertility, and shape all helped form the nations that developed on the peninsula where Rome started.

Sometimes when learning about a new topic it helps to focus on specifics. Otherwise, there are just too many details and not enough pre-existing categories in one's brain to sort them all into. It's with that in mind that I've written 10 questions for you -- something like an Easter egg hunt -- to guide you while you use this site to study...

An A to Z glossary of Roman terms. Learn significant words about Rome from the 7 hills, 12 tablets, and Ab Urbe Condita to ... well, not exactly z, but the Gallic enemy of Rome Vercingetorix and the Vinalia festival.

Mt. Vesuvius is a volcano located in Campania that erupted in A.D. 79 covering much of the area in volcanic ash that preserved the area for centuries. The modern fame of the city of Pompeii is thanks to this volcano.

A public domain map outlining the major regions of ancient Italy.

Rome spread from a single settlement on the Tiber. First it spread to the surrounding territory, then all of Italy, and then most of western Europe, north Africa, Greece, and Asia Minor. These maps show these areas in relationship to one another.

This is the famous forum of Rome, the social-business-political heart of the city. The Roman Forum (Forum Romanum) was originally a market place but became a place for politics, and public and private business.

The Roman Republican form of government had three branches, the consul, the senate, and the assembly, and these three branches of Republican Rome meant that there were elements of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy in the Roman Republican form of government.

Here are suggestions for reading about ancient Rome, from its founding, through the kings, the Republic, and the Empire, to the Fall of Rome. Some books are suitable to school children, but most are for adults. Most cover a specific period, although there are some general ones.

Review of Rose Williams' Once Upon the Tiber. Although tongue-in-cheek, her book provides Latin students with the background in Roman history they need to know in order to make sense of all the allusions.

Classical abbreviations from an online 1911 encyclopedia. The edition was scanned and not proofed, so there are errors.

This article attempts to define the period of ancient/classical history by contrasting it with what came before (pre-history) and what came after (Middle Ages).

Time line of major events in the ancient history of the world. Most dates and events on the ancient history timeline are of political importance.

The elements of Roman society during the period of kings and the Republic.

An introduction to the languages of the the Italic peninsula in the area of initial settlement of Rome.