Rome is much older than people realize. It's history can be traced for over 1,000 years. The first Romans were the Etruscans. The area which the Etruscans lived was called Tuscany. All of this is found in modern day Italy.
The first Romans were a collection of rejects and losers from surrounding tribes, namely the Latins, Greeks, and Sabines. The Romans hated the Etruscans and vice versa. The Etruscans were more powerful and stronger than the Romans, and they let them know this whenever possible.
The city of Rome was founded by the brothers Romulus and Remus. These twins were sent to die by their evil uncle, an Etruscan king. This king believed that the twins would kill him and take his power when they grew up. To solve this, he threw them in the Tiber River. However, this did not happen. According to legend, the twins were rescued by a she-wolf. Now to break this bubble, the twins were probably raised by a she-wolf, however, the translation of she-wolf in Latin was basically a prostitute.
The brothers grew up and did exactly what their uncle the king believed they were going to do, kill him and take his power and money. The year was 753 B.C. Now the new people of Rome had a new problem. Which brother was to be the king? To solve this the oggers, which were the priests, told the brothers to each stand on a hill. The first bird to acknowledge one of the brothers would be the king.
Besides having the Etruscans as their masters for the lack of a better term, the Romans couldn't get any girls. They came up with a great plan, invite the large body of Sabines to a feast to show no hard feelings and a sense of unity against the Etruscans. Once the party was getting going and the Sabines were really, really drunk, the Romans who were not really drinking turned on their neighbors, killed as many as possible and stole their women.
By 509 BC the Romans had enough of the Etruscans. A situation occurred that couldn't be overlooked. The ruler of the Romans, a man named Servious was killed by another Roman/Etrucan named Tarquin. Servious was really loved and his death was not well received. This is not the situation I am referring to. Tarquin was very well liked by the Etruscans and this made Rome very uneasy.
Tarquin's son raped a woman named Luquesha. Luquesha was young, beautiful, polite, nice. Everybody loved Luquesha. Luquesha was told by Tarquin's son that if she told anybody about the rape, he would kill her. Instead of dealing with the shame of being raped, Luquesha killed herself.
Romans went mad. They killed every Etruscan they found, especially the ones of the royal family. The war between the Romans and Etruscans lasted over 100 years. The Romans were able to break away from the Etruscans finally in 392 B.C.
How exactly were the Romans able to defeat the Etruscans? Rome did something better than any other culture in Europe, organize. The Romans organized everything. They took the ideas from others made it their own and perfected them. Very rarely did the Romans invent something themselves. Rather, they took someone else's idea.
One idea that was their own, they created Triumph Arches for every major victory against the Etruscans. This became a tradion all through their history. The type of government that the Romans created was also unique.
The Romans had one person who was called a dictator. The first dictator of Rome was a man named Cincinatus. Cincinatus is compared to George Washington. He was a farmer and a simple man, when his country called on him, he served, first as a general, then as a ruler. His rule was only for 6 months. Any dictator would be allowed to serve for another 6 months if a major emergency arrived.
The other unique part of the Roman government is that they created two councils to counter the possible tyranny of the dictator. The two councils were elected by the Senate who in turn was elected by the people. To us in the United States, we are the people, at least if you are over 18 years old. In Rome this was different. At first only the patricians were able to vote.
Patricians were the upper class citizens. Mostly rich men who owned land. The other major class of people were the Plebians. Plebians were members of Rome that were not rich and could not own land. Regardless, women could not become citizens.
Republic Born Bonus
The Plebians took a note from the Greeks across the way. They demanded more rights. They were the backbone of Rome. So, in 471 B.C. a Tribune of 10 was elected to represent the interest of the Plebians against political attacks. Eventually the 12 Tables developed a standardized law in Rome.
The first bird that came flew towards Romulus. Remus was so jealous he attacked his brother. Romulus killed his brother on the spot. This is just a prediction of things to come all through the history of Rome. Just because the twins killed the king did not mean that the Etruscans were just going to give up on their whipping boys. On the contrary, the Etruscans held the reigns of power tighter for another 200 years.
Bonus Worksheet