Ancient Rome (753 BC - 476 AD), was composed of a few villages in the Latium region of modern day Italy and became the center of one of the biggest empires in the world. The Etruscans founded the city of Rome by uniting small villages and forcing the local people to work on the construction of the city. This caused conflict between the two communities, and resulted in a riot and the banishing of the Etruscan king by Latin aristocrats in 509 BC, who in time gained power. The Latin aristocrats abolished the kingdom and established a new administration, composed of a senate and a public council.

This is known as the Republican Era in Rome's history and while it led to the outward development of the city, it also was a time of a social class struggle. Rome's power was periodically threatened by the poor plebeians, who made up the majority of the population. The patricians, however, never lost power. In 450 BC, The Law of the Twelve Tables (the Lex Duodecim Tabularum, more commonly known as the Duodecim Tabulae) was adopted, which declared equality for all citizens.

In the Mid-Third Century BC, Rome gained control over the Italian Peninsula and subsequently over the Eastern Mediterranean after defeating the Macedonian King, who was threatening Greek cities and Anatolia. The Romans established a province in Africa after devastating Carthage, and continued their expansion, settling in the Eastern Mediterranean basin and dominating Macedonia and Greece; and the Kingdom of Pergamon became an Asian Province of Rome. For the Romans, these newly occupied territories meant new revenue and slaves. The Italian villagers and the slaves, who did not like the social class distinction, ill treatment and cruelty that they were subjected to, rebelled from time to time. Some of these rebellions could not be settled even by great rulers like Sulla, Pompeius, Crassus and Julius Caesar...

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