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Rome

This paper will discuss the rise and fall of Rome, and the impact of Rome on later Western Civilization. It will focus on economic and social factors, rather than on intellectual history.

Rome began as a village on the Tiber river. For a long time it was a political tributary of the Etruscan kingdom, but achieved independence from them in roughly 600 B.C. In about 400 B.C. it was captured and sacked by an invading Gaulish army. This seems to have galvanized and aggravated the militaristic streak in the Romans. They apparently vowed never to allow the city to be captured again, and to take vengeance on the Gauls as soon as possible. Their political philosophy was that aggression was the best defense, and they began to expand their power over the Italian peninsula rapidly.

This expansion brought them into conflict with both the Greeks and the Carthaginians, who both had colonies in Italy and Sicily. Leaving the Greeks for later, the Romans focused on the Carthaginians, who were their rivals for control of the Mediterranean Sea. The Romans launched a series of wars known as the Punic Wars, Carthage having begun as a Phoenician colony. During the second of these, Rome was almost captured by the invading army of the brilliant Carthaginian general Hannibal, and were saved only by a scorched-earth defense policy and the brilliance of their own general, Cornelius Scipio, who cut HannibalÆs supply lines through Spain and France.

Rome was again traumatized by this near-capture, and became even more militaristic and aggressive. At the end of their third and final war with Carthage, they captured and razed the town, enslaved all the population, and salted the earth to make sure nothing could grow there. They then turned east, and by about 200 B.C. had captured Greece. They continued on around the Mediterranean, conquering Syria, Palestine (in 63 B.C.), Egypt, and the rest of North Africa; they also pressed northward, conquer...

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Rome. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 05:00, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1709609.html