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Causes of Rome's Fall and Legacy

The Roman Empire was a dominant civilization that influenced Western culture for nearly 1000 years, particularly in government, engineering, and literature. It transitioned from a monarchy to a republic in 509 BC, before Julius Caesar became the first emperor in 27 BC, marking the start of the Roman Empire. The Western Roman Empire fell in 476 AD, while the Eastern Roman Empire, known as the Byzantine Empire, continued for another millennium.

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27 views2 pages

Causes of Rome's Fall and Legacy

The Roman Empire was a dominant civilization that influenced Western culture for nearly 1000 years, particularly in government, engineering, and literature. It transitioned from a monarchy to a republic in 509 BC, before Julius Caesar became the first emperor in 27 BC, marking the start of the Roman Empire. The Western Roman Empire fell in 476 AD, while the Eastern Roman Empire, known as the Byzantine Empire, continued for another millennium.

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Goodnews Digifa
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© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

The Roman Empire

Ancient Rome was a powerful and important civilization that ruled


much of Europe for nearly 1000 years. The culture of Ancient
Rome was spread throughout Europe during its rule. As a result,
Rome’s culture still has an impact in the Western world today.
The basis for much of Western culture comes from Ancient Rome,
especially in areas such as government, engineering,
architecture, language, and literature.
How did Rome begin?
The Romans had a story about how their city began.
According to legend, Rome was founded by twin brother
Romulus and Remus, who were the sons of the god of the Mars.
As babies, the boys were left to drown in the River Tiber, but they
were rescued by a wolf. When the boys were older, they decided
to start a new city. Romulus wanted to build it on the Palatine
Hill and Remus preferred the Aventine Hill.
One day, the twins got in a fight. Remus was killed and Romulus
named the new city 'Roma after himself!

Who ruled Rome?

The two most powerful people in the senate were the consuls.
Every year, the citizens of the Roman Republic voted for who they
wanted to be consul. In the early days, Rome was ruled
by kings. Romulus was supposedly the first king.
The last king was Tarquin the Proud. He ruled until 509BC,
when the people of Rome drove him out. Rome became
a republic. The republic didn’t allow one person to have
complete control of the city.

The Roman Republic

Rome first grew into power as a Republic. This meant that Rome's
leaders, such as senators, were elected officials that served for a
limited amount of time, not kings who were born into leadership
and ruled for life. They had a complex government with written
laws, a constitution, and a balance of powers. These concepts
became very important in forming future democratic
governments, like the United States.

The Republic would rule Rome for hundreds of years from around
509 BC to 45 BC.

The Roman Empire

In 45 BC Julius Caesar took over the Roman Republic and made


himself the supreme dictator. This was the end of the republic. A
few years later, in 27 BC, Caesar Augustus became the first
Roman Emperor and this was the start of the Roman Empire.
Much of the lower level government stayed the same, but now the
Emperor had supreme power.

As the Roman Empire grew it became more and more difficult to


manage from the city of Rome. Eventually the Roman leaders
decided to split Rome into two empires. One was the Western
Roman Empire and was ruled out of the city of Rome. The other
was the Eastern Roman Empire and was ruled out of
Constantinople (today's Istanbul in Turkey). The Eastern Roman
Empire would become known as Byzantium or the Byzantine
Empire.
Fall of Rome

The fall of Rome generally refers to the fall of the Western Roman
Empire. It fell in 476 AD. The Eastern Roman Empire, or the
Byzantine Empire, would rule parts of Eastern Europe for another
1000 years.

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