Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was an Italic civilization that began on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants (roughly 20% of the world's population) and covering 6.5 million square kilometers (2.5 million sq mi) during its height between the first and second centuries AD.

In its approximately 12 centuries of existence, Roman civilization shifted from a monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate Southern and Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa, and parts of Northern and Eastern Europe. Rome was preponderant throughout the Mediterranean region and was one of the most powerful entities of the ancient world. It is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world.

State of Rome

State of Rome (Roman State) refers to Ancient Rome as a nation-state, that is, a country. As a result, a free-born person in Syria could be considered a Roman by virtue of his citizenship although he was born nowhere near the city of Rome. Furthermore, the capital of the Roman state was not always the city of Rome. For example, the capital was moved to New Rome in the later stages of the Roman Empire, and after death of emperor Theodosius I, the capital of Western half was Mediolanum, but later Ravenna.

As a state, "ancient Rome" can refer to:

See also