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The Settlement and Innovations of Ancient Rome Essay

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The Settlement and Innovations of Ancient Rome

Rome is an ancient city located on the western coast of Italy by the
Meditterranian Sea.(3:289)

The city of Rome was founded, according to the legend, by Romulus in 753
BC. Remus and Romulus were two mythological sons of Mars, the god of war.
"Through military expansion and colonizations, and by granting citizenship to conquered tribes, the city joined all of Italy south of the Po in the
100-year period before 268 BC." First, the Latin and other tribes were joined, then the Etruscans (a civili zed people north of Rome) and the
Greek colonies in the south. "With a large army and several hundred thousand in reserve, Rome defeated Carthage in the 3 Punic Wars, 264-241, …show more content…

Provincials
(nearly all granted citizenship by Caracalla,212 AD) came to dominate the army and cival service. Traditional Roman law, systmatized and interpreted by independant jurists, and local self-rule in provincial cities were su pplanted by a vast tax-collecting bureaucracyin the 3d and 4th centuries.
The legal rights of women, children, and slaves were strenghtened."(1:721)

Roman innovations in civil engineering included water mills, windmills, and rotary mills and the use of cement that hardened under water.
Monumental architechture (baths, theaters, apartment houses) relied on the arch and dome. "The network of roads (some still standing) stretched 53,000 miles, passing through moutain tunnels as long as 3.5 miles. Co nceived in
312 BC, the 360 mile Appian Way was a superhighway that the Romans traveled from Rome to Caupa, in Campania...The road took about 10 to 15 days to travel...It was considered the Queen of roads by the Romans, but it is a
"l'il ole road" by moder n standards." Aqueducts brought water to cities, underground sewers removed waste. Some of the sewers were so well built, they are still in use today.(2:715)

Roman art and literature were derivative of Greek models. Innovations were made in sculpture (naturalistic busts and equestrian statues), decorative wall painting (as at Pompeii), satire (Juvenal, 60-127), history
(Tacitus, 56-120), prose romance (Petronius, d. 66 AD). Violense and

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