About "town"of Rome

With the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age in the C10 BC, the population of central Italy was increasing. Large nucleated settlements, mostly located on hilltops, began to develop, and Rome was one of them.

The fortune of the city is bound to its good position. The Tiber river, wide and easily navigable, guaranteed to the inhabitants an important way of communication while the inland offered highly volcanic soils, natural amenities, a rich wildlife, fresh water springs and, on the hills, refugees from floods, summer heat, and animal and human predators. The first settlements originated on the seven hills that circle the city, mostly on the Palatine and Esquiline.

Between the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Rome grew from a tiny settlement of shepherds to an emerging city. In that time two other distinct groupings emerged within central Italy as a whole (Latium): one on the north (Etruria), and one in the Apennine mountains to the east (Samnium).

Politically, the history of ancient Rome is marked by three periods. From 753-509 BC the city developed from a village to a city ruled by kings. In the period from 509-27 BC the Romans expelled the kings and established the Roman Republic. From 27BC-AD 476 Rome flourished as the Roman Empire, stretching its domination from England to North Africa and from the Atlantic Ocean to Arabia.