Page 52 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italy

50  INTRODUCING IT AL Y

From Republic to Empire

From the scores of tribes inhabiting
ancient Italy, one group of people, Aquileia •
the Romans, emerged to conquer the Via Postumia
peninsula and impose their language, • VERONA
customs and laws on the rest. Rome’s Padus
•
success was due to superb skill in PLACENTIA
military and civil organization. GENUA Piacenza Via Aemilia BONONIA
Bologna
The State was a republic ruled by Genoa • •
two consuls, elected each year, but
as the extent of Rome’s conquests FLORENTIA •
grew, power passed to generals such Cisalpine Gaul • Florence • ARIMINUM • FANUM
was annexed in
as Julius Caesar. The Republic became 202–191 BC. PISAE An u s Via Cassia Rimini FORTUNAE
unworkable and Caesar’s heirs became Pisa • ARRETIUM Fano
Arezzo
the first Roman emperors. Tiberis
Julius Caesar POPULONIA
The great general, conqueror of CLUSIUM •
Chiusi
Gaul, returned to Italy in 49 BC Etruria was Via Flaminia
to defeat Pompey. His rise in Roman
• Via Aurelia
to absolute power marked hands by ALBA FUCENS • CORFINIUM
the end of the Republic. 265 BC. •
• TIBUR Via Valeria
ROMA •
Tivoli
•
CAPUA
Oscan Inscription War Elephant
The languages of the In 218 BC the great
peoples conquered Carthaginian general
by Rome lived on for Hannibal brought 37
centuries before being elephants across the
replaced by Latin. Alps – to spread alarm
The Oscans lived in in the Roman ranks.
what is now Campania.
Roman Aqueduct High
The Romans’ talent for ground
engineering found its most
spectacular expression in Cleaning vent
huge aqueducts. These
could be up to 80 km
(50 miles) long, though for PANORMUS •
most of that distance the Underground water Arches carrying water Palermo
water ran underground.
Reservoir channel across low ground

312 BC Building of 275 BC Greek King
Via Appia and Aqua Pyrrhus defeated by 218 BC Second Punic War;
Appia aqueduct Romans at Beneventum Hannibal crosses the Alps
308 BC Etruscan city of 264–241 BC First Punic War 216 BC Roman defeat
Tarquinii falls to Rome (between Rome and Carthage) at Battle of Cannae
300 BC 250 BC 200 BC
265 BC Romans 237 BC Romans occupy 191 BC
capture last Corsica and Sardinia Gaulish
Via Appia 287–212 BC Life of Etruscan city territory south
Archimedes, the great Greek Hannibal, Carthaginian of the Alps falls
mathematician of Syracuse leader in the Second Punic War to Rome

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