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Doric temple at Paestum, Italy

Doric temple at Paestum, Italy

Conquering southern Italy

Once they had established their Republic,  the Romans began to conquer southern Italy. They used another good idea to help them.

The Early Republic
Greek colonies in Italy
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Offering to help cities

Like Alexander the Great about the same time, Romans told everybody that if any city needed help fighting a war, the Romans would be happy to help them. Soon a city did ask for help, when its neighbors were attacking it. The Romans sent soldiers and fought off the neighbors.

Alexander the Great
The Roman army

Roman Republican temple of Vesta

Roman Republican temple of Vesta

Leaving Roman soldiers in the city

But when the war was over, the Romans announced that they were going to leave Roman soldiers in this city, to keep the city safe. But when there are Roman soldiers living in the middle of your city, you pretty much have to do whatever the Roman Senate says!

Government of Ancient Rome

Roman citizenship

On the other hand, the Romans also copied the Persians and Alexander by including the conquered cities as Romans, so they would come to feel that they were Romans themselves. That’s how the Romans took over all of southern Italy.

The Persian Empire
Republican temples
Roman art in the Republic
What is a forum?

Each time the Romans conquered a new place, the Roman general in charge would put up a little temple in Rome so people would remember how great he was. And the Romans built temples and forums in the cities they conquered, too.

Pyrrhus of Epirus

Pyrrhus

Pyrrhus

Eventually people realized that the Romans meant to conquer all of Italy! Some of the Greek cities in southern Italy asked for help from Pyrrhus (PIRR-us), the king of Epirus (eh-PEER-us), who was also Greek. They wanted Pyrrhus to save them from being part of the Roman Empire.

Pyrrhus thought he would be like Alexander the Great and conquer the world, so he came with many men and elephants (the elephants came from India). But the Romans beat Pyrrhus too.

The Early Republic

The Late Republic
Hellenistic Greece
Mauryan India
The Roman Empire

Bibliography and further reading about the Roman Republic:

Classical Rome, by John Clare (1993). For kids, the whole political history from beginning to end.

Oxford First Ancient History, by Roy Burrell (reissued 1997). Easy reading. It skips around a lot, not trying to tell everything, just highlights.

The Romans: From Village to Empire, by Mary Boatwright, Daniel Gargola, and Richard Talbert (2004). Okay, it’s a little dry, but it is up to date and has all the facts you could want.

The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 BC), by Tim Cornell (1995). A little more specialized.

The Punic Wars
The Etruscans
Hellenistic Greece
Hellenistic Egypt
Carthage and North Africa
More Roman history
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