From Monarchy to Republic

Romans’ values and their belief in a divine destiny fueled their astounding growth from a tiny settlement into the Mediterranean’s greatest power. The Romans spilled much blood as they gradually expanded their territory through war. From the eighth to the sixth century B.C.E., they were ruled by kings, but the later kings’ violence provoked members of the social elite to overthrow the monarchy and create the republic, which lasted until the first century B.C.E. The republic—res publica (“the people’s matter” or “the public business”)—distributed power among elected officials and assemblies of voters. This model of republican government, rather than Athens’s direct democracy, influenced the founders of the United States in organizing their new nation as a federal republic. The Roman Republic gained land and population by winning aggressive wars and by absorbing other peoples. Its economic and cultural growth depended on contact with many other peoples around the Mediterranean.