According to tradition, the twins Romulus and Remus, abandoned as infants, founded the city of Rome in 753 B.C.E. on the site where they were discovered and nurtured by a she-wolf. Rome was at first controlled by kings, the last of whom was overthrown in 509 B.C.E., but the founding of the republic put power in the hands of elected officials and the Senate. Over the next five centuries, Rome defeated Carthage and the Hellenistic states, taking complete control of the Mediterranean world. While these victories brought immense wealth to Rome, its powerful leaders plunged the republic into civil war. In 31 B.C.E., the adoptive son of Julius Caesar, who was later known as Augustus, founded the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire expanded its territory even further, moving west and north into Gaul (modern France) and Britain and eastward into Asia, while emperors consolidated power for themselves, slowly restricting the powers of the senatorial class.