1.1 to 1.7

Roman History (753 B. C. -A.D. 476) Rome, the City of the Seven Hills Halfway down the Italian peninsula, on the west coast, is a small river called the Tiber. The coastal plain south of the river was known as Latium in ancient times, after the people who lived there—the Latins. These people were shepherds and farmers. In the hill country to the west lived the Sabines, distant kinsmen of the Latins. They had moved into the peninsula from central Europe before 1000 BC and had vanquished the original inhabitants, a dark people. The people conquered by the Sabines had probably begun to move from Africa about 10,000 BC as the Sahara gradually turned to desert. On the left bank of the Tiber River rise seven low hills. At this point the river is shallow and easy to cross. Latin merchants built a village on one of the hills—called the Palatine—in order to trade with the wealthy Etruscans, who lived north of the river. Settlements were later built on the other hills also. The towns on the seven hills finally joined to make one city, Rome. The Kings of Early Rome (753 -509 B. C.) The early Romans kept no written records. Their history is so mixed with fables and myths that histo- rians have difficulty distinguishing truth from fiction. There are only two existing works which give the continuous early history of Rome. Both of these works were written long after the events they tell of, and neither is complete. They are the histories of Livy and the 'Roman Antiquities' of Dionysius of Halicarnassus. These men used inaccurate literary works for their information about early Rome.