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Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew from a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th Century BC to a massive Empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea . In its 12-century existence, Roman civilization shifted from a Monarchy , to a Republic based on a combination of Oligarchy and Democracy , to an Autocratic Empire . It came to dominate Western Europe and the entire area surrounding the Mediterranean Sea through Conquest and Assimilation . The Roman empire went into decline in the 5th Century AD. The Western Part Of The Empire , including Hispania , Gaul , and Italy, broke into independent kingdoms in the 5th Century . The eastern empire, governed from Constantinople , is usually referred to as the Byzantine Empire after 476 . This is the traditional date for the "fall of Rome" and for the onset of the Early Middle Ages , also known as the Dark Ages . Roman civilization is often grouped into " Classical Antiquity " with Ancient Greece , a civilization that inspired much of the Culture Of Ancient Rome . Ancient Rome contributed greatly to the development of Law , War , Art , Literature , Architecture , Technology and Language in the Western World , and its History continues to have a major influence on the world today. |
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