Rome

===Earliest history===
{{Main|Founding of Rome}}
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| quote = {{ubl|[[Roman Kingdom]] 753–509 BC
 |[[Roman Republic]] 509–27 BC
 |[[Roman Empire]] 27 BC– 395 AD
 |[[Western Roman Empire]] 286–476
 |[[Kingdom of Italy (476–493)|Kingdom of Italy]] 476–493
 |[[Ostrogothic Kingdom]] 493–536
 |{{Flag|Eastern Roman Empire}} 536–546
 |[[Ostrogothic Kingdom]] 546–547
 |{{Flag|Eastern Roman Empire}} 547–549
 |[[Ostrogothic Kingdom]] 549–552
 |{{Flag|Eastern Roman Empire}} 552–751
 |[[Kingdom of the Lombards]] 751–756
 |{{Flagicon image|Flag of the Papal States (pre 1808).svg}} [[Papal States]] 756–1798
 |{{Flagicon image|Flag of the Repubblica Romana (1798).svg}} [[Roman Republic (18th century)|Roman Republic]] 1798–1799
 |{{Flagicon image|Flag of the Papal States (1803-1825).svg}} [[Papal States]] 1799–1809
 |{{Flag|First French Empire}} 1809–1814
 |{{Flag|Papal States}} 1814–1849
 |{{Flagicon image|Flag of the Roman Republic (19th century).svg}} [[Roman Republic (1849)|Roman Republic]] 1849
 |{{Flag|Papal States}} 1849–1870
 |{{Flag|Kingdom of Italy}} 1870–1943
 |{{Flag|Italian Social Republic}} 1943–1944
 |{{Flag|Kingdom of Italy}} 1944–1946
 |{{Flag|Italian Republic}} 1946–present}}
}}
[[File:Maquette de la Rome archaïque (musée de la civilisation romaine, Rome) (5917668745).jpg|thumb|Model of archaic Rome. The image faces northeast, with the Capitoline hill on left and the Palatine on right. The city would not have looked like this prior to the seventh century BC.]]
While there have been discoveries of archaeological evidence of human occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago, the dense layer of much younger debris obscures [[Palaeolithic]] and [[Neolithic]] sites.<ref name="Heiken, G. 2005" /> Evidence of stone tools, pottery, and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence. Several excavations support the view that Rome grew from [[pastoralism|pastoral]] settlements on the [[Palatine Hill]] built above the area of the future [[Roman Forum]]. Between the end of the [[Bronze Age]] and the beginning of the [[Iron Age]], each hill between the sea and the Capitoline Hill was topped by a village (on the Capitoline, a village is attested since the end of the 14th century BC).<ref name=coa9>Coarelli (1984) p. 9</ref> However, none of them yet had an urban quality.<ref name=coa9 /> Nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city developed gradually through the aggregation ("[[synoecism]]") of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine.<ref name=coa9 /> This aggregation was facilitated by the increase of agricultural productivity above the [[Subsistence economy|subsistence level]], which also allowed the establishment of [[secondary sector|secondary]] and [[tertiary sector|tertiary activities]]. These, in turn, boosted the development of trade with the Greek colonies of southern Italy (mainly [[Ischia]] and [[Cumae]]).<ref name=coa9 /> These developments, which according to archaeological evidence took place during the mid-eighth century BC, can be considered as the "birth" of the city.<ref name=coa9 /> Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome was founded deliberately in the middle of the eighth century BC, as the legend of Romulus suggests, remains a fringe hypothesis.<ref name="foundation">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/12/science/12rome.html |title=More Clues in the Legend (or Is It Fact?) of Romulus |first=John Nobel |last=Wilford |date=12 June 2007 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=11 August 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090417112437/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/12/science/12rome.html |archive-date=17 April 2009}}</ref>

====Legend of the founding of Rome====
{{Main|Romulus and Remus|Romulus}}
[[File:Kapitolinische Wölfin Museum Capitolini.jpg|thumb|''[[Capitoline Wolf]]'', a sculpture of the [[She-wolf (Roman mythology)|mythical she-wolf]] suckling the infant twins [[Romulus and Remus]]]]

Traditional stories handed down by the [[ancient Romans]] themselves explain the earliest [[History of Rome|history of their city]] in terms of [[legend]] and [[myth]]. The most familiar of these myths, and perhaps the most famous of all [[Roman mythology|Roman myths]], is the story of [[Romulus and Remus]], the twins who were suckled by a [[She-wolf (Roman mythology)|she-wolf]].<ref name="livy1797" /> They decided to build a city, but after an argument, [[Romulus]] killed his brother and the city took his name. According to the Roman [[annalist]]s, this happened on 21 April 753 BC.{{sfn | Kinder | Hilgemann | 1964 | p=73}} This legend had to be reconciled with a dual tradition, set earlier in time, that had the [[Trojan War|Trojan refugee]] [[Aeneas]] escape to Italy and found the line of Romans through his son [[Ascanius|Iulus]], the namesake of the [[Julio-Claudian dynasty]].<ref name="livy2005">{{Cite book |publisher=Penguin Books Ltd |isbn=978-0-14-196307-5 |last=Livy |title=The Early History of Rome |year=2005}}</ref>
This was accomplished by the Roman poet [[Virgil]] in the first century BC. In addition, [[Strabo]] mentions an older story, that the city was an [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadian]] colony founded by [[Evander of Pallene|Evander]]. Strabo also writes that [[Lucius Coelius Antipater]] believed that Rome was founded by Greeks.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-grc1:5.3.3 |title=Strabo, Geography, book 5, chapter 3, section 3 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu |access-date=21 February 2021 |archive-date=1 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301151855/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-grc1:5.3.3 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/5C*.html |title=LacusCurtius • Strabo's Geography — Book V Chapter 3 |website=penelope.uchicago.edu |access-date=20 February 2021 |archive-date=29 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210529132904/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/5C%2A.html |url-status=live}}</ref>