The Roman expansion in Italy covers a series of conflicts in which Rome grew from being a small Italian city-state to being the ruler of the Italian region. Roman tradition attributes to the Roman kin
The Capitoline Wolf sculpture in the Capitoline Museums. According to legend, Rome was founded in 753 BC by Romulus and Remus, who were raised by a she-wolf.
The Mars of Todi, a life-sized Etruscan bronze sculpture of a soldier making a votive offering, late 5th to early 5th century BC, kept in the Vatican Museums
Samnite infantry and cavalry, fresco from a tomb frieze in Nola, 4th century BC
Bust of Pyrrhus of Epirus at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples
The Latins, sometimes known as the Latials or Latians, were an Italic tribe that included the early inhabitants of the city of Rome. From about 1000 BC, the Latins inhabited the small region known to
The Lapis Niger, probably the oldest extant Latin inscription (c. 600 BC)
Villanovan culture cinerary hut-urn, showing the likely shape of Romulus' Hut in Rome: a simple mud-and-straw shelter
The "Rain Miracle": Jupiter the Rainmaker rescues the Romans during the Marcomannic Wars (AD 166–180). The soldiers of legion XII Fulminata, who were surrounded by the Quadi Germans and severely dehydrated, were saved by a thunderstorm, which reportedly materialised out of a clear sky. Note the god's wings. Detail from the Column of Marcus Aurelius, Rome
View of Albanus mons (Monte Cavo, 949m), the sacred mount of the Latins in the Alban Hills. The annual religious rites of the Latin Festival were held on its summit. In foreground, the Alban lake, filling the caldera of an extinct volcano