According to tradition, the Roman Republic began in 509 BCE with the overthrow of Tarquinius Superbus, the last Etruscan ruler of the city. The government of the Republic was based on elected magistracies, the most important being the two consuls, and a Senate, whose members were appointed from the aristocracy. Over the course of the fourth and third centuries BCE, the Republic came to dominate to Italian peninsula. In the three Punic Wars, Rome eliminated Carthage, its chief rival in the western Mediterranean. Over the course of the second and first centuries, Rome came to dominate the eastern Mediterranean as well, annexing the territories of the Hellenistic kingdoms.

During the Republic the Romans excelled in civil engineering and the design of public infrastructure, creating architecture that exploited the potential of arches and vaults. Roman sculptors carved veristic portraits and reliefs celebrating contemporary events (Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus, second half of the second c. BCE, Louvre, Paris).

The Republican form of government persisted until 27 BCE, when Octavian succeeded in a coup d’état and initiated the Roman Empire with himself (now named Augustus) as the first emperor.

Ruins of the Aqua Anio Vetus, a Republican-era aqueduct serving the city of Rome. Begun 272 BCE. Photo: Carole Raddato.