The Roman Republic was established in 509 BCE after the overthrow of the last Etruscan king, Tarquin the Proud. It was governed by elected officials, including two consuls, and an advisory body called the Senate, originally composed of patricians but later expanded to include wealthy plebeians. The Senate controlled finances, foreign policy, and provincial governance, wielding enormous influence throughout the Republic. Between 494 and 287 BCE, the plebeians struggled against patrician dominance in what is known as the Conflict of the Orders, eventually winning the creation of the office of Tribune of the Plebs and the public display of the Twelve Tables around 450 BCE, the earliest written Roman laws, which covered property, family, crime, and procedure and became the foundation of Roman legal tradition.
Rome's rise to Mediterranean dominance was shaped by its prolonged conflict with Carthage, the great Phoenician city in North Africa. The three Punic Wars, fought between 264 and 146 BCE, culminated in Rome's destruction of Carthage and the establishment of Roman control over the western Mediterranean. The Second Punic War (218–201 BCE) featured the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca, who famously crossed the Alps with war elephants and won spectacular victories such as Cannae in 216 BCE, but ultimately failed to conquer Rome. After generations of warfare and political upheaval, the Republic gave way to empire, and a roughly 200-year period of peace and stability known as the Pax Romana began in 27 BCE and lasted until about 180 CE.
During the Pax Romana, trade flourished, infrastructure expanded, and Roman law and culture spread throughout Europe and the Mediterranean. Roman engineers built aqueducts, paved roads, arched bridges, the Colosseum, and pioneered the use of concrete, enabling urban growth, military logistics, and public health on an unprecedented scale. Roman law established foundational principles including the presumption of innocence, the right to a fair trial, and the distinction between public and private law, principles that heavily influenced the legal systems of Europe and the Western world. Eventually, however, the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 CE when the Germanic leader Odoacer deposed the last emperor, Romulus Augustulus. Its collapse resulted from a combination of barbarian invasions, economic decline, military overextension, and internal political instability.