Editing Ancient history (section)

====Rome====
[[File:RomanEmpire 117 recoloured 2.svg|thumb|left|upright=1.1|Roman Empire AD 117. The Senatorial provinces were acquired first under the [[Roman Republic]] and were under the [[Roman Senate]]'s control; the Imperial provinces were controlled directly by the Roman emperor.]]

[[Ancient Rome]] was a civilisation that grew out of the city-state of Rome, originating as a small agricultural community founded on the Italian peninsula in the 8th century BC, with influences from Greece and other Italian civilisations, such as the [[Etruscans]]. Traditionally Rome was founded as a [[Roman monarchy|monarchy]] that then became a [[Roman Republic|republic]].{{sfn|Hart-Davis|2012|pp=106–107}} Rome expanded through the Italian peninsula through a series of wars in the fifth through the third centuries BC.{{sfn|Parker|2017|p=101}} This expansion brought the Roman republic into conflict with [[Carthage]], leading to a series of [[Punic Wars]], that ended with the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC.{{sfn|Parker|2017|pp=102–103}} Rome then expanded into Greece and the eastern Mediterranean,{{sfn|Hart-Davis|2012|pp=110–111}} while a series of internal conflicts led to the republic becoming an empire ruled by an [[Roman emperor|emperor]] by the first century AD.{{sfn|Parker|2017|pp=104–105}} Throughout the first and second centuries AD, the Empire grew slightly while spreading Roman culture throughout its boundaries.{{sfn|Hart-Davis|2012|pp=110–113}}

A number of factors led to the eventual [[decline of the Roman Empire]]. The western half of the empire, including [[Hispania]], [[Gaul]], and Italy, eventually broke into independent kingdoms in the 5th century AD;{{sfn|Parker|2017|p=113}} the Eastern Roman Empire, governed from [[Constantinople]], is referred to as the [[Byzantine Empire]] after AD 476,{{sfn|Hart-Davis|2012|pp=198–199}} the traditional date for the "fall of Rome" and subsequent onset of the [[Middle Ages]].{{sfn|Hart-Davis|2012|pp=150–151}}