Antigua Roma (en latín, Antiqua Rōma) designa la entidad política unitaria surgida de la expansión de la ciudad de Roma, que en su época de apogeo llegó a abarcar desde Gran Bretaña al desierto del Sahara y desde la península ibérica al Éufrates. En un principio, tras su fundación (según la tradición en 753 a. C.), Roma fue una monarquía etrusca. Más tarde (509 a. C.) fue una república latina, y en 27 a. C. se convirtió en un imperio. Al período de mayor esplendor se le conoce como pax romana, debido al relativo estado de armonía que prevaleció en las regiones que estaban bajo el dominio romano, un período de orden y prosperidad que conoció el Imperio bajo la Dinastía de los Antoninos (96-192) y, en menor medida, bajo la de los Severos (193-235). Constituye un elemento crucial del desarrollo de Occidente, y más tarde también de Oriente.

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Ancient Rome was an Italic civilization that began on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants (roughly 20% of the world's population) and covering 6.5 million square kilometers (2.5 million sq mi) at its height between the first and second centuries AD. In its approximately 12 centuries of existence, Roman civilization shifted from a monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate Southern and Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa, and parts of Northern and Eastern Europe. Rome was preponderant throughout the Mediterranean region and was one of the most powerful entities of the ancient world. It is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman society has contributed to modern government, law, politics, engineering, art, literature, architecture, technology, warfare, religion, language and society. A highly developed civilization, Rome professionalized and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. It achieved impressive technological and architectural feats, such as the construction of an extensive system of aqueducts and roads, as well as the construction of large monuments, palaces, and public facilities. By the end of the Republic (27 BC), Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond: its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia and from the mouth of the Rhine to North Africa. The Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia. It would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak. Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would temporarily divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the western part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of universal history from the pre-medieval "Dark Ages" of Europe.

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