Editing Classical antiquity (section)

===Roman Republic (5th to 1st centuries&nbsp;BC)===
{{Main|Roman Republic}}
[[File:Extent of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire between 218 BC and 117 AD.png|thumb|upright=1.3|The extent of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in 218 BC (dark red), 133&nbsp;BC (light red), 44&nbsp;BC (orange), 14&nbsp;AD (yellow), after 14&nbsp;AD (green), and maximum extension under Trajan 117 (light green).]]

The [[Roman Republic|Republican period]] of Ancient Rome began with the overthrow of the [[Roman Kingdom|Monarchy]] c.&nbsp;509&nbsp;BC and lasted more than 450 years until its [[subversion (politics)|subversion]] through a series of [[Roman Republican civil wars|civil wars]], into the [[Principate]] form of government and the Imperial period. During the half millennium of the Republic, Rome increased from a regional power of the [[Latium]] to the dominant force in Italy and beyond. The unification of Italy by the Romans was a gradual process, brought about by a series of conflicts of the 4th and 3rd centuries, the [[Samnite Wars]], [[Latin War]], and [[Pyrrhic War]]. Roman victory in the [[Punic Wars]] and [[Macedonian Wars]] established Rome as a super-regional power by the 2nd century&nbsp;BC, followed by the acquisition of [[Roman Greece|Greece]] and [[Asia (Roman province)|Asia Minor]]. This tremendous increase of power was accompanied by economic instability and social unrest, resulting in the [[Second Catilinarian conspiracy|Catiline conspiracy]], the [[Social War (91–88 BC)|Social War]] and the [[First Triumvirate]], and finally the transformation to the Roman Empire during the latter half of the 1st century&nbsp;BC.