Editing Classics (section)

===History===
{{main|Timeline of ancient Rome}}
According to legend, the city of Rome was founded in 753 BC;<ref>{{harvnb|Grant|1978|p=11}}</ref> in reality, there had been a settlement on the site since around 1000 BC, when the [[Palatine Hill]] was settled.<ref>{{harvnb|Grant|1978|p=10}}</ref> The city was originally ruled by kings, first Roman, and then Etruscan{{Snd}}according to Roman tradition, the first Etruscan king of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus, ruled from 616 BC.<ref>{{harvnb|Grant|1978|pp=21–22}}</ref> Over the course of the 6th century BC, the city expanded its influence over the entirety of [[Latium]].<ref>{{harvnb|Grant|1978|p=28}}</ref> Around the end of the 6th century – traditionally in 510 BC{{Snd}}the kings of Rome were driven out, and the city became a republic.<ref>{{harvnb|Grant|1978|p=31}}</ref>

Around 387 BC, Rome was sacked by the Gauls following the [[Battle of the Allia]].<ref>{{harvnb|Grant|1978|p=44}}</ref> It soon recovered from this humiliating defeat, however, and in 381 the inhabitants of [[Tusculum]] in Latium were made Roman citizens. This was the first time Roman citizenship was extended in this way.<ref>{{harvnb|Grant|1978|p=46}}</ref> Rome went on to expand its area of influence, until by 269 the entirety of the Italian peninsula was under Roman rule.<ref>{{harvnb|Grant|1978|p=79}}</ref> Soon afterwards, in 264, the [[First Punic War]] began; it lasted until 241.<ref>{{harvnb|Grant|1978|pp=83–85}}</ref> The [[Second Punic War]] began in 218, and by the end of that year, the Carthaginian general [[Hannibal]] had invaded Italy.<ref>{{harvnb|Grant|1978|pp=98–99}}</ref> The war saw Rome's worst defeat to that point at [[Battle of Cannae|Cannae]]; the largest army Rome had yet put into the field was wiped out, and one of the two consuls leading it was killed.<ref>{{harvnb|Grant|1978|p=101}}</ref> However, Rome continued to fight, annexing much of Spain<ref>{{harvnb|Grant|1978|p=104}}</ref> and eventually defeating Carthage, ending her position as a major power and securing Roman preeminence in the Western Mediterranean.<ref>{{harvnb|Grant|1978|p=106}}</ref>
<!-- Three more paragraphs probably needed: one on the late Republic and civil war, one on the early empire, and one on the later empire to the fall of the Western empire -->