<P> According to tradition , Rome became a republic in 509 BC . However , it took a few centuries for Rome to become the great city of popular imagination . By the 3rd century BC , Rome had become the pre-eminent city of the Italian peninsula . During the Punic Wars between Rome and the great Mediterranean empire of Carthage ( 264 to 146 BC ) , Rome 's stature increased further as it became the capital of an overseas empire for the first time . Beginning in the 2nd century BC , Rome went through a significant population expansion as Italian farmers , driven from their ancestral farmlands by the advent of massive , slave - operated farms called latifundia , flocked to the city in great numbers . The victory over Carthage in the First Punic War brought the first two provinces outside the Italian peninsula , Sicily and Sardinia . Parts of Spain ( Hispania ) followed , and in the beginning of the 2nd century the Romans got involved in the affairs of the Greek world . By then all Hellenistic kingdoms and the Greek city - states were in decline , exhausted from endless civil wars and relying on mercenary troops . </P>
<P> According to tradition , Rome became a republic in 509 BC . However , it took a few centuries for Rome to become the great city of popular imagination . By the 3rd century BC , Rome had become the pre-eminent city of the Italian peninsula . During the Punic Wars between Rome and the great Mediterranean empire of Carthage ( 264 to 146 BC ) , Rome 's stature increased further as it became the capital of an overseas empire for the first time . Beginning in the 2nd century BC , Rome went through a significant population expansion as Italian farmers , driven from their ancestral farmlands by the advent of massive , slave - operated farms called latifundia , flocked to the city in great numbers . The victory over Carthage in the First Punic War brought the first two provinces outside the Italian peninsula , Sicily and Sardinia . Parts of Spain ( Hispania ) followed , and in the beginning of the 2nd century the Romans got involved in the affairs of the Greek world . By then all Hellenistic kingdoms and the Greek city - states were in decline , exhausted from endless civil wars and relying on mercenary troops . </P>
why did the poor flood the city of rome
why did the poor flood the city of rome
Italian farmers , driven from their ancestral farmlands by the advent of massive , slave - operated farms called latifundia , flocked to the city in great numbers
Italian farmers , driven from their ancestral farmlands by the advent of massive , slave - operated farms called latifundia , flocked to the city in great numbers