The recorded history of Rome begins with small and vigorous

tribes inhabiting the flanks of the Apennines and the valleys
down to the sea, and blending together to form the Roman
republic
The recorded history of Rome begins with small and vigorous
tribes inhabiting the flanks of the Apennines and the valleys
down to the sea, and blending together to form the Roman
republic. They were men of courage and men of action, virile,
austere, severe and dominant.[1] They were men who 'looked on
none as their superior and none as their inferior.' For this
reason, Rome was long a republic. Free-born men control their
own destinies. 'The fault,' says Cassius, 'is not in our stars,
but in ourselves that we are underlings.' Thus in freedom, when
Rome was small without glory, without riches, without colonies
and without slaves, she laid the foundations of greatness.