Early Rome, from the Foundation of the City to its Destruction by the Gauls

Here is the story of how a muddy hilltop village became the engine of world empire. Wilhelm Ihne, a German historian writing at the height of Victorian scholarship, traces Rome's extraordinary journey from its legendary founders through the tumultuous centuries that forged its political DNA. He reveals the gritty reality behind the myths, showing how centuries of class war between patricians and plebeians forced the creation of institutions that would outlast any individual ruler. The book culminates in 390 BC, when Rome burned at the hands of Gauls and rose again, demonstrating the resilience that would define a civilization. Ihne argues that no great state in history began as small as Rome, and none achieved its dominance through such relentless institutional evolution. This is history for those who want to understand not just what happened, but how a city on the Tiber learned to rule the world.