Italy was the most significant part of the Roman Empire. In historiography, ancient Rome describes Roman civilization from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BCE to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century CE.
The history of Italy covers the ancient period, the Middle Ages, and the modern era. Since classical antiquity, ancient Etruscans, various Italic peoples (such as the Latins, Samnites, and Umbri), Celts, Magna Graecia colonists, and other ancient peoples have inhabited the Italian Peninsula. In antiquity, Italy was the homeland of the Romans and the metropole of the Roman Empire's provinces. Rome was founded as a Kingdom in 753 BCE and became a republic in 509 BCE, when the Roman monarchy was overthrown in favor of a government of the Senate and the People. The Roman Republic then unified Italy at the expense of the Etruscans, Celts, and Greek colonists of the peninsula. Rome led Socii, a confederation of the Italic peoples, and later with the rise of Rome dominated Western Europe, Northern Africa, and the Near East.
