Rome was always more than just a city, it was an idea. Its laws, government and religion came, through the growth of that idea, to dominate first Italy and then the known world. This book shows year by year how this happened. In it we experience the rise, evolution and eventual destruction of the Republic and encounter the heroes and villains of the period including the Patricians and the Plebeians; Caesar and Pompey; Scipio and Hannibal.