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Legend tells that the brothers Romulus and Remus founded Rome as descendants of ancient Troy. After banning kings after 7 kings starting with Romulus, Rome was a small city at first, which took lots of cultural, religious, and city planning influence from their neighboring Etruscans, such as gladiatorial fights and toga. Greek culture first entered Rome through Etruscans. But later, Rome fought against Etruscans and the Latin League. After this victory against the Latin League, despite other threats such as Samnites, Rome's alliance with the Latin cities led to their growth.

After the monarchy's fall, Roman Republic gradually established its republican system. First, the power was divided between patricians(nobles) vs. plebians(the rest of citizens, poorer composing most of the military). By going on strike and refusing to move as a military, plebians eventually formed the tribunes of the plebs. With the Twelve Tables, first recorded Roman law in 450 BC, plebians gradually grew their foothold to the point they could also write laws. Eventually, the enslavement of Roman citizens for debt(because they were serving military, they couldn't farm, hence having to loan from patricians) had been banned.

Plebians' rise eventually bridged the power gap between patricians and plebians and a more republican political system started taking it shape, divided into three major sectors: magistrates, the senate, and the popular assembly. The two consuls were the pinnacle of a political career in Roman Republic. Consul election took place every year. Below consuls were praetor(civil and provincial jurisdictions), aedile(urban maintenance like infrastructure and games), questor(financial and legal duties) and tribune of plebs(defend plebians from unjust actions by patrician magistrates). The most famous of radical members of the tribune was the Gracchi brothers in 2nd century BC. There was also the unofficial role of censors(revise the list of citizens and assess their property and morality). Though unofficial, censorship was a prestigious office and was almost invariably held by ex-consuls.

Dignitas and Gloria were important values that both brought glory and fall to Roman Republic. First of the prime example is Cincinnatus who while living a peaceful farming life after his consulship, accepted the dictatorship to defeat the attacking neighboring peoples of central Italy, to then resigned his dictatorship.

After Cincinnatus, Africanus has reached the gloria and disnitas like none other after defeating Hannibal in the Second Punic War, which altogether lasted several decades with the First Punic War. 5 years after this victory, as a lover of Greek culture, Flamininus was elected consul to lead the Roman army to defeat Macedonia, showing the superiority of flexible Roman army against Macedonian Phalanx. Greeks considered Falamininus liberator and worshipped him. He was the first Roman to be worshipped by Greeks. At some point, the race for gloria led to the wealth gap about 5-15 times worse than today, which led to the Tiberius and Gaius Gracchi brothers' revolt, whom were defeated and killed by the opposing nobles.

One of the laws Gaius Gracchi proposed as a tribune was to grant citizenship to Italians in other cities, but it wasn't until the time of Gaius Marius when the Social War broke out that this would happen. In 107 BC, Gaius Marius took consulship to lead victories in the Jugurthine War in Africa and against Germanic tribes in Gaul and Northern Italy. He brought reformation to have professional armies by recruiting any Italians who sign up, not only the assidui who met the property requirements but those without land, thus the army became loyal to the general, not to the Senate or Roman state. Though Roman influence grew over the entire Italian peninsula and beyond, only the citizens in Rome had political rights. Eventually Social War broke out with other regions of Italy, and Rome had to extend their citizenship to other cities as well.

During the Social War, Lucius Cornelius Sulla supplanted his political rival Marius to premier general. At the end of the Social War, another threat arose from Mithridates of Pontus on the Black Sea. While Sulla headed to defeat Mithridates, a radical tribune named Sulpicius Rufus passed a law that transferred the command from Sulla to Marius. This triggered a decisive moment when the Roman general was left no choice but to advance his army against Rome, which was a precursor to what happened between Caesar and Pompeius.

Cato the elder represents a conservative stance on the traditional Roman values and virtues. By the 2nd Century BC., Greek literature was expected of Roman nobles, but Romans had a love-hate relationship to Greek culture. Satire was precisely the literary genre that adopted much of Greek literature while still retaining Roman spirit and to serve Roman ends. The lyric poetry of Gaius Valerius Catallus examplifies the zenith Roman cultural history reach by the 1st Century BC. Cicero examplifies the finest orator Rome had ever seen. As an idealist, Cicero saw ethical and political philosophy as inseparable. He therefore offered practical advise on how one should live in a troubled world. But aside his philosophy, as a person revealed through his personal letters, we see that he was a weak, indecisive, vain, vindictive, and often mistaken in his judgement of himself and others. But he is also intelligent, caring, idealistic, and on occasion heroic.