10 Things you Didn’t Know about Ancient Rome

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4Rome started out as a trade stop

Its name before it became Rome was Latium. It sat between two major territories — land belonging to the Etruscans (think Tuscany) and the Greeks. The city was primarily under Etruscan rule until 509 BC. A civil uprise within the city pushed it away from its Etruscan parents only to both develop their own culture while preserving the old.

In fact, many of the activities associated with Rome were inherited from their Etruscan predecessors, namely the Colosseum games, engineering, religion, and architecture. What’s fascinating is that though the Romans were greatly influenced by the Etruscans, we don’t know much about their language and traditions.