discussed in previous videos, how Rome became a republic in 509 BCE. But it's worth noting, and I've done this in other videos, that at that point, Rome was not this vast empire. It was really just in control of Rome itself. But over the next few hundred years, it starts to expand. Rome is a militaristic society. The Roman legions start to exert its influence over more and more of the surrounding people on the Italian peninsula. And we keep going several hundred years until we enter into the third century BCE.