Empire ancient city-states of the Levant. Circa 1500 BC in China rose the Shang Empire which was succeeded by the Zhou Empire circa 1100 BC. Both surpassed in territory their contemporary Near Eastern empires. The Zhou Empire dissolved in 770 BC into feudal multi-state system which lasted for five and a half centuries until the universal conquest of Qin in 221 BC. The first empire comparable to Rome in organization was the Neo-Assyrian Empire (916–612 BC). The Median Empire was the first empire within the territory of Persia. By the 6th century BC, after having allied with the Babylonians to defeat
Metropolitan City of Rome Capital the Tyrrhenian Sea on which spread to about from the coast near Rome from Civitavecchia to Torre Astura. In the territory there are several lakes, almost all of volcanic origin, which are concentrated in the north-west of the mountains and Sabatini in the south-east of the Colli Albani. The Metropolitan City of Rome Capital is at the centre of the radial network of roads that roughly follow the lines of the ancient Roman roads which began at the Capitoline Hill and connected Rome with its empire. Today Rome is circled, at a distance of about from the Capitol, by the