This book is about the formative period of the Roman state, beginning when Rome was little more than a village or a group of villages and probably not even the most important settlement in Latium, its surrounding region. By the end of the period, Rome was the most powerful city-state in Italy, with its classic mid Republican constitution, a cosmopolitan urban centre, and a developed economy substantially based on slave labour. There is a growing realisation among historians of the sophistication of early Rome, and of its importance as a crucible for the later practices and institutions of the Roman state (including its imperialism). The period is increasingly the subject of undergraduate courses, and benefits from the great readability of the primary literary source for this period, Livy. The author's approach for the early period is thematic within an overall chronological progression, until a relatively reliable narrative becomes possible in the early Republic. The themes crucial to an understanding of the entire period include the sophistication of Rome under the monarchy, and the extent to which the Republic inherited its institutions and social structures; the role of collective ideology and identity; the 'openness' of Roman society in extending its citizenship to foreigners and in its cultural receptivity; the increasing complexity of the Roman state and society; the extent of oligarchic government and its consequences for the masses.