ABSTRACT
Early Rome was a village of farmers surrounded and governed by Etruscan kings. Rome was sandwiched between the Etruscans on the north and the Greek colonies on the south. Rome exhibited a dogged tenacity that overcame disastrous reversals against, first, the Celtic tribes, Carthage and, later, the Parthians and Germans. The Romans learned much of their engineering from other peoples. They probably inherited the arch from the Etruscans. The invention of true hydraulic concrete and its application in architecture and civil engineering was the only great discovery that can be ascribed to the Romans. In the Punic Wars, Roman landsmen became sailors to defeat the traditional naval power of Carthage. In the First Punic War, Rome obtained Sicily; the Second Punic War was the era of Hannibal; and the Third Punic War saw the destruction of Carthage by Rome out of fear and spite.
