Ancient Rome is an an Italian civilization that was located along the Mediterranean sea. Ancient Rome was a powerful and important civilization that ruled most of Europe for almost 1000 years. Most Western cultures came from Ancient Rome especially things such as government, engineering, architecture, language, and literature. In its approximately 12 centuries of existence, Roman civilization shifted from a monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. In 45 BC Julius Caesar took control and the Roman Republic and made himself the supreme dictator,which meant this was the end of the republic. As the Roman Empire grew bigger it became more difficult to manage directly from the city of Rome. Eventually the Roman leaders decided to half Rome into two empires. One was the Western Rome and was ruled out of the city of Rome. The other was the Eastern Rome and was ruled out of Constantinople (Or Turkey). The Eastern Rome empire would be called Byzantium or the Byzantine Empire. People have lived in an area called Rome for at least the last 6,000 years, the myth of Roman's beginning tells the tale of its first ruler, Romulus, killing his twin brother, Remus, and naming the city after himself.