-The Romans reckoned each year as the . . .th from the founding of the city.

- In accordance with their custom of explaining the origin of the foreign peoples they encountered by connecting them with the wanderings of one of their own mythical heroes, such as Jason and the Argonauts, Heracles, or Odysseus, Greek writers from the 5th century BC onward invented at least 25 different myths to account for Rome's foundation.

- The Romans welcomed all deities they could appropriate, the more the merrier, especially during times of war. The main deities were Jupiter, Juno and Minerva and a large Etruscan style temple was built on the Capitoline Hill in their honor.

The main deities were borrowed from the Etruscans, who borrowed from the Greeks, who borrowed from the Phoenicians.

- During the first millennium BC while Rome was just a city-state on the Tiber River, the Celts (pronounced Kelts) inhabited many territories from central Europe to the Iberian Peninsula stretching over 1600 miles.

- The celts and Romans were very different. The Romans were orderly and disciplined while the Celts were barbarious warriors and for thje most part, headhunters. These two cultures would clash and become fierce enemies over many centuries.

- The Celts were loyal to their own tribe and never to any form of government or state.

- By the seventh century BC the various villages around Latium joined in a religious festival called "Septimontium" which referred to the seven mountains or hills.

- By 600 BC the villages had grown into a large flourishing city with a population of maybe 60,000 people.

- Workers and farmers did their trade at the great "forum" which was an established center market.

- The power neighbors known as the Etruscans were mainly farmers and mining of metal ores. They traded with Greece, Carthage and other Phoenecians

- By the end of the republic, it was generally accepted that Rome had been founded in 753 BC and that the republic had begun in 509 BC.