2018-12-06

*Day Day Up 继续保持

All Roads Lead to Rome: From Republic to Empire

According to legend, the brother Romulus and Remus founded Rome in 753 B.C. Roma grew larger until around 620 B.C., when a group of people called the Etruscans(伊特鲁亚人） conquered it. The Etruscans ruled Rome for 111 years. In 509 B.C., the Roman people overthrew King Tarquin the Proud（“傲慢王”塔克文）. They were free again.

The Romans made a new kind of government. It was called a republic. Under the republic, they elected a small number of people to be their leaders. These leaders were called patricians. Up to 300 of them could be elected to the Senate. For the next 500 years, Rome remained a republic.

Rome began to grow more powerful. It soon controlled all of the Italian peninsula. From 264 B.C. to 146 B.C., it fought the Punic Wars（布匿战争） against Carthage（迦太基）. The Romans won and become the masters of the Mediterranean Sea. Soon, the republic was enormous. But it become corrupt. A general-Julius Caesar（尤里乌斯·凯撒）-challenged the rule of the Senate and become a dictator. Yet he was murdered in 44 B.C., and the republic was ruled by three leaders.

Eventually, those three man fought each other. Octavian（屋大维） won and become the first Roman emperor. The republic was gone. Now it was the Roman Empire.

When it ruled the most land the Roman Empire was enormous. It covered much of the known world. To the north, it stretched as far as England. To the west, it ruled land in Spain and western Africa. To the south, it covered much land of Africa. And to the east, it stretched far into the Middle East. However, the most important city in the empire was always Rome. There was an important saying: All roads lead to Rome.

Question：

找到文中意思匹配的单词：
（1）a ruler who has total power in a country:
（2）a member of a powerful family in the Roman republic:
（3）to extend from one place to another:
（4）a government in which the leaders are vote into office: