Presents the geography of Italy and the life of Rome at three different periods of her growth: her infancy, her strong manhood, and her old age. Relates how Rome in her early years established herself in Italy, then engaged in conflict with Carthage, her most powerful neighbor and enemy, and finally extended her power all around the Mediterranean, giving to the world peace, law and order, and making unconsciously a highway both for Greek culture and for Christianity to spread to the West. Volume 3 in the 7-volume Streams of History series, which presents a vivid picture of the growth of Western Civilization from the early source of the historic stream back in the Nile, the Tigro-Euphrates and the Indus valleys, and then its widening and deepening as it moves westward. The series highlights the contributions of each culture to the stream of history and shows how its contributions are caught up and carried on to future peoples and nations.The student is led to see how each grows out of that which precedes, and shadows forth what follows, and that the discovery of America, and its subsequent institutional development was the fruitage of a seed which lay deep in the historic soul of Europe. Suitable for ages 9 and up.