Ancient Rome had a profound impact on the development of culture today. Ancient Rome was known as the Roman Republic and was characterized by having a democratic form of government. The Roman Republic later changed to a dictatorship and became the Roman Empire, a period of time in which Rome covered much territory in Europe, the Middle East, and even North Africa. Christianity became an important part of Rome once it became an empire and continued to expand in influence even after the fall of Rome. The Roman Catholic Church had a great deal of political, intellectual, and spiritual power throughout Europe, which it retained up until the Reformation. Ancient Rome also influenced the Romance languages spoken throughout much of Europe. Romance languages are languages that formed out of Latin, which was the main language of Ancient Rome. Romance languages include Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French.

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