Agricultural Foundations. From its very beginnings in prehistory, Rome was a place of travelers and transients. Long before the city acquired its empire, it was a collection of small, independent, hilltop settlements situated around a river crossing about sixteen miles inland from the sea. An island and a broad marsh broke up the current of the Tiber River and made it relatively easy for farmers, herdsmen, and merchants to traverse there; it became a crossroads for those traveling either along the east-west route of the river or along the north-south axis. An early road, the Via salaria (Salt Road), which followed the course of the river, provided access to the precious commodity found at the mouth of the river, and an agricultural marketplace emerged that served several distinct tribes of central Italy: the Etruscans, Sabines, and Latins. Archaeological evidence suggests that individual outposts at the site, over time...