question: What was the method that Rome took control of the peninsula? answer: Revolt paragraph: The Romans: Legend says Rome was founded by Romulus, sired with twin brother Remus by Mars of a Vestal Virgin and abandoned on the Palatine Hill to be suckled by a she-wolf. Historians agree with the mythmakers that the site and traditional founding date of 753 b.c. are just about right. Under Etruscan domination, Rome had been a monarchy until a revolt in 510 b.c. established a patrician republic, which lasted five centuries. In contrast to other Italian cities weakened by internal rivalries and unstable government, Rome drew strength from a solid aristocracy of consuls and senate ruling over plebeians proud of their Roman citizenship and only rarely rebellious. Recovering quickly from the Gallic invasion of 390 b.c. , the Romans took effective control of the peninsula by a military conquest reinforced by a network of roads with names that exist to this day: Via Appia, Flaminia, Aurelia. All roads did indeed lead to — and from — Rome. By 250 b.c. , the city's population had grown to an impressive 100,000. Roman power extended throughout the Mediterranean with a victory in the Punic Wars against Carthage (now Tunisia) and conquests in Macedonia, Asia Minor, Spain, and southern France. The rest of Italy participated only by tax contributions to the war effort and minor involvement in commerce and colonization. Resentment surfaced when former Etruscan or Greek cities such as Capua, Syracuse, and Taranto supported Hannibal's invasion in 218 b.c. Rome followed up defeat of the Carthaginians with large-scale massacres and enslavement of their Italian supporters. The Third and final Punic War ended in 149 b.c. , though national solidarity was still a long way off. Under Julius Caesar, elected in 59 b.c. 