At the beginning of the period of conquest (266-133 B. C.), the Roman
dominion was confined to the peninsula of Italy; at its close it
extended over the whole of southern Europe from the shores of the
Atlantic to the straits of Constantinople, over the chief Mediterranean
islands, and over a portion of North Africa, while farther east, in
Egypt, Asia Minor, and Syria, its influence was paramount. At the
beginning Rome was merely one of the “Great Powers” of the world as it
then was,--that is, she ranked with Carthage, Macedonia, and the kingdom
of the Seleucidæ; at its close she was clearly the sole Great Power
left.