Rise of the Roman Empire: The Will to Endure is a daring interpretation of the ways and means that the Roman Empire became the greatest military power of the ancient world, and how the vastness of this empire engulfed the entire Mediterranean world, as well as most of Europe. In the second century BCE, the Greek historian Polybius (200–118 BCE), after arriving in Rome in 168 BCE, asked in his Histories: "How did the Romans succeed in building a world empire in such a short span of time?" This book takes the perspective Polybius's question was mistaken, in the sense that the formation of the Roman Empire, took a very long time—indeed, centuries. The formation of the Roman Empire began in 390 BCE when the Gauls burned Rome; and even before that time, as this book demonstrates, the kings of Rome were some of the first empire builders.