After roughly two hundred years of being ruled as a kingdom, Rome became a Republic around 509 BC. Rome thus took the name of Romulus and soon became a safe haven for exiles and other refugees in order to build up its population.

Unfortunately, an argument of indeterminate nature caused Romulus to kill Remus. When the boys came of age, they sought to found a new city. He attempted to drown the twins, but a she-wolf rescued them, later nursing and sheltering the boys. Owing to their divine births, Rhea Silva's uncle Amulius feared that Romulus and Remus would grow up to steal the throne of Alba Longa, the Latin city that Amulius ruled. It was also said that their mother, Rhea Silvia, was impregnated with the brothers after being raped by Mars, the Roman god of war, meaning that the twins were half-divine or demigods. They were said to be descendants of the Trojan prince Aeneas, one of the greatest heroes of Western myth. According to legend, Rome was founded in 753 BC by the twin brothers Romulus and Remus. The book's title refers to the phrase Senatus Populusque Romanus, which means 'The Senate and people of Rome' in Latin. In just over 600 pages, the book covers roughly a thousand years of Roman history, from the myth of its founding in 753 BC by the twin brothers Romulus and Remus, until AD 212 when Emperor Caracalla made all non-slaves living in the Empire Roman citizens. SPQR (2015) is a non-fiction book about the history of Ancient Rome by the prominent English author and historian Mary Beard.

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