Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was an empire that emerged from Italy, a country in southern Europe. Its first emperor was Augustus, the nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar became official dictator of the First Roman Republic after he ousted the other men in the First Triumvirate, escalating the Roman Civil War. The Roman Empire was formed by Augustus after the disastrous end of the war.

Early History
The city-state of Alba Longa was founded by Aeneas, after fleeing Troy. Later, Romulus and Remus, sons of Mars, left Alba Longa to found their own great city. An arguement broke out on whether to call the city "Rome", or "Reme". Romulus killed his brother, and the city of Rome was founded in 753 BC. After a period of seven kings, the last king of Rome was expelled in 509 BC, and the Roman Kingdom became the Roman Republic.

Republic
While the fall of the last king had established Rome as a republic, the senate was largely controlled by the patricians, or the rich upper class nobility. The plebeians the lower class, left Rome twice in protest against the patricians' unfair rule.

By 280 BC, Rome's borders had encompassed the whole of modern Italy, excluding Sicily and Sardinia. The emerging superpower soon found itself in conflict with the other Mediterranean superpower at the time, Carthage. Rome fought three wars with Carthage, winning all three, albeit at great cost. While the Republic had nearly doubled in size following the second war, its economy had been severely weakened by the conscription of farmers. This, combined with a corrupt senate, and generals controlling their own personal armies lead to the eventual fall of the Republic at the hands of Julius Caesar and Augustus.

First Emperor of Rome
Augustus, the name Octavian took after he defeated Mark Anthony in a second civil war, returned to Rome, the capital of the now weakened First Roman Republic, triumphant in 27 BC. There, he was welcomed by the citizens of Rome and the Roman senators and was honored by the senate when they appointed him first emperor of Rome. Once emperor, his emperor-ship begin the Pax Romana, a period of Roman peace.

Rome the Capital of the Empire
Rome, located on seven hills near the Tiber River and now stretched to the suburbs from the original location, was originally the capital of the weak First Roman Republic. Once it became the capital of the Roman Empire, it prospered under Augustus's rule and the Pax Romana.

The Expansion of the Empire
During the time of the empire, every emperor extended the boundaries of the empire until the boundaries had been stretched far, from Britain in the north, Spain in the west, North Africa to the south, and to the Middle East to the east.

Fall
As the barbarians closed in on the Empire it was split into the Eastern and Western Empire (the Eastern Empire was by far, more rich). Later emperors would reunite the empire but their efforts proved to be in vain. The last emperor to rule in Rome, Romulus Augustulus was killed September 4th. Although the name 'Romulus Augustulus' recalled more than centuries of Roman glory, it could not save the empire from collapsing. After the Western Empire fell, the East lived on much longer as the Byzantine Empire, until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Attempts to recreate the Empire were made by Charlemagne when he established the Holy Roman Empire, the Muscovites who claimed Moscow to be the "Third Rome", and the Ottoman Empire.

The Last Olympian
The Roman Empire is not mentioned in The Last Olympian but it is said in The Lost Hero that the Roman Camp Half-Blood demigods were led by Jason Grace to Mount Tamalpais or Mount Othrys to destroy the Titan war base while the Greek demigods were defending Manhattan and Mount Olympus from Kronos's second Titan Army in the Battle of Manhattan.

The Lost Hero
In the end of The Lost Hero, demigods from the Greek Camp Half-Blood discover that there is really a Roman Camp Half-Blood that is presumed located near San Francisco in the United States of America. Just like the Olympian Gods and Mount Olympus following the center of the power of Western Civilization, the Roman version of Camp Half-Blood, founded when Western Civilization once stayed in Ancient Rome, has its own version of the Greek Deities (the Gods).

Camp Jupiter
The Roman Camp Half-Blood is a small version of the Roman Empire itself although it has the likeness of the Greek camp. However, like its patronages (the Roman gods and goddesses) and the Roman Empire, the camp itself takes great care in the training of demigod offspring of Roman Gods in the militaristic motto of the Roman Empire.

Like the Roman Empire, the camp's trainings are of that of military, discipline, and loyalty. The camp's activities director, a she-wolf named Lupa (and the one who took care of the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus), takes in the ideals of the Roman Empire.

Location in the United States of America
Camp Jupiter is presumed to be near the city of San Francisco, California, in the United States of America. In the first chapter of The Son of Neptune, Percy finds it under a hill, in a tunnel, after fighting Medusa's sisters, Stheno and Euryale.(In The Lost Hero Jason asked Piper about caldecott tunnel while the were riding the helicopter to the wolf house)