By stepping outside of the binary of optimists and pessimists in his approach to the literary evidence, and by judiciously interpreting the ever-increasing body of archaeological material, Guy Bradley offers an evenhanded and insightful narrative of the development of Rome in his Early Rome to 290 BC: The Beginnings of the City and the Rise of the Republic over the course of eleven chapters (six thematic chapters bringing us to the sixth century BCE followed by five more advancing to 290 BCE).