How did roman leadership affect their growth?

At first, Rome was just one, small city-state in an area of Latin-speaking people (called Latium), on the west side of Italy's peninsula. Rome, as a monarchy (founded, according to legend, in 753 B.C.), couldn't even keep foreign powers from ruling it. It started gaining strength from about 510 B.C. (when the Romans threw out their last king) until the middle of the 3rd century B.C. During this -- the early Republican -- period, Rome made and broke strategic treaties with neighboring groups in order to help her conquer other city-states.