Final answer:
The Iron Age tribal people who founded the city of Rome were primarily the Latins and Sabines. The city was later influenced and governed by the Etruscans, before it established itself as an independent city-state and transitioned into the Roman Republic.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Iron Age tribal people who founded the city of Rome along the Tiber River were mainly from the Latins, an Italic tribe from the Alban Hills southeast of Rome, and the Sabines from the Apennines to the northeast. They settled in the mid-eighth century BCE as a collection of autonomous villages atop Rome's Seven Hills. The area would undergo significant influences and transitions, including the period when the Etruscans colonized Rome around 600 BCE and influenced the Latin-speaking town into an Etruscan city-state. Eventually, the Roman city-state freed itself from Etruscan dominance, and Rome's historical legends notably speak of Romulus, who is credited with the founding of Rome and its early monarchical rule, following which a republic was established.