History of Rome - All About All

History of Rome

The History of Rome is traditionally started the day of its mythological foundation, on 21 April 753 BC.

Origins

The origin of the city's name is unknown, with several theories already circulating in Antiquity; the least likely is derived from Greek language Ρώμη meaning braveness, courage; more probably the connection is with a root *rum-, "teat", with possible reference to the totem wolf (Latin lupa, a word also meaning "prostitute") that adopted and suckled the cognately-named twins Romulus and Remus. Romulus and Remus are believed to come from the people of Lavinium. The Basque scholar Manuel de Larramendi thought that the origin could be related to the Basque language word orma (modern Basque horma), "wall".

In the past few decades further progress in the Etruscan language and the archaeology of Italy made the above theories less likely, and made more definitive hypotheses possible. We know now that Etruscan was spoken from what became Rhaetia in the Alps through Etruria to include Latium all the way south to Capua, and that the Italic tribes intruded into Latium from a core Italic region in the central mountains, into which they had moved from the east coast. Regardless of the circumstances of Rome's founding, its original population was certainly a combination of Etruscan civilization and Italic elements, with the Etruscan certainly predominating. Gradually Italic infiltration increased to a flood and overwhelmed the Etruscans; that is, the Etruscan population within and outside Rome assimilated to Italic.

Etruscan gives us the word Rumach, "from Rome", from which Ruma can be extracted. Its further etymology, as is that of most Etruscan words, remains unknown. That it might mean "teat" is pure speculation. Its later mythological associations cast doubt upon that meaning; after all, none of the original settlers was raised by wolves, and the founders were unlikely to have been familiar with this myth about themselves. The name, Tiberius, may well contain the name of the Tiber. It is believed now to be from an Etruscan name, Thefarie, in which case Tiber would be from *Thefar.

The most telling evidence comes from the people themselves. In the expression, Senatus populusque Romanus, "populus" is of Etruscan origin. The place name, Populonia, is from Etruscan Pupluna or Fufluna. Related to populus is the typical Roman praenomen (personal name) of Publius, from Puplie.

Indeed the whole history of early Rome is the story of the struggle between the original families and the newcomers. The praenomina of those families give them away as Etruscan in origin; for example, Gaius, deriving from Cai. It was used by the Julian gens among others. We do not have a derivation of Julus, the mythical founder of the gens, but he is supposed to have been Etruscan. The Etruscans also had a word for gentes, which was lautun. It is not known if this is the origin of Latins, but the etymologizing of most such words pertaining to early Rome has been difficult and resistive, which is likely to mean that they are not Indo-European.

The manners of the Etruscans have to some degree led us into confusion. Like Latin, Etruscan is inflected and Hellenized. Like the Indo-Europeans, the Etruscans were patrilineal and patriarchal. Like the Italics, they were war-like. The gladiatorial displays actually evolved out of Etruscan funerary customs. Future studies of Etruscan and more excavations in the region will no doubt clarify the origin of Rome and the Romans even more.

See also Roman Kingdom and Timeline of Ancient Rome

Early history

Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill and surrounding hills approximately eighteen miles from the Tyrrhenian Sea on the south side of the Tiber. Another of these hills, the Quirinal Hill, was probably an outpost for another Italic-speaking people, the Sabines. At this location the Tiber forms a Z-shape curve that contains an island where the river can be forded. Because of the river and the ford, Rome was at a crossroads of traffic following the river valley and of traders traveling north and south on the west side of the peninsula.

Peoples of early-Italy

The traditional date of founding (753 BC) is a conventional date set much later by the historian Varro, assigning a length of 35 years to each of the seven generations corresponding to the seven mythological kings. Pieces of pottery that indicate the area of Rome may have been inhabited as early as 1400 BC have been discovered. Archeological finds have also confirmed that in the 8th century BC in the area of the future Rome there were two fortified settlements, the Rumi one on the Palatin Hill and the Titientes one on the Quirinal Hill, backed by the Luceres living in the nearby woods: these were simply three of numerous Italic-speaking communities that existed in Latium, a plain on the Italian peninsula, by the 1st millennium BC. The origins of the Italic peoples is not known, but they may have descended from Indo-Europeans who migrated from north of the Alps in the second-half of the 2nd millennium BC or from a blending of these peoples with Mediterranean people, perhaps from North Africa. In the 8th century BC, these Italic speakers — Latins (in the west), Sabines (in the upper valley of the Tiber), Umbrians (in the north-east), Samnites (in the South), Oscans and others — shared the peninsula with two other major ethnic groups: the Etruscans, in the North and the Greeks in the south.
The Etruscans (Etrusci or Tusci in Latin) were settled north of Rome in Etruria (modern Tuscany). They deeply influenced Roman culture, as clearly showed by the Etruscan origin of some of the mythical Roman kings.
The Greeks had founded many colonies in Southern Italy (that the Romans later called Magna Graecia), such as Cumae, Naples and Taranto, as well as in the eastern two-thirds of Sicily, between 750 and 550 BC.

Etruscan dominance

After 650 BC, the Etruscans became dominant in Italy and expanded into north-central Italy. They came to control Rome and perhaps all of Latium. Roman tradition claimed that Rome had been under the control of seven kings from 753 to 509 BC beginning with the mythic Romulus who along with his brother Remus were said to have founded the city of Rome. Two of the last three kings, namely Tarquinius Priscus and Tarquinius Superbus, were said to be Etruscan, their names referring to the nearby Etruscan town of Tarquinia. While the king list is of dubious historical value, it is known that Rome was under the influence of the Etruscans for about a century during this period. During this period a bridge called the Pons Sublicius was built to replace the Tiber ford, and Cloaca Maxima was also built by the Etruscan engineering: form a cultural and technical point of view, Etruscans had arguably the second-greatest impact on Roman development, only surpassed by the Greeks.

Expanding further south, the Etruscans came into direct contact with the Greeks. After initial success in conflicts with the Greek colonists, Etruria went into a decline. Taking advantage of this, around 500 BC Rome rebelled and gained independence from the Etruscans. It also abandoned the monarchy status in favour a democratic system based on a Senate, composed of the majors of the city, along with popular assemblies which ensured political partecipation to most of the people and expressed the annual magistracies.

However, the more evolute Etruscans left a lasting influence on Rome. The Romans learned to build temples from them, and the Etruscans introduced the worship of a triad of gods — Juno, Minerva, and Jupiter — from the Etruscan gods: Uni, Menrva, and Tinia. They transformed Rome from a pastoral community into a city. They also passed on elements of Greek culture that they had adopted, such as the Western version of the Greek alphabet.

Roman Expansion

After 500 BC, Rome joined with the Latin cities in defense against incursions by the Sabines. Winning the Battle of Lake Regillus in 493 BC, Rome established again the supremacy over the Latin countries it had lost after the fall of the Monarchy: through a lengthy series of struggles, this supremacy become definitive in 393, when the Romans finally subdued the Volsci and Aequi. In 394 BC they had also conquered the menacing Etruscan neighbour of Veii: the Etruscan power was now limited to Etruria itself, and Rome could therefore emerge as the dominant city in Latium. In 387 BC, however, Rome was suddenly sacked and burn by invaders coming from Gaul and led by Brennus, who had successfully invaded Etruria. The northern menace was thwarted by consul Furius Camillus, who defeated Brennus at Tusculum soon after.

After that, Rome rebuilt hastily its building and went on the offensive, conquering the Etruscans and seizing terroritory from the Gauls in the north and, since 345 BC, pushing south against other Latins: their main enemy in this quadrant were the fierce Samnites, who in 321 defeated heavily the legions. In spite of these and other momentary set-backs, the Romans advanced steadily. By 290 BC, over half of the Italian penisula was controlled by Rome. In the 3rd century BC the Greek poleis in the south were brought under Roman control as well.

The Roman Republic and Empire

According to tradition, Rome became a republic in 509 BC. It was not for a few centuries, however, that Rome would become the great city of popular imagination. By the 3rd century B.C., Rome had become the preeminent city of the Italian peninsula. During the Punic Wars between Rome and the great Mediterranean empire of Carthage, Rome's stature increased further as it became the capital of an overseas empire for the first time. Beginning in the 2nd century B.C., Rome went through a significant population expansion as Italian farmers, driven from their ancestral farmlands by the advent of massive, slave-operated farms called latifundia, flocked to the city in great numbers. In 146 B.C., the Romans razed the cities of Carthage and Corinth, adding North Africa and Greece to the empire and making Rome the most important city in the western world. From this point through the end of the Republic, individual citizens would compete to enhance their personal prestige by erecting monuments and great structures for public use around the city. Most notable was the Theater of Pompey, erected by the great general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, which was the first permanent theater built in the city. After Caesar emerged victorious from his Gallic conquests and subsequent civil war with Pompey, he embarked on a building program unprecedented in Roman history. He was assassinated in 44 B.C., however, with most of his projects, such as the Basilica Iulia and a new Senate house (Curia), still under construction.

By the end of the Republic, the city of Rome had achieved a grandeur befitting the capital of an empire dominating the whole of the Mediterranean, it was at the time, the largest city of the world with an estimate of its peak population that ranges from 450,000 people to over 3.5 million, being 1 to 1.6 million generally estimated. This grandeur increased under Augustus, who completed Caesar's projects and added many of his own, such as the Forum of Augustus and the Ara Pacis. He is said to have remarked that he found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble. Augustus' successors sough to emulate his success in part by lending their own contributions to the city. The Great Fire of Rome during the reign of Nero left much of the city destroyed, but in many ways it acted as an excuse for new development. Rome was a city of consumers only, however, with a poor production and industrial role compared to itz size. This meant it had to depend from other parts of the Empire for the sustentation of such a large population

Rome's population probably declined after the 2nd century CE. During the reign of Marcus Aurelius, at the end of that century, killed 2,000 people a day.

From the early-3rd century AD, matters changed. The "Crisis of the third century" defines the disasters and political troubles for the Empire, which nearly collapsed. The new feeling of unsafeness of the Empire and the menace of barbarian invasions is clearly showed by the decision of emperor Aurelianus, who around 270 encircled the capital itself with a massive wall. Rome formally remained capital of the empire, but emperors spent less and less time there. At the end of 3rd century Diocletian's political reforms deprived Rome of its traditional role of administrative capital of the Empire. Later western emperors ruled from Milan or Ravenna, or Gaul cities. In 330, Constantine established a second capital at Constantinople, and part of the Roman aristocratic class moved to the new seat, followed by many of the artists and craftsmen living in the city.

However, the Senate, while stripped of most of its political power, was still socially prestigious, and the Empire's conversion to Christianity made the Bishop of Rome (later called the Pope) the senior religious figure in the Western Empire, as officially stated in 380 by the Edict of Thessalonica. In spite of its increasingly marginal role in the Empire, Rome retained its historical prestige, and this period saw the last wave of construction activity: Constantine's predecessor Maxentius built notable buildings such its spectacular basilica in the Forum, Constantine itself erected its famous arch to celebrate his victory over the former, and Diocletian built the greatest baths of all. Constantine was also the first patrone of official Christian buildings in the city: he donated the Lateran Palace to the Pope, and built the first great basilica, the old St. Peter's Basilica.

But Rome remained one of the stronhold of Paganism, led by the artistocratical and Senatorial party. When the Visigoths showed off before the walls in 408, the Senate and the prefect proposed pagan sacrifices, and it seems that even the pope was favourable if this could help to save the city. Anyway, the new walls did not stop the city being sacked first by Alaric on August 24, 410, by Geiseric in 455 and even by general Ricimer's unpaid Roman troops (largely composed by barbarians) on July 11, 472. The sacks of the city, which had remained untouched by barbarians since the times of Brennus, astonished all the Roman world: the fall of Rome was read as the definitive fall of the ancient order. Many inhabitants fled, and at the end of the century Rome's population should have been less than 250,000. Anyway, the damage the sacks made has been probably overesteemed: the city was already in a steep decline, and many monuments had already been destroyed by the citizens itself, who stripped stones from closed temples and other precious buildings, and even burnt statues to make lime, for their personal uses. Also most of the increasing number of churchs were built in this way. For exemple, first St. Peter was erected using extensively spoils from the abandoned Circus of Nero. This "self-eating" attitude was a constant feature of Rome until Renaissance: since 4th century imperial edicts against stripping of stones and especially marble were common, but the need of their repetition show how they were ineffective. Sometimes new churchs were obtained simply taking advantage of early Pagan temples, maybe changing the Pagan attribution to a corrispondent Christian one: in this way the Temple of Romulus and Remus became the basilica of the twin saints Cosmas and Damian, and, later, the Pantheon, Temple of All Gods, become the church of All Martyrs.

For more details of the civilization, history, geographical expansion, and political system born in the ancient city of Rome, see Ancient Rome.

See also Roman Empire and Timeline of Ancient Rome

Rome under barbarian and Byzantine rule

In 476 last Western Roman emperor Romulus Augustus, a puppet (like almost all emperor of this period) in the hands of a general, his father Orestes, was deposed by a riot of barbarian troops led by Odoacer and exiled to Capri. The fall of the Western Roman Empire made little difference to Rome. Odoacer and then the Ostrogoths continued, like the last emperors, to rule Italy from Ravenna. Meanwhile, the Senate, even though long since stripped of wider powers, continued to administer Rome itself, and the Pope usually came from a senatorial family. This situation continued until the Eastern Roman Empire, sent in the West by Justinian I under Belisarius, captured the city in 536.

On December 17, 546, the Ostrogoths under Totila recaptured and sacked the city. The Byzantine general Belisarius recaptured Rome, but the Ostrogoths took it again in 549. Belisarius was replaced by Narses, who captured Rome from the Ostrogoths for good in 552, ending the so-called Gothic Wars which has turned much of Italy into a desert. The constant war around it in the 530s and 540s had left Rome into total disrepair, becoming nearly abandoned and desolate. Much of the neighborood turned into an unhealty marsh. The aqueducts were never repaired, and this obliged a shrinking population of less than 50,000 to concentrate near the Tiber and in area of Campo Marzio, abandoning districts without water supply. An untrue but significative legend tell that there was even a moment in which nobody was anymore living in Rome.

Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I (reigned 527–565) tried to grant Rome subsidies for the maintenance of public buildings, aqueducts and bridges - though, being mostly drawn from an Italy dramatically impoverished by the recent wars, these were not always sufficient. He also styled himself the patron of its remaining scholars, orators, physicians and lawyers in the stated hope that in time more youths would seek for a better education. After the wars, the Senate was in theory restored, but under the supervision of a prefect and other officials appointed by and responsible to the Byzantine authorities in Ravenna.

However, the Pope was now one of the leading religious figures in the entire Byzantine Empire and effectively more powerful locally than either the remaining senators or local Byzantine officials. In practice, local power in Rome devolved to the Pope and, over the next few decades, both much of the remaining possessions of the senatorial aristocracy and the local Byzantine administration in Rome were absorbed by the Church.

The reign of Justinian's nephew and successor Justin II (reigned 565–578) was marked from the Italian point of view by the invasion of the Lombards under Alboin (568). By capturing the regions of Benevento, Lombardy, Piedmont, Spoleto and Tuscany, the invaders effectively restricted imperial authority to small islands of land surrounding a number of coastal cities, including Ravenna, Naples, Rome and the area of the future Venice. The one inland city continuing under Byzantine control was Perugia, which provided a repeatedly threatened overland link between Rome and Ravenna. In 578 and again in 580, the Senate, in its last recorded acts, had to ask for the support of Tiberius II Constantine (reigned 578–582) against the approaching dukes, Faroald of Spoleto and Zotto of Benevento.

Maurice (reigned 582–602) added a new factor in the continuing conflict by creating an alliance with Childebert II of Austrasia (reigned 575–595). The armies of the Frankish King invaded the Lombard territories in 584, 585, 588 and 590. Rome had suffered badly from a disastrous flood of the Tiber in 589, followed by a plague in 590. The later is notable for the legend of the angel seen, while the newly-elected Pope Gregory I (term 590‑604) was passing in procession by Hadrian's Tomb, to hover over the building and to sheathe his flaming sword as a sign that the pestilence was about to cease. But the city was safe from capture at least.

Agilulf, however, the new Lombard King (reigned 591 to c. 616), managed to secure peace with Childebert, reorganized his territories and resumed activities against both Naples and Rome by 592. With the Emperor preoccupied with wars in the eastern borders and the various succeeding Exarchs unable to secure Rome from invasion, Gregory took a personal initiative of starting negotiations for a peace treaty. It was completed during the autumn of 598 and was only after recognized by Maurice. But it would last till the end of his reign.

The position of the Patriarch of Rome was further strengthened under the usurper Phocas (reigned 602–610). Phocas recognized their primacy over that of the Patriarch of Constantinople and even decreed Pope Boniface III (607) to be "the head of all the Churches". Phocas' reign saw the erection of the last imperial monument in the Roman Forum, the column with his name; he also gave the Pope the Pantheon, then closed since centuries, probably saving it from destruction.

During the 7th century, an influx of both Byzantine officials and churchmen from elsewhere in the empire made both the local lay aristocracy and Church leadership largely Greek-speaking. However, the strong Byzantine cultural influence did not always lead to political harmony between Rome and Constantinople. In the controversy over Monothelitism, popes found themselves under severe pressure (sometimes amounting to physical force) when they failed to keep in step with Constantinople's shifting theological positions. In 653, Pope Martin I was deported to Constantinople and, after a show trial, exiled to the Crimea, where he died.

Then, in 663, Rome had its first imperial visit for two centuries, by Constans II - its worst disaster since the Gothic Wars when the emperor proceeded to strip Rome of metal, including from buildings and statues, to provide materials for armaments to use against the Saracens. However, for the next half-century, despite further tensions, Rome and the Papacy continued to prefer continued Byzantine rule - in part because the alternative was Lombard rule, and in part because Rome's food was largely coming from Papal estates elsewhere in the Empire, particularly Sicily.

However, in 727, Pope Gregory II refused to accept the decrees of Emperor Leo III, establishing iconoclasm. Leo proceeded, unsuccessfully, to impose iconoclasm on Rome by military force and then confiscated the Papal estates in Sicily and transferred areas previously ecclesiastically under the Pope but still under Byzantine control to the Patriarch of Constantinople. In effect, Rome had been expelled from the Byzantine Empire.

This left Rome reliant purely on its own local forces to protect itself against Lombard encroachment - sometimes now, indeed, encouraged by the Byzantines. Other protectors were now needed - and finally, in 753, Pope Stephen III induced Pippin the Younger, king of the Franks, to attack the Lombards on the Papacy's behalf.

In the 9th century, Pope Leo IV commisioned the construction of a wall around an area on the opposite side of the Tiber from the seven hills of Rome, which has since been called the Leonine City.

Emergence and decline of the Roman commune

In this period the renovated Church was again attracting pilgrims and prelates from all the Christian world, and money with them: even with a population of only 30,000, Rome was becoming again a city of consumers depending from the presence of a governmental bureaucracy. In the meantime,Italian cities were acquiring increasing autonomy, mainly led by new families which were replacing the old aristocracy and a new class formed by entrepreneurs, traders and merchants. After the sack of Rome by the Normans, the rebuilding of the city was supported by powerful families such as the Frangipane and the Pierleoni, whose wealthy came indeed from commerce and banking rather than landholdings. Inspiring to neighbouring cities like Tivoli and Viterbo, also Rome's people began to think to a communal status and to a substantial freedom from papal authority.

Led by the flaming words of preacher Arnaldo da Brescia, an idealistic, fierce opponent of ecclesiastical property and church interference in temporal affairs, Romans rebelled in 1143. The Senate and the Roman Republic were born again. 12th century's Rome, however, had nothing to share with that which had ruled over the Mediterranean some 700 years before, and soon the new Senate had to work hard to survive, choosing an ambiguous policy of shifting its support from the Pope to the Holy Roman Empire and viceversa. At Monteporzio, in 1167, during one of this shiftings, Roman troops were defeated by the imperial forces of Frederick Barbarossa. Luckily, the winning enemies were soon disperded by a plague and Rome was safe.

In 1118 the new communal government was finally recognized by Pope Clement III: the pope had to make large cash payments to the communal officials, while the 56 senators became papal vassals. The Senate always had problems in the accomplishment of its function, and various changes were tried: often a unique Senator was in charge, though this sometimes led to tyrannic drifts which did not help the stability of the new-born organism.

In 1204 the streets of Rome were again in flames when the struggle between Pope Innocent III's family and its rivals, the powerful Orsini family, led to riots in the city. Many ancient buildings were then destroyed by machines used by the rival bands to siege their enemies in the innumerable towers and strongholds which were a hallmark of the Middle Age Italian towns.

The struggle between the Popes and the emperor Frederick II, also king of Naples and Sicily, saw Rome on the ghibelline side. To repay his loyalty, Frederick sent to the commune the Carroccio he had won to the Lombards at the battle of Cortenuova in 1234, and which was exposed in the Campidoglio. In 1234, during another revolt against the pope, the Romans headed by Senator Luca Savelli sacked the Lateran: curiously, Savelli was nephew of Pope Honorius III and father of Honorius IV, but in that age familiar ties were often not mandatory to one's allegiance. The endless struggles between noble families (Savelli, Orsini, Colonna, Annibaldi), the ambiguous position of the Popes, the haughtiness of a population which never abandoned the dreams of their splendid past but at the same time thought only to immediate incomes, and the weakness of the republican institutions, always deprived the city of the possibility to evolve into an autonomous, stable reign, as happened to other communes like Florence, Siena or Milan.

In an attempt to imitate more successful communes, in 1252 the people elected a foreig Senator, the Bolognese Brancaleone degli Andalò. To brought peace in the city he suppressed the superb nobles (destroying some 140 towers), reorganized the working classes and issued a code of laws inspired to Northern ones. Brancaleone was a tough figure, but died in 1258 without almost nothing of his program had turned into reality. Five years later Charles I of Anjou, then king of Naples, was elected senator. He entered the city only in 1265, but soon his presence was needed to face Conradin.

Nicholas III, a member of Orsini family, moved the seat of the Popes from the Lateran to the more defendable Vatican and ordered that no foreigner could become Senator of Rome. Being a Roman himself, he made the people elect himself Senator. The city started again to choose the papal side. In 1285 Charles was again senator, but after the Sicilian Vespers his star began to decline and the city was thence free forever from his authority. The next Senator was again a Roman, and again a pope, Honorius IV of the Savelli.

Boniface VIII and the Babylonian captivity

Successor to the meteoric Celestine V was an energic Roman of the Caetani family, Boniface VIII. Entangled in a local feud against the traditional rivals of his family, the Colonna, at the same time he struggled to reassure the universal supremacy of the Holy See. In 1300 he launched the first Jubilee and founded the first University of Rome. But he died in 1303 after the humiliation of the "Schiaffo di Anagni" ("Slap of Anagni"), which signed instead the rule of the King of France over the Papacy.

Boniface's successor, Clement V, never entered in Rome, starting the so-called "Babylonian Captivity", the absence of the Pope from their Roman seat in favour of Avignon, which will last for more than 70 years. The absence of the Popes brought the independence of the local powers, but these revealed largely unstable; and the lack of the holy revenues caused a deep decay of Rome, and many of the main monuments began to ruin.

Cola di Rienzo and the Pope's return to Rome

In spite of its decline and the absence of the Pope, Rome had not lost its spiritual prestige: in 1341 Petrarca come to the city to be crowned as poet in Campidoglio. Noblemen and poor people at one time demanded with one voice the return of the Pope. Among the many ambassadors that in this period took their way to Avignon, emerged the bizarre but eloquent figure of Cola di Rienzo. As his personal power among the people increased by time, on May 30 1347 he conquered the Campidoglio at the head of an enthusiast crowd. The period of his power, though very short-lived, is anyway one of the most interesting in the life of Rome in Middle Ages, as Cola tried to assure himself a renovating, almost mystical aura of a paladin of Italian independence, into a confuse political dream inspired to the prestige of the Ancient Rome. Now in possess of dictatorial powers, he took the title of "tribune", referring to the pleb's magistracy of Roman Republic and also considered himself at an equal status of that of the Holy Roman Emperor. On August 1 1347 he conferred Roman citizenship on all the Italian cities and even prepared for the election of a Roman emperor of Italy. It was too much: the Pope denounced him as heretic, criminal and pagan, the populace had started to disaffect and the noble always hated him. On December 15 1347 he was forced to flee.

In August 1354, Cola was again a protagonist, when Cardinal Gil Alvarez De Albornoz entrusted him the role of "Senator of Rome" in his program of reassuring the Pope's rule in the Papal States. But in October the tyrannic Cola, who had become again very unpopular for his delirious behaviours and the heavy bills, was killed in a riot backed by the powerful family of the Colonna.

On October 16 1367, a Pope, Urban V, visited for the first time the city since many years in reply to the prayers of St. Brigid and Petrarca. During his presence, Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV was crowned in the city (October 1368); also the Byzantine emperor John V Palaeologus came in Rome to invoke a crusade against the Ottoman Empire, but in vain. Urban V, however, did not like the unhealthy air of the city, and on September 5 1370 he sailed again to Avignon. His successor, Gregory XI, set officially the date of the return to Rome at May 1372, but again the French cardinals and the King stopped him.

Only on January 17 1377, Gregory XI could finally reinstate in the Holy See to remain.

The incoherent behaviour of his successor, the Italian Urban VI, provoked in 1378 the Western Schism, which impeded any true attempt of improving the conditions of the decaying Rome.

Renaissance Rome

After the suppression of the republic of 1434 (Gibbon's "last revolt of Rome" (http://www.ccel.org/g/gibbon/decline/volume2/chap70.htm#Revolt)), the Papacy folded the government of Rome into the ecclesiastical bureaucracy. During this period, Rome became the worldwide center of Christianity and increasingly developed a relevant political role that made it one of the most important towns of the Old Continent. In art, although Florence became the center of humanism and the Rinascimento (Renaissance), Rome was the center of baroque, and architecture deeply affected its central areas.

In 1555, Pope Paul IV ordered a central area was delimited around the Porticus Octaviae, creating of the famous Roman Ghetto, in which the city's Jews were forced to live.

Some of the most famous views of Rome in the 18th century were etched by Giovanni Battista Piranesi. His grand vision of classic Rome inspired many to visit the city and examine the ruins themselves.

Rome during the Italian unification

The rule of the Popes was interrupted by the short-lived Roman Republic (1798), which was built under the influence of the French Revolution.

Another Roman Republic arose in 1849, within the framework of revolutions of 1848. Two of the most influencing figures of the Italian unification, Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi, fought for the short-lived republic.

The return of Pope Pius IX in Rome, with help of French troops, marked the exclusion of Rome from the unification process that embodied in the second Italian independence war and the Mille expedition, after which all the Italian peninsula, except Rome and Venetia, where unified under the House of Savoy.

In 1870, the Franco-Prussian War started, and French Emperor Napoleon III could no longer protect the Papal States. Soon after, the Italian government declared war against the Papal States. The Italian army entered Rome on September 20, after a cannonade of three hours, through Porta Pia. Rome and Latium were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy.

Initially the Italian government had offered to let Pope Pius IX keep the Leonine City, but the pope rejected the offer because acceptance would have been an implied endorsement of the legitimacy of the Italian kingdom's rule over his former domain. Pope Pius IX declared himself a prisoner in the Vatican, although he was not actually restrained from coming and going. Officially, the capital was not moved from Florence to Rome until early 1871.

The modern city

Today's Rome reflects the stratification of the epochs of its long history, but it also is a huge contemporary metropolis. Its vast historical center contains many areas from Ancient Rome, areas from medieval times, many palaces and artistic treasures from the Renaissance era, many fountains, churches and palaces from baroque times, as well as many examples of the Art Nouveau, Neoclassic, Modernism, Rationalism and any other artistic styles of the XIX and XX centuries (the city is in fact considered a living encyclopedia and museum of the last 3000 years of western art). The historical center is identified as within the limits of the ancient imperial walls. Some central areas were reorganised after the unification (1880–1910 - Roma Umbertina), and some important additions and adaptations made during the Fascist period, with the discussed creation of the Via dei Fori Imperiali, of theVia della Conciliazione in front of the Vatican (for the construction of which a large part of the old Borgo neighborhood was destroyed) and the founding of new quartieri (among which EUR, San Basilio, Garbatella, Cinecittà, Trullo, Quarticciolo and, on the coast, the restructuring of Ostia) and the inclusion of bordering villages (Labaro, Osteria del Curato, Quarto Miglio, Capannelle, Pisana, Torrevecchia, Ottavia, Casalotti). These expansions were needed to face the huge increase of population due to the centralisation of the Italian state.

During the Second World War Rome suffered few bombings (notably at Saint Lorenzo), and was declared an "open town" (film by Roberto Rossellini). Rome fell to the Allies on June 4 1944. It was the first capital of an Axis nation to fall.

After the war, Rome continued to expand due to Italy's growing state administration and industry, with the creation of new quartieri and suburbs. The current official population stands at 2.5 million; during the business day workers increase this figure to over 3.5 million. This is a dramatic increase from previous figures, which were 138,000 in 1825, 244,000 in 1871, 692,000 in 1921, 1,600,000 in 1961.

Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics, using many ancient sites such as the Villa Borghese and the Thermae of Caracalla as venues. For the Olympic Games many new structures where created, notably the new large Olympic Stadium (which was also enlarged and renewed to host qualification and the final match of the 1990 FIFA football World Cup), the Villaggio Olimpico (Olympic Village, created to host the athletes and redeveloped after the games as a residential district), etc.

Many of the monuments of Rome were restored by the Italian state and by the Vatican for the 2000 Jubilee.

Being the capital city of Italy, Rome hosts all the principal institutions of the nation, like the Presidency of the Republic, the government (and its single Ministeri), the Parliament, the main judicial Courts, and the diplomatic representatives of all the countries for the states of Italy and the Vatican City (curiously, Rome also hosts, in the Italian part of its territory, the Embassy of Italy for the Vatican City, a unique case of an Embassy within the boundaries of its own country). Many international institutions are located in Rome, notably cultural and scientific ones - such as the American Institute, the British Shool, the French Academy, the Scandinavian Institutes, the German Archaeological Institute - for the honor of scholarship in the Eternal City, and humanitarian ones, such as the FAO.

Rome today is one of the most important tourist destinations of the world, due to the incalculable immensity of its archaeological and artistic treasures, as well as for the charm of its unique traditions, the beauty of its panoramic views, and the majesty of its magnificent "villas" (parks). Among the most significant resources: plenty of museums - (Musei Capitolini, the Vatican Museums, Galleria Borghese, and a great many others) — aqueducts, fountains, churches, palaces, historical buildings, the monuments and ruins of the Roman Forum, and the Catacombs.

Among its hundreds of churches, Rome contains the five Major Basilicas of the Catholic church: Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano (St. John Lateran, Rome's cathedral), Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano (St. Peter's Basilica), Basilica di San Paolo fuori le Mura (St. Paul Outside the Walls), Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (St. Mary Major), and Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura (St. Lawrence Outside the Walls). The Bishop of Rome is the Pope; in his pastoral activity strictly applicable to the city, he is assisted by a vicar (usually a cardinal).