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The Roman culture follows the course of the history of the city, every time that has passed
through Rome has left its mark on the customs, traditions and artistic expressions. When we
talk about Roman culture it comes to special customs and traditions of the reality of Rome that
have been handed down to the present day and feature all over and all the grandeur of the
Eternal City.
A witness to the internal conflicts between the Papacy and politics are the Talking Statues of
Rome, which have become part of the Roman tradition. The famous Pasquino statue is still a
witness of Roman satire par excellence.
The Roman tradition is still alive in the city and everywhere you can breathe a strong sense of
traditional culture. Just think of theRoman food, which still brings to the table the flavors of the
past and stands for the typical dishes, such as the famous bucatini alla matriciana or spaghetti
alla carbonara. In the neighborhoods of Rome such as Trastevere and Campo dei Fiori, you can
still breathe the atmosphere of popular Rome, between market and shops, including smells and
tastes of tradition.
The culture and traditions in Rome reflect its historic past and celebrate the modern world.
Rome culture is an eclectic mix of high culture, the arts, fashion and historic architecture. Daily
life centers on enduring Rome traditions rich in religion and food. It is this contrast of historic
and modern culture and traditions that defines Rome as the Eternal City.
Eclectic Culture
The past and present harmoniously existing within steps of each other best defines Rome
culture. For example, structures by 17th-century architect Bernini mingle with modern day
architecture. Art created by the masters during the Renaissance and Baroque periods coexists
with modern-day pieces in art museums and galleries throughout the city. Modern work
buildings are steps away from historic monuments, like the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.
In short, Rome is an eclectic culture of a busy cosmopolitan city that reveres its past. Much of
the Roman culture reflects the diverse people who passed through the city at different points in
history. Gladiators, pagan deities, master artists and learned men left an influential footprint on
the Eternal City. Tourists flock to the Vatican, the Colosseum, the Palatine and Forum Museum,
the Galleria Borghese, the Palazzo Altemps, the Piazza di Spagna and the Domus Aurea to gain
an appreciation of the stepping stones of todays Roman culture.
Food and Festivals
Food is an integral part of the culture in Rome, with dishes that are full of flavor and reflective
of old Roman traditions. Fresh vegetables, inexpensive cuts of meats, pasta and cheese are
typical ingredients in Roman dishes. Food establishments flourish in Rome, with pizzerias,
family-run trattorias and trendy restaurants in full supply. Food is further celebrated with food
festivals. They are an important part of the culture scene in Rome and typically usher in a
season, celebrate the Roman heritage, or simply carry on an age-old tradition. The Sagra del
Csarciofo, for instance, celebrates the artichoke, a staple in Roman cooking. The springtime
festival showcases the many ways the artichoke can be cooked.
Holiday Traditions
During the Easter and Christmas holiday seasons, Rome traditions exhibit the strong Christian
culture of the Eternal City. One such Rome tradition is to go to St. Peters Square on Easter and
Christmas to receive a blessing from the Pope. During the Lenten season, Good Friday marks
the annual Procession of the Cross from the Roman Colosseum to the Palatine and Forum. On
Easter Sunday morning, an outdoor mass takes place in St. Peters Square. During the Christmas
season, churches in Rome display elaborate nativity scenes, and live music is enjoyed in the
piazzas. The traditional midnight mass at the Vatican attracts thousands of locals and
international visitors.
The culture of ancient Rome existed throughout the almost 1200-year history of
the civilization of Ancient Rome. The term refers to the culture of the Roman Republic, later
the Roman Empire, which at its peak covered an area fromLowland Scotland and Morocco to
the Euphrates.
Life in ancient Rome revolved around the city of Rome, its famed seven hills, and its
monumental architecture such as the Flavian Amphitheatre (now called
the Colosseum), Trajan's Forum, and the Pantheon. The city also had severaltheaters, gymnasia,
and many taverns, baths, and brothels. Throughout the territory under ancient Rome's
control,residential architecture ranged from very modest houses to country villas, and in
the capital city of Rome, there were imperial residences on the elegant Palatine Hill, from which
the word palace is derived. The vast majority of the population lived in the city center, packed
into insulae (apartment blocks).
The city of Rome was the largest megalopolis of that time, with a population that may well have
exceeded one million people, with a high end estimate of 3.6 million and a low end estimate of
450,000. A substantial proportion of the population under the city's jurisdiction lived in
innumerable urban centers, with population of at least 10,000 and several military settlements,
a very high rate of urbanization by pre-industrial standards. The most urbanized part of the
Empire was Italy, which had an estimated rate of urbanization of 32%, the same rate of
urbanization of England in 1800. Most Roman towns and cities had a forum, temples and the
same type of buildings, on a smaller scale, as found in Rome. The large urban population
required an endless supply of food which was a complex logistical task, including acquiring,
transporting, storing and distribution of food for Rome and other urban centers. Italian farms
supplied vegetables and fruits, but fish and meat were luxuries. Aqueducts were built to bring
water to urban centers and wine and oil were imported from Hispania, Gaul and Africa.
There was a very large amount of commerce between the provinces of the Roman Empire,
since its transportation technology was very efficient. The average costs of transport and the
technology were comparable with 18th-century Europe. The later city of Rome did not fill the
space within its ancient Aurelian walls until after 1870.
The majority of the population under the jurisdiction of ancient Rome lived in the countryside
in settlements with less than 10 thousand inhabitants. Landlords generally resided in cities and
their estates were left in the care of farm managers. The plight of rural slaves was generally
worse than their counterparts working in urban aristocratic households. To stimulate a higher
labor productivity most landlords freed a large number of slaves and many received wages.
Some records indicate that "as many as 42 people lived in one small farm hut in Egypt, while six
families owned a single olive tree."[citation needed] Such a rural environment continued to induce
migration of population to urban centers until the early 2nd century when the urban population
stopped growing and started to decline.
Starting in the middle of the 2nd century BC, private Greek culture was increasingly in
ascendancy, in spite of tirades against the "softening" effects of Hellenized culture from the
conservative moralists. By the time of Augustus, cultured Greek household slaves taught the
Roman young (sometimes even the girls); chefs, decorators, secretaries, doctors, and
hairdressers all came from the Greek East. Greek sculptures adorned Hellenistic landscape
gardening on the Palatine or in the villas, or were imitated in Roman sculpture yards by Greek
slaves. The Roman cuisine preserved in the cookery books ascribed to Apicius is essentially
Greek. Roman writers disdained Latin for a cultured Greek style. Only in law and governance
was the Italic nature of Rome's accretive culture supreme.
Against this human background, both the urban and rural setting, one of history's most
influential civilizations took shape, leaving behind a cultural legacy that survives in part today.
There was a very large amount of commerce between the provinces of the Roman Empire,
since its transportation technology was very efficient. The average costs of transport and the
technology were comparable with 18th-century Europe. The later city of Rome did not fill the
space within its ancient Aurelian walls until after 1870.
The majority of the population under the jurisdiction of ancient Rome lived in the countryside
in settlements with less than 10 thousand inhabitants. Landlords generally resided in cities and
their estates were left in the care of farm managers. The plight of rural slaves was generally
worse than their counterparts working in urban aristocratic households. To stimulate a higher
labor productivity most landlords freed a large number of slaves and many received wages.
Some records indicate that "as many as 42 people lived in one small farm hut in Egypt, while six
families owned a single olive tree." Such a rural environment continued to induce migration of
population to urban centers until the early 2nd century when the urban population stopped
growing and started to decline.
Starting in the middle of the 2nd century BC, private Greek culture was increasingly in
ascendancy, in spite of tirades against the "softening" effects of Hellenized culture from the
conservative moralists. By the time of Augustus, cultured Greek household slaves taught the
Roman young (sometimes even the girls); chefs, decorators, secretaries, doctors, and
hairdressers all came from the Greek East. Greek sculptures adorned Hellenistic landscape
gardening on the Palatine or in the villas, or were imitated in Roman sculpture yards by Greek
slaves. The Roman cuisine preserved in the cookery books ascribed to Apicius is essentially
Greek. Roman writers disdained Latin for a cultured Greek style. Only in law and governance
was the Italic nature of Rome's accretive culture supreme.
Against this human background, both the urban and rural setting, one of history's most
influential civilizations took shape, leaving behind a cultural legacy that survives in part today.
There were two assemblies, the assembly of centuries (comitia centuriata) and the assembly of
tribes (comitia tributa), which were made up of all the citizens of Rome. In thecomitia
centuriata the Romans were divided according to age, wealth and residence. The citizens in
each tribe were divided into five classes based on property and then each group was subdivided
into two centuries by age. All in all, there were 373 centuries. Like the assembly of tribes, each
century had one vote. The Comitia Centuriata elected thepraetors (judicial magistrates),
the censors, and the consuls.
The comitia tributa comprised thirty-five tribes from Rome and the country. Each tribe had a
single vote. The Comitia Tributa elected the Quaestors (financial magistrates) and the
patrician Curule Aedile.
Over time, Roman law evolved considerably, as well as social views, emancipating (to increasing
degrees) family members. Justice greatly increased, as well. The Romans became more efficient
at considering laws and punishments.
Life in the ancient Roman cities revolved around the Forum, the central business district, where
most of the Romans would go for marketing, shopping, trading, banking, and for participating in
festivities and ceremonies. The Forum was also a place where orators would express
themselves to mould public opinion, and elicit support for any particular issue of interest to
them or others. Before sunrise, children would go to schools or tutoring them at home would
commence. Elders would dress, take a breakfast by 11 o'clock, have a nap and in the afternoon
or evening would generally go to the Forum. Going to a public bath at least once daily was a
habit with most Roman citizens. There were separate baths for men and women. The main
difference was that the women's baths were smaller than the men's, and did not have
a frigidarium (cold room) or a palaestra(exercise area).[citation needed]
Different types of outdoor and indoor entertainment, free of cost, were available in ancient
Rome. Depending on the nature of the events, they were scheduled during daytime,
afternoons, evenings, or late nights. Huge crowds gathered at the Colosseum to watch events
like gladiators, combats between men, or fights between men and wild animals. The Circus
Maximus was used for chariot racing.
Life in the countryside was slow but lively, with numerous local festivals and social events.
Farms were run by the farm managers, but estate owners would sometimes take a retreat to
the countryside for rest, enjoying the splendor of nature and the sunshine, including activities
like fishing, hunting, and riding. On the other hand, slave labor slogged on continuously, for
long hours and all seven days, and ensuring comforts and creating wealth for their masters. The
average farm owners were better off, spending evenings in economic and social interactions at
the village markets. The day ended with a meal, generally left over from the noontime
preparations.
Food
Main articles: Ancient Roman cuisine and Grain supply to the city of Rome
Since the beginning of the Republic until 200 BC, ancient Romans had very simple food habits.
Simple food was generally consumed at around 11 oclock, and consisted of bread, salad, olives,
cheese, fruits, nuts, and cold meat left over from the dinner the night before. Breakfast was
called ientaculum, lunch was prandium, and dinner was calledcena. Appetizers were
called gustatio, and dessert was called secunda mensa (or second table). Usually, a nap or rest
followed this.
The family ate together, sitting on stools around a table. Later on, a separate dining room with
dining couches was designed, called a triclinium. Fingers were used to take foods which were
prepared beforehand and brought to the diners. Spoons were used for soups.
Wine in Rome did not become common or mass-produced until around 250 B.C. It was more
commonly produced around the time of Cato the Elder who mentions in his book De Agri
Cultura that the vineyard was the most important aspect of a good farm. [1] Wine was
considered a staple drink, consumed at all meals and occasions by all classes and was quite
cheap; however, it was always mixed with water.[citation needed] This was the case even during
explicit evening drinking events (comissatio) where an important part of the festivity was
choosing an arbiter bibendi (Judge of Drinking) who was, among other things, responsible for
deciding the ratio of wine to water in the drinking wine. Wine to water ratios of 1:2, 1:3, or 1:4
were commonly used. Many types of drinks involving grapes and honey were consumed as
well. Mulsum was honeyed wine, mustum was grape juice, mulsa was honeyed water. The per-
person-consumption of wine per day in the city of Rome has been estimated at 0.8 to 1.1
gallons for males, and about 0.5 gallons for females. Even the notoriously strict Cato the
Elder recommended distributing a daily ration of low quality wine of more than 0.5 gallons
among the slaves forced to work on farms.[citation needed]
Drinking non-watered wine on an empty stomach was regarded as boorish and a sure sign
of alcoholism whose debilitating physical and psychological effects were already recognized in
ancient Rome. An accurate accusation of being an alcoholicin the gossip-crazy society of the
city bound to come to light and easily verifiedwas a favorite and damaging way to discredit
political rivals employed by some of Rome's greatest orators like Cicero and Julius Caesar.
Prominent Roman alcoholics include Mark Antony, Cicero's own son Marcus (Cicero Minor) and
the emperor Tiberius Claudius Nero whose soldiers gave him the unflattering nickname Biberius
Caldius Mero (lit. boozer of pure wine, Sueton Tib. 42,1). Cato the Younger was also known as a
heavy drinker, frequently found stumbling home disoriented and the worse for wear in the
early hours of morning by fellow citizens.
During the Imperial period, staple food of the lower class Romans (plebeians) was
vegetable porridge and bread, and occasionally fish, meat, olives and fruits. Sometimes,
subsidized or free foods were distributed in cities. The patrician's aristocracy had elaborate
dinners, with parties and wines and a variety of comestibles. Sometimes, dancing girls would
entertain the diners. Women and children ate separately, but in the later Empire period, with
permissiveness creeping in, even decent women would attend such dinner parties.
Education
Main article: Roman school
Schooling in a more formal sense was begun around 200 BC. Education began at the age of
around six, and in the next six to seven years, boys and girls were expected to learn the basics
of reading, writing and counting. By the age of twelve, they would be
learning Latin, Greek, grammar and literature, followed by training for public
speaking. Oratorywas an art to be practiced and learnt and good orators commanded respect;
to become an effective orator was one of the objectives of education and learning. Poor
children could not afford education. In some cases, services of gifted slaves were utilized for
imparting education. School was mostly for boys, however some wealthy girls were tutored at
home, but could still go to school sometimes.
Language
Main articles: Latin and Languages of the Roman Empire
Fragmentary military diploma from Carnuntum; Latin was the language of the military
throughout the Empire
The native language of the Romans was Latin, an Italic language in the Indo-European family.
Several forms of Latin existed, and the language evolved considerably over time, eventually
becoming the Romance languages spoken today.
Initially a highly inflectional and synthetic language, older forms of Latin rely little on word
order, conveying meaning through a system of affixes attached to word stems. Like other Indo-
European languages, Latin gradually became much more analytic over time and acquired
conventionalized word orders as it lost more and more of its case system and associated
inflections. Its alphabet, the Latin alphabet, is based on the Old Italic alphabet, which is in turn
derived from the Greek alphabet. The Latin alphabet is still used today to write most European
and many other languages.
Most of the surviving Latin literature consists almost entirely of Classical Latin. In the eastern
half of the Roman Empire, which became the Byzantine Empire; Greek was the main lingua
franca as it had been since the time of Alexander the Great, while Latin was mostly used by the
Roman administration and its soldiers. Eventually Greek would supplant Latin as both the
official written and spoken language of the Eastern Roman Empire, while the various dialects of
Vulgar Latin used in the Western Roman Empire evolved into the modern Romance
languages still used today.
The expansion of the Roman Empire spread Latin throughout Europe, and over time Vulgar
Latin evolved and dialectized in different locations, gradually shifting into a number of
distinct Romance languages beginning in around the 9th century. Many of these languages,
including French, Italian,Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish, flourished, the differences
between them growing greater over time.
Although English is Germanic rather than Romanic in originBritannia was a Roman province,
but the Roman presence in Britain had effectively disappeared by the time of theAnglo-
Saxon invasionsEnglish today borrows heavily from Latin and Latin-derived words. Old
English borrowings were relatively sparse and drew mainly from ecclesiastical usage after the
Christianization of England. When William the Conqueror invaded England from Normandy in
1066, he brought with him a considerable number of retainers who spoke Anglo-Norman
French, a Romance language derived from Latin. Anglo-Norman French remained the language
of the English upper classes for centuries, and the number of Latinate words in English
increased immensely through borrowing during this Middle English period. More recently,
during the Modern English period, the revival of interest in classical culture during
the Renaissance led to a great deal of conscious adaptation of words from Classical Latin
authors into English.
Although Latin is an extinct language with very few contemporary fluent speakers, it remains in
use in many ways. In particular, Latin has survived through Ecclesiastical Latin, the traditional
language of the Roman Catholic Church and one of the official languages of the Vatican City.
Although distinct from both Classical and Vulgar Latin in a number of ways, Ecclesiastical Latin
was more stable than typical Medieval Latin. More Classical sensibilities eventually re-emerged
in the Renaissance with Humanist Latin. Due to both the prevalence of Christianity and the
enduring influence of the Roman civilization, Latin became western Europe's lingua franca, a
language used to cross international borders, such as for academic and diplomatic usage. A
deep knowledge of classical Latin was a standard part of the educational curriculum in many
western countries until well into the 20th century, and is still taught in many schools today.
Although it was eventually supplanted in this respect by French in the 19th century and English
in the 20th, Latin continues to see heavy use in religious, legal, and scientific terminology, and
in academia in general.
Architecture
Main article: Roman architecture
Sacrifice
In Latin, the word sacrificium means the performance of an act that renders something sacer,
sacred. Sacrifice reinforced the powers and attributes of divine beings, and inclined them to
render benefits in return (the principle of do ut des).
Offerings to household deities were part of daily life. Lares might be offered spelt wheat and
grain-garlands, grapes and first fruits in due season, honey cakes and honeycombs, wine and
incense,[40] food that fell to the floor during any family meal,[41] or at their Compitalia festival,
honey-cakes and a pig on behalf of the community.[42] Their supposed underworld relatives, the
malicious and vagrant Lemures, might be placated with midnight offerings of black beans and
spring water.[43]
Animal sacrifice
The most potent offering was animal sacrifice, typically of domesticated animals such as cattle,
sheep and pigs. Each was the best specimen of its kind, cleansed, clad in sacrificial regalia and
garlanded; the horns of oxen might be gilded. Sacrifice sought the harmonisation of the earthly
and divine, so the victim must seem willing to offer its own life on behalf of the community; it
must remain calm and be quickly and cleanly dispatched.[44]
Sacrifice to deities of the heavens (di superi, "gods above") was performed in daylight, and
under the public gaze. Deities of the upper heavens required white, infertile victims of their
own sex: Juno a white heifer (possibly a white cow); Jupiter a white, castrated ox (bos mas) for
the annual oath-taking by the consuls. Di superi with strong connections to the earth, such as
Mars, Janus, Neptune and various genii including the Emperor's were offered fertile victims.
After the sacrifice, a banquet was held; in state cults, the images of honoured deities took pride
of place on banqueting couches and by means of the sacrificial fire consumed their proper
portion (exta, the innards). Rome's officials and priests reclined in order of precedence
alongside and ate the meat; lesser citizens may have had to provide their own.[45]
Literature
Roman literature is written in the Latin language. The Latins were a people who had settled in
central Italy some centuries before Rome was founded; Rome was originally one of their towns,
and although the Romans came to be of somewhat mixed Italian stock (Latin, Sabine, Etruscan),
they spoke the Latin dialect.
Writing came to the Latins (as for other Italians) via the Greeks, and early Latin writers modeled
themselves on Greek precursors (when they were not actually translating Greek works into
Latin). However, as the Republic neared its end, and the Empire lived through its first century, a
group of Roman writers turned Latin into a great literary language in its own right, which later
ages admired enormously, and sought to emulate.
One of the extraordinary features of much Latin writing is that, to a degree probably without
precedent in any other literature, much of it was produced by busy politicians. Some of these
reached the highest eminence in their own turbulent lifetimes: Cicero, Caesar, Seneca (all these
died violent political deaths). Other writers did not make quite the same mark, but still had
successful careers in public service: Sallust, Varro, Tacitus and Pliny the younger, all successful
senators; and Suetonius and the Pliny the elder, both senior civil servants. They found time in
their busy lives to produce a great volume of writing - commentaries on philosophy and politics,
histories, biographies, satires, speeches, letters, drama, and works on science and nature.
Throughout all this literature there permeates a realism and reflectiveness which comes from
the practical lives these men led.
Other Latin writers of the period lived more conventional literary lives: the poets Virgil,
Catallus, Horace, Ovid, Martial and Juvenal; the historian Livy. In fact these too were all near
the seat of power, but as writers, not as politicians.
Later writes continued the tradition of combining politics with writing - most notably an
emperor, Marcus Aurelius, who jotted down his thoughts on philosophy. Right at the end of the
Roman period, Ausonius the poet, Symmachus the man of letters and Boethius, the
philosopher, all held high office while producing literature which is still read today.
Meanwhile, in a completely different social setting, an entirely different genre was being
produced. This was the writings of early Christian thinkers. Most of these spoke and wrote
Greek, but from the third century onward some major Christian Latin writers appeared. Their
works, of encouragement and exhortation, theology and pastoral concern, are still regarded as
classics of Christian literature.
The elegant, "upper class" literature of Rome and the more urgent literature of the Christian
Church come together in the works of St Augustine of Hippo. He was a man right at the top of
Roman society, and a deeply committed Christian. He wrote works reflecting on his life and
times, and in doing so greatly influenced western thinking for centuries to come.
However, it was in law and politics that Roman influence can be felt most strongly today. Much
European law is still derived from Roman law. The ideas of equity (true justice), equality before
the law, citizens' rights and elected officials, whilst originating with the Greeks, were all taken
further by the Romans and have came down to us in a basically Roman form.
We will deal further with the impact of Rome when we look at the roots of Western civilization.
Early History
There is archaeological evidence of human occupation of the Rome area from at least
5,000 years, but the dense layer of much younger debris obscures Palaeolithic and Neolithic
sites.The evidence suggesting the city's ancient foundation is also obscured by the legend of
Rome's beginning involving Romulus and Remus.
The traditional date for the founding of Rome is 21 April 753 BC, following Marcus Terentius
Varro, and the city and surrounding region of Latium has continued to be inhabited with little
interruption since around that time. Excavations made in 2014 have revealed a wall built long
before the city's official founding year. Archaeologists uncovered a stone wall and pieces of
pottery dating to the 9th century and the beginning of the 8th century, and there is evidence of
people arriving on the Palatine hill as early as the 10th century BC.
Citys Formation
Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill and surrounding hills approximately
30 km (19 mi) from the Tyrrhenian Sea on the south side of the Tiber. The Quirinal Hill was
probably an outpost for the Sabines, another Italic-speaking people. At this location, the Tiber
forms a Z-shaped 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.
Archaeological finds have confirmed that there were two fortified settlements in the 8th
century BC, in the area of the future Rome: Rumi on the Palatine Hill, and Titientes on the
Quirinal Hill, backed by the Luceres living in the nearby woods.[14] These were simply three of
numerous Italic-speaking communities that existed in Latium, a plain on the Italianpeninsula, by
the 1st millennium BC. The origins of the Italic peoples lie in prehistory and are therefore not
precisely known, but their Indo-European languages migrated from the east in the second half
of the 2nd millennium BC.
According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, many Roman historians (including Porcius Cato and
Gaius Sempronius) regarded the origins of the Romans (descendants of theAborigines) as Greek
despite the fact that their knowledge was derived from Greek legendary accounts. The Sabines,
specifically, were first mentioned in Dionysius's account for having captured the city of Lista by
surprise, which was regarded as the mother-city of the Aborigines.
Roman Republic
After 500 BC, Rome joined with the Latin cities in defence 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. After a lengthy series of struggles, this
supremacy became fixed in 393, when the Romans finally subdued the Volsci and Aequi. In
394 BC, they also conquered the menacing Etruscan neighbour of Veii. The Etruscan power was
now limited to Etruria itself, and Rome was the dominant city in Latium.
Also a formal treaty with the city of Carthage is reported to have been made in the end of the
6th century BC, which defined the spheres of influence of each city and regulated the trade
between them.
At the same time, Heraclides states that 4th-century Rome is a Greek city.
Roman Empire
Early Empire
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 in the
world. Estimates of its peak population range from 450,000 to over 3.5 million people with
estimates of 1 to 2 million being most popular with historians.[38] This grandeur increased
underAugustus, 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 (Urbem latericium invenit, marmoream reliquit). Augustus's
successors sought to emulate his success in part by adding their own contributions to the city.
In AD 64, during the reign of Nero, the Great Fire of Rome left much of the city destroyed, but
in many ways it was used as an excuse for new development.
Third Century Crisis
Starting in the early 3rd century, matters changed. The "Crisis of the third century" defines the
disasters and political troubles for the Empire, which nearly collapsed. The new feeling of
danger and the menace of barbarian invasions was clearly shown by the decision of
Emperor Aurelian, who at year 273 finished encircling the capital itself with a
massive wall which had a perimeter that measured close to 20 km (12 mi). 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, Rome was deprived of its traditional role of
administrative capital of the Empire. Later, western emperors ruled from Milan orRavenna, or
cities in Gaul. In 330, Constantine I established a second capital atConstantinople. At this time,
part of the Roman aristocratic class moved to this new centre, followed by many of the artists
and craftsmen who were living in the city.
Christianization
Christianity reached Rome during the 1st century AD. For the first two centuries of the Christian
era, Imperial authorities largely viewed Christianity simply as a Jewish sect rather than a distinct
religion. No emperor issued general laws against the faith or its Church, and persecutions, such
as they were, were carried out under the authority of local government officials.[43] A surviving
letter from Pliny the Younger, governor of Bythinia, to the emperor Trajan describes his
persecution and executions of Christians; Trajan notably responded that Pliny should not seek
out Christians nor heed anonymous denunciations, but only punish open Christians who
refused to recant
Germanic Invasion and the collapse of the Western Empire
Still Rome remained one of the strongholds of Paganism, led by the aristocrats and senators.
However, the new walls did not stop the city being sacked first by Alaric on 24 August, 410,
by Geiseric in 455 and even by general Ricimer's unpaid Roman troops (largely composed of
barbarians) on 11 July, 472.[48][49] This was the first time in almost 800 years that Rome had
fallen to an enemy. The previous sack of Rome had been accomplished by the Gauls under their
leader Brennus in 387 BC. The sacking of 410 is seen as a major landmark in thedecline and fall
of the Western Roman Empire. St. Jerome, living in Bethlehem at the time, wrote that "The City
which had taken the whole world was itself taken."[50] These sackings of the city astonished all
the Roman world.
MEDIVIAL ROME
Break from Byzantium and the formation of the Papal State
In 727, Pope Gregory II refused to accept the decrees of Emperor Leo III, which promoted the
Emperor's iconoclasm.[58] Leo reacted first by trying in vain to abduct the Pontiff, and then by
sending a force of Ravennate troops under the command of theExarch Paulus, but they were
pushed back by the Lombards of Tuscia and Benevento. Roman general Eutychius sent west by
the Emperor successfully captured Rome and restored it as a part of the empire in 728.
On 1 November, 731, a council was called in St. Peter's by Gregory III to excommunicate the
iconoclasts. The Emperor responded by confiscating large Papal estates
in Sicily and Calabria and transferring areas previously ecclesiastically under the Pope to
the Patriarch of Constantinople. Despite the tensions Gregory III never discontinued his support
to the imperial efforts against external threats.
Roman Commune
From 1048 to 1257, the papacy experienced increasing conflict with the leaders and churches of
the Holy Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire. The latter culminated in the East-West
Schism, dividing the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. From 1257 to 1377, the
pope, though the bishop of Rome, resided in Viterbo, Orvieto, and Perugia, and then Avignon.
The return of the popes to Rome after the Avignon Papacy was followed by the Western
Schism: the division of the western church between two, and for a time three, competing papal
claimants.