Rome's early history is shrouded in legend. According to Roman tradition, the city was founded by the twins
Romulus and Remus on 21 April 753 BC. Archaeological evidence supports the view that Rome grew from
pastoral settlements on the
Palatine Hill built in the area of the future
Roman Forum. While some archaeologists argue that Rome was indeed founded in the middle of the 8th century BC, the date is subject to controversy. The original settlement developed into the capital of the
Roman Kingdom (ruled by a succession of seven kings, according to tradition), and then the
Roman Republic (from 510 BC, governed by the
Senate), and finally the
Roman Empire (from 27 BC, ruled by an
Emperor). This success depended on military conquest, commercial predominance, as well as selective assimilation of neighbouring civilisations, most notably the
Etruscans and
Greeks. From its foundation Rome, although losing occasional battles, had been undefeated in war until 386 BC, when it was briefly occupied by the
Gauls.According to the legend, the Gauls offered to deliver Rome back to its people for a thousand pounds of gold, but the Romans refused, preferring to take back their city by force of arms rather than ever admitting defeat, after which the Romans recovered the city in the same year.
Roman dominance expanded over most of
Europe and the shores of the
Mediterranean Sea, while its population surpassed one million inhabitants. For almost a thousand years, Rome was the most politically important, richest, and largest city in the
Western world, and remained so after the Empire started to
decline and was split, even as it lost its capital status to
Milan and then to
Ravenna, and was surpassed in prestige by the
Eastern capital
Constantinople.
Fall of the Empire and Middle Ages
Fifteenth-century miniature depicting the
Sack of Rome of 410
With the reign of
Constantine I, the
Bishop of Rome gained political as well as religious importance, eventually becoming known as the
Pope and establishing Rome as the centre of the
Catholic Church. After the
Sack of Rome in 410 AD by
Alaric I and the
fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD, Rome alternated between
Byzantine and
Germanic control. Its population declined to a mere 20,000 during the
Early Middle Ages, reducing the sprawling city to groups of inhabited buildings interspersed among large areas of ruins and vegetation. Rome remained nominally part of the
Byzantine Empire until 751 AD, when the
Lombards finally abolished the
Exarchate of Ravenna. In 756,
Pepin the Short gave the Pope temporal jurisdiction over Rome and surrounding areas, thus creating the
Papal States. In 846, Muslim Arabs
invaded Rome and looted
St. Peter's Basilica.
Rome remained the capital of the
Papal States until its annexation by the
Kingdom of Italy in 1870; the city became a major pilgrimage site during the
Middle Ages and the focus of struggles between the
Papacy and the
Holy Roman Empire starting with
Charlemagne, who was crowned its first emperor in Rome in 800 by
Pope Leo III. Apart from brief periods as an independent city during the
Middle Ages, Rome kept its status as Papal capital and "holy city" for centuries, even when the Papacy briefly relocated to
Avignon (1309–1377).
20th century
After a victorious
World War I, Rome witnessed the rise to power of
Italian Fascism guided by
Benito Mussolini, who
marched on the city in 1922, eventually declaring a new
Empire and allying Italy with
Nazi Germany. This was a period of rapid growth in population, from 212,000 people at the time of unification to more than 1,000,000, but this trend was halted by
World War II, during which Rome was damaged by both
Allied forces bombing and Nazi occupation. After the execution of
Mussolini and the end of the war, a
1946 referendum abolished the monarchy in favour of the
Italian Republic.
Rome grew momentously after the war, as one of the driving forces behind the "Italian economic miracle" of post-war
reconstruction and modernisation. It became a fashionable city in the 1950s and early 1960s, the years of
la dolce vita ("the sweet life"), and a new rising trend in population continued till the mid-1980s, when the commune had more than 2,800,000 residents; after that, population started to slowly decline as more residents moved to nearby suburbs.
