Brief
History
Founded by the Latin
peoples around the eighth century BC. (tradition dates it to 753) near
the Isola Tiberina, perhaps on the Palatine Hill, it was at first a
monarchy until Tarquinius Superbus, the last king, was expelled and
it became a Republic (509 BC.). In the fourth and third centuries BC.
it went to war with its neighbours (Latins, Etruscans, Aequi, Volsci,
Sabini, Samnites, Umbrians, etc.) for supremacy over the area and the
whole of central-southern Italy, until in 264 BC. it gained control
of the peninsula. The Punic Wars (264-146) and the Macedonian Wars (215-168)
marked the first great Roman conquests and prepared Rome for rule over
the lands then known. After the battle of Actium (31 BC.) when Anthony
was defeated by Octavian, the latter took the title of Emperor, opening
the greatest period in Roman history, marked by conquest but also by
great urban development of the city. Rome began to decline in the 3rd
century AD. (under the Severi dynasty): the Western Roman Empire (divided
from the Eastern Empire) fell in 476 AD. to Odoacer, king of the Heruli.
After an initial period of decadence linked to the Greek-Gothic war
(535-553) and frequent battles with the Lombards, the city gradually
succeeded in reorganizing under papal guidance and, after the arrival
of the Franks and the creation of the Patrimony of St. Peter (the early
nucleus of the Papal States) the Popes succeeded in combining temporal
and spiritual power. Subsequently, Rome was always subject to the power
of the Papacy, alternating darker periods, such as the exile of the
Pontiff to Avignone (1305-1370) and the Western schism (1378-1414),
with others of great urban, artistic and cultural development, most
importantly the Renaissance, mainly associated with Pope Julius II.
After the Napoleonic period (1798-1799 and 1809-1815) the town was the
scene of Risorgimento turmoil, such as the proclamation of the Roman
Republic in 1848, upheld by Mazzini, and the attempt on it by Garibaldi,
thwarted at Mentana in 1867. Rome was finally united with the Kingdom
of Italy in 1870, the year which marked the end of the Papal States.
In 1929, under the Lateran Treaty the Vatican City State was created
within the city's perimeter, its sole sovereign the Pope.
Ancient Rome reached
its maximum urban expansion (perhaps a million inhabitants) in the 3rd
century AD., surrounded by the Aurelian walls which still define the
city's historical centre. After the fall of the Empire, Rome had a rapidly
declining population, reduced to a few tens of thousands of inhabitants.
In successive centuries development was marked by important construction
work, especially in the 16th and 17th centuries, still within its ancient
boundaries. Only when Rome became the capital of Italy (1871) did it
rapidly begin to grow, spreading beyond the central area at the start
of this century. Expansion was often haphazard and motivated by speculation,
leading to the construction of working class suburbs (the so-called
`borgate'), lacking in essential services, while administrative offices
and company headquarters were concentrated in the city centre. |