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Rome: Cities
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At the time of Emperor Augustus, Rome was the largest city in the world, and probably the largest ever built until the nineteenth century. Estimates of its peak population range from 450,000 to over 3.5 million people with 1 to 2 million being most popular with historians. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the city's population may have been less than 50,000, and continued to stagnate (or shrink) until the Renaissance. When the Kingdom of Italy annexed Rome in 1870, it had a population of about 200,000, which rapidly increased to 600,000 by the end of the 19th century. The fascist regime of Mussolini tried to block an excessive demographic rise of the city, but failed to prevent it from reaching one million people by 1931.
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During the splendid reign of Tarquinius Superbus, Rome was the mistress of Latium as far as Circeii and Signia. But, returning victorious from Ardea, the king found the gates of the city closed against him. Rome took to itself a republican form of government, with two consuls, who held office for only one year; only in times of difficulty was a dictator elected, to wield unlimited power. In the expulsion of Tarquinius Superbus some historians have seen a revolt of the Latin element against Etruscan domination. Besides wars and treaties with the Latins and other peoples, the principal events, down to the burning of Rome by the Gauls, were the institution of the tribunes of the people (tribuni plebis), the establishment of the laws of the Twelve Tables, and the destruction of Veii. In 390 the Romans were defeated by the Gauls near the River Allia; a few days later the city was taken and set on fire, and after the Gauls had departed it was rebuilt without plan or rule.
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By the 1950's Rome completes a gradual shift from the railroad to the automobile. Although the Martha Berry Highway (U.S. 27) was built through downtown the high traffic Highway 41 between Atlanta and Chattanooga wove its way further east. Interstate 75, which roughly followed the same route as U.S. 41 ... bypassed the city. Time and again talk arises of building a high speed limited access road to Rome, but as of 1997 no project had been started.
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The city of Rome surrounds the Vatican City, the enclave of the Holy See, which is a separate sovereign state. It hosts Saint Peter's Square with the Saint Peter's Basilica. The open space before the basilica was redesigned by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, from 1656 to 1667, under the direction of Pope Alexander VII, as a forecourt, designed "so that the greatest number of people could see the Pope give his blessing, either from the middle of the façade of the church or from a window in the Vatican Palace" (Norwich 1975 p 175). In Vatican City there are ... the Vatican Library, Vatican Museums with the Sistine Chapel, the Raphael Rooms and other important works of Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, Giotto, and Botticelli.
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Rome, the capital city of Italy, is bestowed with all possible features and episodes of evolution of mankind. It has been the cradle of a civilisation, the centre of the vast Roman and Holy Roman Empire and the seat of papacy. The abundance of Rome hotels has made travel easier. Such widespread is Rome�s collection of art and culture that historians and travel guides have suffered from dearth of words and phrases to describe this magnificent city. Situated on the banks of the Tiber, about 25 kilometers from its main outlet in the Tyrrhenian Sea, the landscape of Rome is guarded by seven hillocks and ... acquires the title of 'The City of Seven Hills' with luxurious Rome hotels around.
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For centuries, Rome has been called the Eternal City, a title earned through its importance as one of the great cities of Western civilization, as the capital of the Roman Empire, and as the world center of the Roman Catholic church. Since 1871 it has been the capital of united Italy.
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