ancient cities

After surviving the crucible of the Punic Wars
fought against Carthage, Rome began to extend its
power outside Italy through a series of conquests
that brought enormous wealth to the Romans and
exposed them to Greek culture and civilization.
Both of these developments had important effects
on the physical city, as ever more impressive monuments
were erected at Rome and Roman art and
architecture were influenced by Greek models. The
political heart of Rome throughout its history was
the open space of the Roman Forum, which was
surrounded by many of the most venerable structures
in the city. During the late Roman Republic
(133–31 BC), the population of the city swelled to
unprecedented levels, approaching, if not surpassing,
one million inhabitants, a level that it would
sustain for several centuries. Even as Rome consolidated
its control over the Mediterranean, internal
tensions caused the breakdown of the Republic,
and a series of civil wars erupted between powerful
generals, such as Julius Caesar and Pompey, for
control of the state.
The ultimate winner of the civil wars was a
relative of Caesar’s who became known as
Augustus, the first emperor. He reorganized the
state and set the model for subsequent rulers during
the third phase of Roman history, the empire
(31 BC–AD 476). He also famously claimed that
he had “found a city made of bricks and left one
made of marble,” and there is considerable truth
to this boast; Augustus and his agents substantially
altered the city. They rebuilt and expanded the
infrastructure of Rome, cleaning out the drains
and adding several new aqueducts. They renovated
dozens of existing temples and erected high-profile
new ones, including one to the deified Julius
Caesar and another to Mars the Avenger, enclosed
within the massive new Forum of Augustus. This
complex, as well as other famous monuments such
as the Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace), exemplifies
Augustus’s clever manipulation of art and architecture
as forms of propaganda to glorify himself
and legitimize his reign.
Subsequent emperors continued to adorn the
city with impressive structures, among them the
Flavian Amphitheater (popularly known today as
the Colosseum) and the Pantheon, both of which
have been repeatedly imitated by later architects.
The high point of the Roman Empire came during
the second century AD, when the city presided
Rome, Italy
675
over an empire of 50 million inhabitants stretching
across three continents from Britain to
Mesopotamia. The urban populace were the recipients
of a wide array of benefactions, including a
monthly distribution of free grain (to adult male
citizens only), and they were also provided with an
assortment of public spectacles and entertainments
such as gladiator games, beast hunts, mythological
reenactments, theatrical shows and, most popular
of all, chariot races in the Circus Maximus, a
marble stadium that could accommodate a quarter
of a million spectators. In addition, Rome’s inhabitants
could stroll through and enjoy lavish public
baths and extensive public gardens.
Despite these amenities, there were many negative
aspects to life in ancient Rome. The Tiber
frequently flooded, and fires were a nightly menace,
culminating in the Great Fire of AD 64, which
burned for a week and leveled three quarters of the
city. There were frequent food shortages, and the
majority of Rome’s populace was crammed into
squalid high-rise apartment buildings, whose
shoddy construction caused them to topple and
collapse with alarming regularity. Much of the
city’s sewage and refuse was simply dumped in the
streets, and the poor sanitation resulted in high
levels of mortality from disease.
Rome and its distinctive structures served as a
model for all other cities throughout the Roman
empire, and provincial cities vied with one another
to imitate both its buildings and its urban rituals.
The city went into a sharp decline during the later
Roman Empire, when it lost its role as political
center. Constantinople became the new capital,
and the western emperors abandoned Rome to
take up residence in the more easily defended city
of Ravenna. In AD 410, Visigothic barbarians
under the leadership of Alaric sacked Rome, and
the final collapse of Roman power followed soon
afterward.
Medieval Rome
Successive waves of barbarian invaders continued
to menace the city, and the last official Roman
emperor was deposed in AD 476. During the
Middle Ages, the city was reduced to a shadow of
its former glory, with the population plummeting
to a low of perhaps just 10,000 to 20,000. With
the failure of the aqueduct system, this reduced