Title: Rome - New World Encyclopedia
Headings: Rome
Rome
Geography
History
Foundation
Fall and Middle Ages
Renaissance
Reunification
Twentieth century
Government
Economy
Demographics
Places of interest
Looking to the future
Notes
References
Credits

Content: The Appian Way, constructed in the fourth century B.C.E.
Forum Romanum. Fifteenth-century miniature depicting the Sack of Rome of 410. Foundation
According to Roman tradition, the city was founded by the twins Romulus and Remus on April 21, 753 B.C.E. Archaeological evidence supports the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built in the area of what became the Roman Forum, possibly in the middle of the eighth century B.C.E. 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 B.C.E., governed by the Senate), and finally the Roman Empire (from 27 B.C.E., ruled by an Emperor). Military conquest, commercial predominance, as well as selective assimilation of neighboring civilizations, most notably the Etruscans and Greeks, were part of the city's early growth. Rome had been undefeated in war until 386 B.C.E., when it was briefly occupied by the Gauls. Roman dominance expanded over the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, reaching a population of one million people, and for almost 1,000 years, Rome was the most politically important, richest and largest city in the Western world, until it was surpassed by the Eastern capital Constantinople . Fall and Middle Ages
With the reign of Constantine I (306-337), the Bishop of Rome gained political as well as religious importance, eventually becoming known as the Pope and establishing Rome as the center of the Catholic Church. After the sack of Rome in 410 C.E. by Alaric I and the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 C.E., Rome alternated between Byzantine and plundering by Germanic barbarians. 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, when the Lombards finally abolished the Exarchate of Ravenna.