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: 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. In 756, Pepin the Short (714-768) gave the pope temporal jurisdiction over Rome and surrounding areas, thus creating the Papal States . Rome remained the capital of the Papal States until its annexation into 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 (747-814), 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 of Papal capital and "holy city" for centuries, even when the Pope briefly relocated to Avignon (1309–1377). Renaissance
The latter half of the fifteenth century saw the seat of the Italian Renaissance move to Rome from Florence.