Rome

This article is about the capital city of Italy. For the ancient empire ruled by Rome, see Roman Empire. For other uses, see Rome (disambiguation).

Rome (Italian and Latin: Roma, pronounced [ˈroːma] ^ⓘ) is the capital city of Italy. It is also the capital of the Lazio region, the centre of the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, and a special comune (municipality) named Comune di Roma Capitale. With 2,860,009 residents in 1,285 km² (496.1 sq mi),^[2] Rome is the country's most populated comune and the third most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. The Metropolitan City of Rome, with a population of 4,355,725 residents, is the most populous metropolitan city in Italy.^[3] Its metropolitan area is the third-most populous within Italy.^[5] Rome is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio (Latium), along the shores of the Tiber Valley. Vatican City (the smallest country in the world and headquarters of the worldwide Catholic Church under the governance of the Holy See)^[6] is an independent country inside the city boundaries of Rome, the only existing example of a country within a city. Rome is often referred to as the City of Seven Hills due to its geographic location, and also as the "Eternal City". Rome is generally considered to be the cradle of Western civilization and Western Christian culture, and the centre of the Catholic Church.^[7][8][9]

Rome Roma (Italian)
Capital city and comune
Roma Capitale
Rome skyline from Castel Sant'Angelo Trevi Fountain Colosseum Barcaccia, Spanish Steps and Trinità dei Monti Saint Peter's Basilica Castel Sant'Angelo Pantheon and Piazza della Rotonda Victor Emmanuel II Monument
Flag Coat of arms
Etymology: various theories (See Etymology).
Nickname(s):  Urbs Aeterna (Latin) The Eternal City Caput Mundi (Latin) The Capital of the world Throne of St. Peter
The territory of the comune (Roma Capitale, in red) inside the Metropolitan City of Rome (Città Metropolitana di Roma, in yellow). The white spot in the centre is Vatican City.
Rome Location within Italy Show map of Italy Rome Location within Europe Show map of Europe
Coordinates: 41°53′36″N 12°28′58″E
Country	Italy[lower-alpha 1]
Region	Lazio
Metropolitan city	Rome Capital
Founded	21 April 753 BC
Founded by	King Romulus (legendary)[1]
Government
• Type	Strong Mayor–Council
• Mayor	Roberto Gualtieri (PD)
• Legislature	Capitoline Assembly
Area
• Total	1,285 km2 (496.3 sq mi)
Elevation	21 m (69 ft)
Population  (31 December 2019)
• Rank	8th in Europe 1st in Italy
• Density	2,236/km2 (5,790/sq mi)
• Comune	2,860,009[2]
• Metropolitan City	4,342,212[3]
Demonym(s)	Italian: romano(i) (masculine), romana(e) (feminine) English: Roman(s)
GDP [4]
• Metro	€153.507 billion (2020)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
CAP code(s)	00100; 00118 to 00199
Area code	06
Website	comune.roma.it
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name	Historic Centre of Rome, the Properties of the Holy See in that City Enjoying Extraterritorial Rights and San Paolo Fuori le Mura
Reference	91
Inscription	1980 (4th Session)
Area	1,431 ha (3,540 acres)

Rome's history spans 28 centuries. While Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it a major human settlement for over three millennia and one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in Europe.^[10] The city's early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans, and Sabines. Eventually, the city successively became the capital of the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, and is regarded by many as the first-ever Imperial city and metropolis.^[11] It was first called The Eternal City (Latin: Urbs Aeterna; Italian: La Città Eterna) by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy.^[12][13] Rome is also called Caput Mundi (Capital of the World).

After the fall of the Empire in the west, which marked the beginning of the Middle Ages, Rome slowly fell under the political control of the Papacy, and in the 8th century, it became the capital of the Papal States, which lasted until 1870. Beginning with the Renaissance, almost all popes since Nicholas V (1447–1455) pursued a coherent architectural and urban programme over four hundred years, aimed at making the city the artistic and cultural centre of the world.^[14] In this way, Rome first became one of the major centres of the Renaissance^[15] and then became the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors, and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, creating masterpieces throughout the city. In 1871, Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, which, in 1946, became the Italian Republic.

In 2019, Rome was the 14th most visited city in the world, with 8.6 million tourists, the third most visited city in the European Union, and the most popular tourist destination in Italy.^[16] Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.^[17] The host city for the 1960 Summer Olympics, Rome is also the seat of several specialised agencies of the United Nations, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The city also hosts the Secretariat of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean^[18] (UfM) as well as the headquarters of many multinational companies, such as Eni, Enel, TIM, Leonardo, and banks such as BNL. Numerous companies are based within Rome's EUR business district, such as the luxury fashion house Fendi located in the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana. The presence of renowned international brands in the city has made Rome an important centre of fashion and design, and the Cinecittà Studios have been the set of many Academy Award–winning movies.^[19]

Etymology

According to the Ancient Romans' founding myth,^[20] the name Roma came from the city's founder and first king, Romulus.^[1]

However, it is possible that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself.^[21] As early as the 4th century, there have been alternative theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. Several hypotheses have been advanced focusing on its linguistic roots which however remain uncertain:^[22]

• From Rumon or Rumen, archaic name of the Tiber, which in turn is supposedly related to the Greek verb ῥέω (rhéō) 'to flow, stream' and the Latin verb ruō 'to hurry, rush';^{[lower-alpha 2]}
• From the Etruscan word 𐌓𐌖𐌌𐌀 (ruma), whose root is *rum- "teat", with possible reference either to the totem wolf that adopted and suckled the cognately named twins Romulus and Remus, or to the shape of the Palatine and Aventine Hills;
• From the Greek word ῥώμη (rhṓmē), which means strength.^{[lower-alpha 3]}

Other names and symbols

Rome has also been called in ancient times simply "Urbs" (central city),^[23] from urbs roma, or identified with its ancient Roman initialism of SPQR, the symbol of Rome's constituted republican government. Furthermore, Rome has been called Urbs Aeterna (The Eternal City), Caput Mundi (The Capital of the world), Throne of St. Peter and Roma Capitale.

Main article: History of Rome

For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Rome.

Earliest history

Main article: Founding of Rome

Historical States

• Roman Kingdom 753–509 BC
• Roman Republic 509–27 BC
• Roman Empire 27 BC– 395 AD
• Western Roman Empire 286–476
• Kingdom of Italy 476–493
• Ostrogothic Kingdom 493–536
•  Eastern Roman Empire 536–546
• Ostrogothic Kingdom 546–547
•  Eastern Roman Empire 547–549
• Ostrogothic Kingdom 549–552
•  Eastern Roman Empire 552–751
• Kingdom of the Lombards 751–756
• Papal States 756–1798
• Roman Republic 1798–1799
• Papal States 1799–1809
•  First French Empire 1809–1814
•  Papal States 1814–1849
• Roman Republic 1849
•  Papal States 1849–1870
•  Kingdom of Italy 1870–1943
•  Italian Social Republic 1943–1944
•  Kingdom of Italy 1944–1946
•  Italian Republic 1946–present

Model of archaic Rome. The image faces northeast, with the Capitoline hill on left and the Palatine on right. The city would not have looked like this prior to the seventh century BC.

While there have been discoveries of archaeological evidence of human occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago, the dense layer of much younger debris obscures Palaeolithic and Neolithic sites.^[10] Evidence of stone tools, pottery, and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence. Several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age, each hill between the sea and the Capitoline Hill was topped by a village (on the Capitoline, a village is attested since the end of the 14th century BC).^[24] However, none of them yet had an urban quality.^[24] Nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city developed gradually through the aggregation ("synoecism") of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine.^[24] This aggregation was facilitated by the increase of agricultural productivity above the subsistence level, which also allowed the establishment of secondary and tertiary activities. These, in turn, boosted the development of trade with the Greek colonies of southern Italy (mainly Ischia and Cumae).^[24] These developments, which according to archaeological evidence took place during the mid-eighth century BC, can be considered as the "birth" of the city.^[24] Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome was founded deliberately in the middle of the eighth century BC, as the legend of Romulus suggests, remains a fringe hypothesis.^[25]

Legend of the founding of Rome

Main articles: Romulus and Remus and Romulus

Capitoline Wolf, a sculpture of the mythical she-wolf suckling the infant twins Romulus and Remus

Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth. The most familiar of these myths, and perhaps the most famous of all Roman myths, is the story of Romulus and Remus, the twins who were suckled by a she-wolf.^[20] They decided to build a city, but after an argument, Romulus killed his brother and the city took his name. According to the Roman annalists, this happened on 21 April 753 BC.^[26] This legend had to be reconciled with a dual tradition, set earlier in time, that had the Trojan refugee Aeneas escape to Italy and found the line of Romans through his son Iulus, the namesake of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.^[27] This was accomplished by the Roman poet Virgil in the first century BC. In addition, Strabo mentions an older story, that the city was an Arcadian colony founded by Evander. Strabo also writes that Lucius Coelius Antipater believed that Rome was founded by Greeks.^[28][29]

Monarchy and republic

Main articles: Ancient Rome, Roman Kingdom, and Roman Republic

The Temple of Portunus, god of grain storage, keys, livestock and ports,^[30] built in 120–80 BC

The Roman Forum contains the ruins of the buildings that represented the political, legal, religious and economic centre of ancient Rome, constituting the "nerve centre" of all Roman civilisation.^[31]

After the foundation by Romulus according to a legend,^[26] Rome was ruled for a period of 244 years by a monarchical system, initially with sovereigns of Latin and Sabine origin, later by Etruscan kings. The tradition handed down seven kings: Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Marcius, Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius and Lucius Tarquinius Superbus.