Legend says it was founded by a twin suckled by a she-wolf, who killed his brother in a quarrel over the walls (753 BC)
Romulus and Remus; the city is named for the survivor
Geography · Cities
Rome
traditionally founded 21 April 753 BC
Italy — on the Tiber, capital since 1871
Built on seven hills on the left bank of the Tiber, it grew from a cluster of villages into the capital of an empire that reached from Britain to Mesopotamia, and then into the seat of the papacy. It became the capital of a united Italy only in 1871, ten years after the kingdom was proclaimed, and it entirely surrounds the world's smallest sovereign state.
How to spot them
- ▸A city of seven hills on a yellow river, with a walled enclave of another country inside it
- ▸Quiz clue: 'the Eternal City', 'Caput Mundi', 'SPQR', 'the she-wolf and the twins'
- ▸Founded, by legend, by a twin who killed his brother over a boundary furrow
- ▸Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, the Forum
Key facts
It is built on seven hills: the Palatine, Capitoline, Aventine, Caelian, Esquiline, Quirinal and Viminal
The Palatine is where the legendary founding hut stood, and gives us the word 'palace'
The initials SPQR still appear on its manhole covers and municipal bins
Senatus Populusque Romanus — the Senate and People of Rome
It entirely surrounds the world's smallest sovereign state, created by the Lateran Treaty of 1929 (1929)
Vatican City, about 0.49 square kilometres
It became the capital of a newly united kingdom only in 1871, taking over from Florence (1871)
Papal rule ended when Italian troops breached the walls at Porta Pia in September 1870
Hadrian's domed temple to all the gods still has the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world (c. AD 126)
The Pantheon, with an oculus 8.9 m across open to the sky
Tradition says a coin thrown backwards into its great Baroque fountain guarantees a return visit (1762)
The Trevi Fountain, begun by Nicola Salvi and finished by Giuseppe Pannini
Quick-fire facts
- •Its river is the Tiber (Tevere); the ancient port was Ostia, at the river mouth
- •Nicknames: the Eternal City (Urbs Aeterna) and Caput Mundi, 'head of the world'
- •Italy's most populous city, with about 2.7 million in the commune and over 4 million in the metropolitan area
- •The Aurelian Walls, begun in AD 271, still ring much of the historic centre
- •The Pantheon has been a church, Santa Maria ad Martyres, since AD 609; Raphael is buried there
- •The Spanish Steps climb from Piazza di Spagna to the church of Trinita dei Monti; Keats died in the house beside them in 1821
- •The Historic Centre of Rome was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980
- •Cinecitta, Europe's largest film studio complex, opened in 1937; Roman Holiday and La Dolce Vita are the city's best-known films
- •The Mouth of Truth (Bocca della Verita) is a marble mask in the portico of Santa Maria in Cosmedin
Drill it — 8 cards
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Sources
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Historic Centre of Rome, the Properties of the Holy See in that City Enjoying Extraterritorial Rights and San Paolo Fuori le Mura
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Rome