![]() Funded by wealthy patrons, figures such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Dante, Machiavelli, and Galileo, among others, revolutionized the fields of art, literature, politics, and science. The influx of wealth and increased trade contact with foreign lands, transformed Italy into Europe’s premier center of culture. Prosperity did not return to Italy again until the 14th Century, when city-states such as Florence, Milan, Pisa, Genoa, and Venice became centers of trade. This long period of quiet stagnation was known as the Dark Ages. For the next thousand years, Italy once again became a patchwork of city-states, with Rome, home to the Catholic Church, being the most powerful. ![]() The Roman Empire in the West completely collapsed by the end of the 5th AD century. The Eastern Empire invaded but failed to restore order and had to withdraw. In 410 AD, Rome itself was sacked by barbarian hordes. Rome, capital of the West, continued to decline. The East, based out of the newly-built capital of Constantinople, in what is now Turkey, thrived, eventually becoming the long-lasting Byzantine Empire. By the end of the Fourth Century AD, the Roman Empire split into two. In 380 AD, after three hundred years of persecution, Christianity became the one and only official religion. A combination of economic problems, barbarian invasions, domestic instability, and territorial rebellions, combined with a lack of strong leadership, resulted in the slow and gradual decline of Rome. This Pax Romana, a time of peace, ended in 180 AD with the death of Marcus Aurelius. For the next two hundred years, Rome thrived, ruling over a vast territory stretching from Britain and the Atlantic coast of Europe in the north and west to North Africa and the Middle East in the south and east. In 29 BC, after a long power struggle, Julius Caesar’s nephew, Octavius, seized power and declared himself Emperor Augustus. Rome was able to put down the rebellion, but at great cost, as the Republic dissolved into a series of military dictatorships that ended with the assassination of Julius Caesar. Spartacus, a slave, led the common people in a revolt against the rule of the aristocratic patricians. This format of government worked well at first, but as Rome expanded beyond a mere city-state to take over territory not just in Italy, but overseas as well, the system of government came under severe strain.īy the First Century BC, Rome was in crisis. Rome then came to be ruled by two elected officials (known as consuls), a Senate made up of wealthy aristocrats (known as patricians), and a lower assembly that represented the common people (plebeians) and had limited power. Rome went through seven kings until 509 BC when the last king was overthrown and the Roman Republic was formed. When Remus laughed at the notion, Romulus killed his brother and declared himself the first king of Rome. ![]() Romulus saw himself as a descendant of the defeated army of Troy, and wanted Rome to inherit the mantle of that ancient city, if not surpass it. The Capitoline she-wolf, symbol of Rome (wikimedia)Īccording to legend, Rome was founded on April 21, 753 BC by Romulus and Remus, twin brothers who claimed to be sons of the war god Mars and to have been raised as infants by a she-wolf. Little is known about the Etruscans except that they thrived for a time, creating a civilization that would pass down a fondness for bold architecture (stone arches, paved streets, aqueducts, sewers) to its successor, Rome. While the Etruscans, a group originally hailing from somewhere in western Turkey, settled in central Italy, establishing a number of city-states, including what is now modern-day Bologna. Gauls, ancestors of today’s modern French, roamed the mountainous north. ![]() Small Greek colonies dotted the southern coast and the island of Sicily. In this section, learn about the great and not so great moments in Italian history, from the grandeur of Rome to the Renaissance, the Risorgimento and the battlefields of World War II.īy 500 BC, a number of peoples of different ethnicity and origin shared Italy. So many pivotal moments in our collective past have taken place in Italy that it can be considered Europe’s historical keystone. In many ways, the history of Italy is the history of the modern world.
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