Respuesta :
The Roman civilization (Ancient Rome) arose from a small agricultural community founded in the Italian peninsula, city of Rome, in the tenth century BC (according to tradition in 753 BC) located on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea became one of the greatest empires of the ancient world.
Rome was a monarchy. Later (509 BC) was a Latin Republic, and in 27 a. C. became an empire. The period of greatest splendor of Roman culture is known as Roman Pax (Roman Peace), due to the relative state of harmony that prevailed in the regions that were under Roman rule, a period of order and prosperity that met the Empire under the dynasty of the Antonines (96-192 AD) and, to a lesser extent, the Severians (193-235 AD). It marked the golden age of the West and the awakening of the East.
In its centuries of existence, the Roman civilization passed from a monarchy to an oligarchic republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire that added many territories through conquest and cultural assimilation. The Romans came to dominate in their heyday from Britain, the Sahara desert and from the Iberian Peninsula to the Euphrates, causing an important cultural flourishing in each place where he ruled
Rome was plagued by internal instability and attacked by several migrant barbarian peoples that detached the western part of the empire where independent barbarian kingdoms were founded in the 5th century, including in Italy, Hispania, Gaul, Britannia and Africa.
The Eastern Roman Empire, which was ruled from Constantinople, comprising Greece, the Balkans, Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt, survived this crisis. Despite the subsequent loss of Syria and Egypt due to the power of the Islamic Arab empire, the Eastern Roman Empire survived almost a millennium more compared to the Western Roman Empire, until its last remnants were finally annexed by the Turkish Ottoman Empire that emerged as a power in the eastern region. This Eastern Christian empire of the medieval period is usually known as the Byzantine Empire by historians.
Roman civilization is often grouped into "classical antiquity", with ancient Greece, a civilization that inspired much of the culture of ancient Rome. Ancient Rome contributed greatly to the development of legal science (law), war, art, literature, architecture, technology, religion and language in the Western world, and its history continues to have a great influence on the today's world.
At the start of the fifteenth century, Rome seemed to be at the end of a long decline. The skyline was littered with the ruins of once spectacular structures. Wild animals ran free through the overgrowth dominating the center of the city. The city that had dominated the entire world centuries earlier was a shadow of its former self. In the first century, Rome had a population of about one million. At the start of the fifteenth century the city held perhaps 25,000. Rome was not a great center of commerce, and the papacy, which had long sustained the city through its riches and international influence, had moved from Rome to Avignon during the fourteenth century.
In 1420, the papacy returned to Rome under Pope Martin V. During the coming centuries the papacy would rebuild the city, and the Papal States, centered in Rome, would assume a position of great importance in Italian affairs. The papacy closely supervised the Renaissance evolution of Rome, maintaining its economic power, and thus control of the city, through the sale of church offices and taxation of the Papal States. Throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, papal holdings experienced periodic spurts of support for political independence from church control. But the papal grip was tight, and the destiny of city and church remained inextricably intertwined.
Finally, in 1420, the first glimmer of hope appeared for Rome to catch up to its northern rivals. The Papacy returned to Rome and brought with it the wealth and prestige Rome needed to ascend once again to great heights. The pope came to power in a situation far different from that of any other monarch. The papacy was responsible not only for the international Catholic Church, whose components were inextricably bound to politics all over Europe but also headed the government of the turbulent Papal States in Italy. This often caused conflicts of interest that the pope had to address in such a manner as to accommodate the needs of as many of his constituents as possible. Further, the pope had to make these frequent tough decisions without the backing of a royal family, a strong support system upon which every other monarch in Europe depended. Having no official direct heirs, the pope often turned to Papal nephews, who, while claimed to be the children of his brothers and sisters, were more often the illegitimate children of the pope himself. During the Renaissance, the importance of the nephew (nipote) as an aid and confidant grew greatly, and the Papal nephew was often the recipient of the pope's goodwill, receiving influential positions and large salaries. While nepotism was common practice among the Renaissance popes, most popes did little harm by it. Others, however, like Sixtus IV, substantially weakened the moral authority of the Papacy and turned many of his advisors and cardinals against him.
Perhaps even more important than the return of the Papacy to Rome was the connection established with Florence by appointing Cosimo de Medici Papal banker. If Florence benefited from its role in the handling of Roman gold, Rome benefited even more from the infusion of Florentine ideas, and eventually immigrants. In this way, Rome rode the tide of the Renaissance that had grown strong in Florence, absorbing the principles of humanism and the new intellectualism flowing from the north along the pipeline of communications established for financial purposes. By the latter fifteenth century, Rome could finally be said to have become a peer of the northern city-states, and its power showed no sign of fading.
