Rome and Latium [antikvár]

Preface No traveller can fail to be overwhelmed by the grandeur that is Rome. The city's origins are shrouded in legend. Built on its Seven Hills, it was first ruled by Etruscan kings and later guided by elected magistrates, the Consuls taking the vow of office in the Temple of Jupiter crowning the original Capitol. By the time Julius Caesar was murdered in 44 BC the Roman Republic had made herself mistress of the Mediterranean. Augustus and the emperors succeeding him consolidated and extended the colonial territory until Latin became the language of law and administration from the Atlantic to the Black Sea. There its daughter languages are still spoken today, while Latin is also a vital strand in some other languages, English among them. Christianity had flourished at Rome, mostly underground, since the martyrdom of the Apostles Peter and Paul until it was established by the Emperor Constantine in 325. During the next hundred years the Empire was assailed by barbarian hordes and finally collapsed. Henceforth Rome was ruled by the Popes - many of them discerning patrons of arts and letters - until it became the capital of a united Italy in 1871. The present guide will introduce the visitor by word and picture to the sights of a city that is heir to an incomparable artistic legacy. Ancient buildings and monuments still abound, medieval churches with glorious mosaics a thousand years old stand within a few minutes' walk of St. Peter's Basilica and other majestic architectural masterpieces of the Renaissance , and the Baroque. Michelangelo and Raphael were employed by j the Popes to decorate rooms in the Vatican Palace, and some of I Bernini's greatest sculptures are to be found in St. Peter's, in front of which he also designed the breathtaking colonnade. Palaces, fountains and equestrian statues bear eloquent witness to the city's age-old artistic tradition. Churches and museums house many of the finest paintings and sculptures to be found in • Europe, and many an English-speaking visitor still makes, as ! thousands have done before him, the pilgrimage to the tombs of [ Keats and Shelley and to the two poets' memorial house at the foot of the famous Spanish Steps.