Rome: The Biography of a City

by Christopher Hibbert

Overview

A portrait, a history and a superb guide book - this beautifully written, informative study captures the seductive beauty and the many-layered past of the Eternal City. From its quasi-mythical origins, through the opulent glory of classical Rome, the decadence and decay of the Middle Ages and the beauty and corruption of the Renaissance, to its time at the heart of Mussolini's fascist Italy, Christopher Hibbert details the turbulent and dramatic history of this extraordinary place.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140070781
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/01/1988
Series:	Penguin Nonfiction Series
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	563,558
Product dimensions:	7.56(w) x 9.70(h) x 1.19(d)

Table of Contents

	Author's Note	ix
Part I
1	Myths, Monarchs and Republicans	3
2	Imperial Rome	24
3	Bread and Circuses	45
4	Catacombs and Christians	64
5	Infamy and Anarchy	81
6	Saints, Tyrants and Anti-Popes	97
7	'The Refuge of All the Nations'	113
8	Renaissance and Decadence	125
9	Patrons and Parasites	139
10	The Sack of Rome	153
Part II
11	Recovery and Reform	165
12	Bernini and the Baroque	179
13	Il Settecento	200
14	Napoleonic Interlude	227
15	The Risorgimento and the Roman Question	244
16	Royal Rome	274
17	Roma Fascista	286
	Epilogue: The Eternal City	305
Part III
	Notes on Topography, Buildings and Works of Art	315
	Sources	371
	Index	375