The Growth of the Imperial City Rome

ED GLAESER: Rome, the allegedly eternal city. Its very name conjures urbanism. But while Rome today
is more likely tso evoke the pleasures that reflect more than a millennium of catering to the tourist trade,
its history reveals a very particular type of urbanism. You should think of Rome as an example, almost
the archetype of an imperial city. A city of power, a city that grows great first by dominating its near
neighbors, and then by controlling the entire Mediterranean world. A city whose needs and pleasures were
fed by conquest. Rome is hardly the only imperial city. Every pre-modern mega-city was imperial, from
Abassid Baghdad, to Tokugawa Edo, which is now modern Tokyo. In a simpler agricultural world, it was
a lot easier to feed a million souls by forcing farmers to provide grain than by clever trading or industrious
manufacturing. And that's how Rome grew. Rome's origins are, of course, the stuff of urban legend. One
version, the Greek version, emphasizes Aeneas, the son of Aphrodite, who fled the fires of Troy with his
aged father upon his back. His son, Ascanius or Julus, was the supposed ancestor of Julius Caesar himself.
Or you may prefer the story of Romulus and Remus, the sons of Mars and a Latin princess. One
archaeologist claims to have actually found the Lupercal cave, the spot where those boys were suckled by
a she wolf on the Palatine Hill of Rome beneath the house of Olivia, the wife of the emperor, Augustus.
What we do know, is that people, Romans, were living on that Palatine Hill three millennia ago. Hills
were good spots for city building, because they were defensible space. Height enables urbanites eyes to
see their enemies from afar, and gives an advantage in battle. And Rome's hills also had proximity to a
river, the Tiber. Early Rome was also defended by walls. The Servian Wall of the fourth century BC still
exists. The advantage of sharing a wall creates a reason for crowding together. Infrastructure can be
shared. According to myth, Romulus himself built a low wall for the city that Remus laughingly leaped
over. Romulus killed him for his mockery. Moving from myth to history, we know that Romans gradually
gained control over their region over Latium. Then over their peninsula, and ultimately, over all of Europe.
Lucius Junius Brutus overthrew the last Etruscan King of Rome in 509 BC, and established the Roman
Republic. This sturdy city survived a Gaulish sack in 390 BC. The Capitoline Hill was the readout that
held out against the invaders. In 338 BC, Rome gained control over Latium. And for the next 50 years,
the city-state fought to control the south of Italy, what had been known as magna gratia, the Greek outpost.
They finally defeated the fabled Spartan colony of Taranto in 272. The Greek cities of Southern Italy had
fallen to Rome's military might. By 146 BC, Rome had defeated Carthage, the Greek city-states, and the
Near Eastern Seleucid empire, a holdover from Alexander's conquests. The Mediterranean would
henceforth be a Latin lake, not one for Greeks or Venetians. Rome gained control over the granaries of
Spain and later, Egypt. And that grain could feed the growing population of an imperial capital. At the
core of Rome's population growth was strength abroad and weakness at home. The city's armies were
capable of dominating the Mediterranean. But the aristocratic republic was increasingly forced to provide
ordinary citizens of Rome with bread and circuses. One of the heroes of the last Carthaginian war had two
ambitious sons, Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, who were elected tribunes, representatives of the poor
Romans, in 133 and 123 BC, respectively. They courted the support of their poor neighbors by
championing cheap grain for all the seasons of Rome. The Gracchi, of course, were eventually killed by
their aristocratic opponents. There's a lot of killing in Roman history. But those opponents kept distributing
grain, presumably fearing that hunger would be the fuel of urban revolt. Eventually, the Clodian law made
the grain distribution free. After fighting the Social War-- which sounds a bit like a battle with tea and
crumpets-- against its Italian neighbors, Rome ended up extending the rights of Roman citizenship to all

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the free residents of their peninsula. This meant that any Italian could get free grain, as long as they came
to Rome. And come they did. The grain role ultimately swelled to 320,000. And that figure is often used
as a basis for estimating Rome's late-republic population, often thought to be about 1 million. Of course,
the city could only provide grain for hundreds of thousands, because it had conquered so much farmland,
and because that farmland had become the property of the state. The mass population of Rome created an
enormous health hazard. There are always demons that come with density. And Rome addressed those
demons with legendary feats of engineering. Roman aqueducts were a tool for bringing unpolluted water
from low-density areas into the city. The Cloaca Maxima, Rome's famed sewage system, was started by
the Etruscan kings. Supposedly, it was the last of those kings, the one that Brutus overthrew, who started
putting the sewers underground. Rome's imperial past shows in its architectural remnants. Columns, like
Trajan's Column, celebrate conquest. The magnificent sculptures that cover it tell the story of Trajan's
defeat of Dacia. His men march with order. Their discipline defeated the world. The column reminds
everyone of what the emperor achieved. Olivia's house, atop the Palatine Hill, reminds us that one family
ruled over this great urban mass. And that family was able to enjoy comfort, even while the larger city
crowded together. Rome's evolution from republic to conquering empire also reminds us that cities are
centers of political change and unrest. The late republic was positively teeming with political
entrepreneurs like the Gracchi, eager to advance their station. Many rose through conquest, like Marius.
Marius' nephew, Julius Caesar, and Caesar's one-time ally and eventual enemy, Pompey the Great. Others
rose through politics and oratory, like Cicero. Crassus achieve greatness by acquiring great wealth. His
private fire brigade would offer to save a burning building if, and only if, its residents sold him the property
cheaply. His was the original fire sale. Eventually, the strength of Caesar's legions defeated the republic's
aristocratic oligarchy. And for five centuries, emperors ruled Rome. The great size of that empire led
Diocletian, in the third century, to split it into West and East. The capital of the eastern empire would
become Constantinople, which would last as the last great Roman city until 1453. The capital of the West,
however, was moved from Rome to Mediolanum, or Milan, which had better placement militarily because
of its proximity to the frontier, to the passes that run through the Alps. Rome began its long period of
decline. Alaric and his Visigoths sacked the city in 410. Geiseris sacked it in 455. Ricimer's own allegedly-
Roman troops sacked it yet again, in 472. The city's population fell to a fraction of its former size. But
Rome would have a second and third act. Constantine not only founded Constantinople, but helped make
Rome a Christian empire. The bishop of Rome would ultimately break with Constantine's heirs and their
patriarchs in Constantinople. He would declare his independence as chief of the Roman Catholic church.
The wealth of that church derived not from conquest, but from the contributions of the faithful, would
rebuild a new city, a city centered on St. Peter's Basilica, not the Palatine Hill. And that city is highly
visible today. That city of the church now coexists with a new, a third Rome. Newly imperial, the political
capital of a unified Italy since 1871. The Vittoriano, which sits atop the Piazza Venecia, the altar of the
fatherland, symbolizes the victories of the Savoy kings which brought political prominence back to Rome.
Those kings are now buried in the Pantheon, that ancient architectural legacy of Rome. It's apt, I think, to
end on the Pantheon, which has been a Roman temple, a Catholic church, and a royal tomb. A structural
combination of all of Rome's history in one, yet its beauty and remarkable dome has been an inspiration
to architects and ordinary observers for centuries. It reminds us that just because a city is built on conquest
doesn't mean that it can't bring enormous joy to millions. And so it is, with Rome.

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