A simplified plan of the city of Rome from the 15th-century illuminated manuscript Tr?s Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.

The History of Rome spans 2,800 years of the existence of a city that grew from a small Italian village in the 9th century BC into the center of a vast civilization that dominated the Mediterranean region for centuries, but was eventually overrun by Germanic tribes, marking the beginning of the Middle Ages, and that eventually became the seat of the Roman Catholic Church and the home of a sovereign state within its walls, Vatican City. It has continued to play a major role in global politics, just as it has enormously influenced the history and culture of European peoples for millennia.

The traditional date for the founding of Rome, based on a mythological account, is April 21, 753 BC, and the city and surrounding region of Latium has continued to be inhabited with little interruption since around that time.

Population of Rome

350 BC 30,000. 
270 BC 100,000. 
100 BC More than 500,000. 
44 BC 1,000,000. 
100 1,650,000. 
300 600,000. 
500 50,000. 
752 40,000. 
800 30,000. 
1000 30,000. 
1347 17,000. 
1519 50,000. 
1527 32,000. 
1590 90,000. 
1660 120,000. 
1798 150,000. 
1814 117,000. 
1832 138,000. 
1848 150,000. 
1871 244,000. 
1900 600,000. 
1921 692,000. 
1931 1,000,000. 
1944 1,600,000. 
1990 3,500,000.