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The Council proclaimed: "Rome is at the head of the world", [9] reinforcing the developing theocratic doctrine that subordinated secular affairs to spiritual authority. [ 10 ] In Italy, Arnold of Brescia defended the idea of total poverty and wanted to force the Pope to renounce all his temporal powers.
The Roman expansion in Italy covers a series of conflicts in which Rome grew from being a small Italian city-state to be the ruler of the Italian region.Roman tradition attributes to the Roman kings the first war against the Sabines and the first conquests around the Alban Hills and down to the coast of Latium.
The Romans fought off all invaders, most famously Attila, [48] but the empire had assimilated so many Germanic peoples of dubious loyalty to Rome that the empire started to dismember itself. [49] Most chronologies place the end of the Western Roman Empire in 476, when Romulus Augustulus was forced to abdicate to the Germanic warlord Odoacer .
With Rome's great military victories, vast numbers of slaves were imported into Italy. [28] Significant mineral wealth was distributed unevenly to the population; the city of Rome itself expanded considerably in opulence and size; the freeing of slaves brought to Italy by conquest massively expanded the number of urban and rural poor. [29]
Up to that time, he remained in Germany, while a deposed duke, Crescentius II, ruled over Rome and part of Italy, ostensibly in his stead. In 996 Otto III appointed his cousin Gregory V the first German pope. [82] A foreign pope and foreign papal officers were seen with suspicion by Roman nobles, who were led by Crescentius II to revolt.
Theodosius II enjoyed a strong position at the centre of the imperial system. [147] Decline in the West led both Eastern and Western authorities to assert their right to power and authority over the Western Empire. [148] Theodosius II claim was based on Roman law and military power. [149]
The Latin settlement of Rome also was a city-state, founded in the 753 BC. Rome eventually created many colonies and municipi on earlier Etruscan, Umbrian, or Celtic settlements throughout Italy. The network of Roman cities in Italy survived the fall of the Western Roman Empire and provided the basis for the re-emergence of city-states in the ...
In relation to ethnic and national identity, the Italians of Rome continue to identify with the demonym 'Roman' to this day. [1] [2] [3] The vast majority of the Western Romance peoples (Portuguese, Spaniards, French, their colonial descendants, among others) diverged into groups that no longer identify as Romans. Roman identity was maintained ...