Few cities can boast that they have served as the capital of an empire extending to three continents, and fewer still can claim that they have played an important role on the world stage for more than two millennia. In fact, there is probably only one: Rome, the ‘Eternal City’ not only in name. Rome’s unique position as a site of continuous and continuing significance is due in part to its geography, and in part to the vicissitudes of its history. But the city's longevity also owes much to its remarkable ability to ‘re-invent’ itself, as appropriate to changing circumstances. And the most significant moment of ‘re-invention’ is also perhaps one of the least studied: the period of the early Middle Ages. No longer the political capital of a far-flung empire, Rome re-invented itself as the urbs sacra, the focal point of a powerful world religion, acquiring a new lease on life that continues to this day.

This process of re-invention did not happen overnight; indeed, it would evolve over many centuries. In the fourth and early fifth centuries CE, as Richard Krautheimer has demonstrated, the physical imprint of Christianity was mostly to be found on the edges of the city, and outside the circuit of the Aurelian walls, focused on the Lateran basilica and the adjacent residence of the bishops of Rome, and the suburban cemeteries with their attached churches and monasteries. The primary patronage of new building activity remained initially lay, not clerical, although gradually extending outwards from the imperial family itself to embrace members of the aristocracy and others with wealth or authority.

Surveys the physical, social, religious, cultural and demographic changes which take place in the sixth and seventh centuries, preparing the stage for the detailed study from 700 CE onwards. The intention is to demonstrate that Rome in 700 was a ‘Byzantine’ city, a ‘Constantinople on the Tiber’ in the phrase coined by Per Jonas Nordhagen.

Summarizes the eighth century in Rome in terms of what had changed and what remained much the same.

Detailed examination of two building projects associated with Pope John VII (705–7); his funerary chapel in Old Saint Peter’s and the redecoration of the church of Santa Maria Antiqua. Prime attention is given to the cultural background of the decorations and the media employed.

Examines the murals in the best-preserved chapel in S anta Maria Antiqua, dating from the time of Pope Zacharias (741–52) and dedicated to Saints Quiricus and Julitta. The chapel is important as being the first early medieval example of lay patronage in Rome, and the focus of discussion is the donor, Theodotus, named in the painted inscriptions and depicted with other members of his family, a former military commander who switched to papal service and also played a major role in the development of the ‘idiaconiae’ (welfare stations). A case is presented for the hellenophone origins of the family, our best documented example of Rome’s new landowning élite.

Surveys political events in the second half of the eighth century as Rome, in the face of continued Lombard attacks, shifts its political ties from the emperor in Constantinople to the Franks, culminating with the coronation of the Frankish king Charlemagne as Roman ‘emperor’ in December 800

Examines the pivotal role of Pope Zacharias (741–52) who transformed the papal residence at the Lateran into a palace suitable not merely for a bishop but now also for a ruler wielding political authority. Special attention is given to the ‘Lateran bronzes’, a collection of ancient statues assembled outside the palace entrance which would come to be seen as symbols of political and judicial authority, reflecting the contemporary forged document known as the ‘Donation of Constantine’.

A survey of the political and economic challenges facing the papacy in the first four decades of the eighth century, including theological disputes with the emperors in Byzantium and the increasing hostility of the Lombard kings, in addition to a discussion of how these are reflected in ‘material culture’ as revealed by archaeology.