The Eternal City: The History of Rome

Filmmaker and journalist Addis breathes new life into nearly 3,000 years of tumultuous Roman history, citing the elusive nature of Rome’s historical meaning as the impetus for this sweeping chronicle. Bookending his account with the myth of Romulus and the fantastical cinema of Federico Fellini, Addis delves into significant Roman moments and figures: the Second Punic War with Hannibal’s Carthage, Julius Caesar’s assassination, Constantine’s conversion to Christianity, the crowning of Charlemagne, the corrupt popes of the Theophylact and Borgia families, Petrarch, Michelangelo, Garibaldi’s wars to reunify Italy, and fascism’s rise under Mussolini. Addis’s singular accomplishment, however, is filling in the gaps between these events with novelistic passages on architecture, religious practices, poetry, and the love lives of some of Rome’s most notorious libertines. The tale of Rome’s many incarnations—republic, empire, heart of the warring Christian kingdoms of the Middle Ages, the capital of a modern unified Italy—is one of splendor and death, impressively told with passion, analytical expertise, and wit. [em](Nov.) [/em]