The Makers of Modern Rome: Restored Classics to Go Edition

This sweeping history of Rome traces the city's long transformation through four defining movements: the holy women of late antiquity, the popes who shaped the papacy, the struggle of the Roman people, and the popes who remade the city itself. With intimate reflection, vivid illustration, and no trace of scholarly pretension, it presents Rome as a living drama of decline, renewal, and power. The opening chapters dwell on fourth-century Rome as a magnificent but hollowed-out capital, where wealth has become idle luxury, the crowds hunger for spectacle, and pagan ritual lingers beside an uncertain Christianity. From that decadent world emerges a sharper portrait of Church corruption, social ambition, and spiritual fatigue, followed by the austere backlash of desert holiness inspired by Athanasius and the Life of St. Antony. The narrative then turns to the great papal struggles of the Middle Ages, especially Gregory VII's tragic contest with empire and Innocent III's learned, far-reaching rule. Across all these eras, the book reveals Rome's moral contradictions and enduring historical force. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.