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Rome: The Eternal City
History22 min

Rome: The Eternal City

From the she-wolf of Romulus to the coins of the Trevi Fountain — twenty-seven centuries of history, layer by layer.

About

In Rome, you cannot dig a tunnel without stumbling on an imperial barracks — because this city is not one, but many, built one on top of another.

In this audiobook we peel the layers back one by one: the kingdom of Romulus and the seven hills, the Republic that swore "never again a king" and its war with Hannibal and his elephants, Caesar falling with twenty-three stab wounds on the spot where a colony of cats now lives, the Empire that left us the Colosseum and the Pantheon, the Rome of the popes, of Michelangelo and Bernini, the capital of a united Italy with a whole foreign state inside it, the mark of Mussolini, the Dolce Vita and the Years of Lead.

A tour through twenty-seven centuries — so that, when you visit, every stone around you speaks.

Sources
  • Wikipedia: "History of Rome"; "Punic Wars"; "Assassination of Julius Caesar"; "Colosseum"; "Pantheon, Rome"; "Lateran Treaty"; "Years of Lead (Italy)"; "Trevi Fountain".
  • Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Rome"; "ancient Rome"; "Julius Caesar".
  • Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars — the Ides of March, "even you, my child?", "city of marble".
  • Plutarch, Life of Pompey — "the die is cast" said in Greek at the Rubicon.
  • Tacitus, Annals — the great fire of 64 and the Christians.
  • Musei Capitolini — the Capitoline She-wolf.
  • ANSA/Reuters (2016) — the discovery of the Roman barracks at the Metro Line C works.
Read the full transcript

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