ROME 417 precautions, and may be expected ultimately to disappear, through the cultivation of the Campagna, improved drainage, and increase of population both within the walls and over the surrounding districts, hitherto left uncul- tivated and uninhabited. (See CAMPAGNA DI ROMA, LATIUM, and PONTINE MARSHES.) A new city is now springing up on the higher grounds on the Esquiline and Viminal hills. The official report for 1873 shows, that the sanitary condition of Rome is better than is generally supposed, the average death rate be- ing about 34 in 1,000. The people of Rome, at least the middle and working classes, are stout and well formed, the women being re- markable for beauty and a certain majesty of air and mien. The public amusements are theatrical performances, concerts, and religious celebrations. The most noted festival is the carnival, which immediately precedes the sea- son of Lent. The chief educational institution is the university, which has professors in theo- logy, law, medicine, philosophy, the fine arts, and the Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic languages. It had 470 students in 1875. The college de propaganda fide has a rich library and a printing office which contain works in 30 languages. There are several other colleges and many learned societies, the principal of which are the academies of Roman history, of geography, of ecclesiastical history, of anti- quities, and of the Arcadians. Much has been done for public education by the new govern- ment. At the close of 1873 there were 14,389 pupils in the new elementary schools. A fe- male seminary was opened in 1874. During the turbulent and ignorant ages which suc- ceeded the downfall of the western empire (see ITALY), the city of Rome slowly sank to a state of degradation and decay, which reached its greatest depth about the end of the 8th century, when little more remained than is now visible, while the modern city had not yet begun to be constructed. The popula- tion at this period is supposed to have dwin- dled to about 13,000. The popes, however, soon began to assert their supremacy over the potentates around them, and exerted them- selves to restore and enlarge their capital. (See PAPAL STATES, and POPE.) Leo IV. made a large accession to the city about 850, and under the influence of peace and stable government the population rapidly increased. In the llth century the city suffered severely from the attacks of the emperor Henry IV. in his wars with Gregory VII. ; still at the end of this century its population had grown to 35,000. In the 14th century the prosperity of the city was checked by the removal of the papal see to Avignon, and was not materially promoted by the brief splendor of the rule of Rienzi. After the return of the popes in 1377, a long period of turbulence and civil strife succeeded, in which the Colonna and Orsini families were the principal actors ; but at length, about 1417, the authority of the popes prevailed, and during the 15th and 16th centuries the city was enlarged to nearly its present dimensions and adorned with its prin- cipal churches and palaces. By the middle of the 17th century it had attained its highest state of population and magnificence in mod- ern times. The only great calamity which befell it during these last three centuries was the storming and pillaging by the army of the constable de Bourbon in 1528. In 1798 Rome was occupied by the French, who sent the pope to France, and proclaimed a republic, which was suppressed by the allies in 1799 and the pope restored. In 1808 the city was again occupied by the troops of Napoleon, and in the following year annexed to his empire. The pope was restored on the downfall of Napoleon in 1814, and the city remained in peace till in 1848 revolutionary movements began, which resulted in the expulsion of the pope and the establishment of a republic in February, 1849, at the head of which were Mazzini, Armellini, and Saffi. The new re- public, though bravely defended by Garibaldi, was speedily suppressed by the French army, which, after a siege of two months, compelled it to surrender on July 1. The French occu- pation lasted till the close of 1866, when the troops were almost entirely withdrawn from the Papal States by Napoleon III. In 1867 the occupation was resumed in consequence of an invasion of the papal territory (reduced since 1860 to little more than one third of its pre- vious extent) by an army of Italian volunteers led by Garibaldi. The siege and capture of Monte Rotondo, a small town 14 m. from Rome, by Garibaldi, was soon followed by the defeat of the volunteers at Mentana, Nov. 3, 1867, through French intervention, which secured victory for the pontifical cause, and for the time rescued that government from its opponents. After these events a French force continued to occupy Civita Vecchia, but not the city of Rome, until 1870, when the troops were again withdrawn on account of the Franco-German war. Soon after the deposi- tion of Napoleon III., Rome was occupied (Sept. 20, 1870) by an Italian army, after a very brief resistance. A plebiscitum held in the following October declared, by an immense majority, the will of the citizens to submit to the constitutional government of the king of Italy. The temporal sovereignty of the pope was in consequence abolished. (See Pius IX.) Rome was declared the capital of the Italian kingdom, and became thenceforth the seat of the new government, where the royal court has its residence, and the Italian parliament holds its sessions. The first session of parlia- ment was opened on Nov. 27, 1871. On Sept. 20, 1874, a stone in commemoration of the occupation of the city by the Italian troops was erected near the porta Pia. It contains the names of 33 soldiers who fell in the con- flict with the papal forces. Among the prin- cipal modern books on ancient Roman history
