From Etruscans and Romans to Modern Times - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 49

Figure 5.1. Map of Italy
The glory that was the Roman Empire shone for half a millennium after the city's le-
gendary founding in 753 BCE, from the imperial conquests around the time of Christ to the
sack of Rome by Alaric's Goths in 410 CE. By the time of Charlemagne (800 CE), the fer-
tile valleys of Italy had evolved into feudal kingdoms and city-states. The Catholic Church
in Rome and the territory surrounding it (the Papal State) was Italy's most powerful unify-
ing force spiritually, administratively, and militarily. During the Renaissance (1300-1600),
Italy's fertile valleys were territories of forceful ducal families and their powerful city-
states: the Medici in Florence, the Visconti and Szfora in Milan, the Montefeltro and della
Rovere families in Urbino, and the Gonzaga in Mantua. Italy's patchwork of rival territori-