«A gentibus non exterminabitur». Immaginare e organizzare il futuro di Roma da Teoderico a Gregorio Magno

In 500, Rome’s future looked bright, as Theoderic staged an adventus into the city, promised to uphold all privileges decreed by former emperors and generously funded the restoration of the walls. From both an ideological and pragmatic perspective, there was little difference between the dreams and fears of the Romans of his age and those of the times of Augustus. Still, the outbreak of the Gothic War caused a gradual shift in the ways sixth-century authors looked at Rome’s future, since the pope and the protection granted by Saint Peter came to play an increasingly important role. By the pontificate of Gregory the Great, the tension between the Virgilian dream of an imperium sine fine and the Horatian nightmare of a barbarian conqueror disturbing the bones of Romulus was replaced by another antithetical pair. Rome’s eternity was now assured by divine favour, often propitiated by St Peter, while its possible destruction was traced back to natural disasters or the end of the world itself, which was imminent according to the pontiff.