Latium

History

Since the fifth century BC to the first century BC Lazio's history coincides with the history of Rome, the republic, earlier,t and the empire after. During the Roman Empire, Lazio enjoyed a generally peaceful and quiet situation, apart from the well-known and relatively sporadic wars for the conquest of the imperial throne. The role of Rome capital, however, was increasingly reduced from the second century, to other regions of the Empire, up to the deposition of the last Western Emperor, Romulus Augustus by Odoacer in 476, the date that identifies the end of empire.

After nearly a century of war (with diffrent changes on the throne of Rome), the control passes into the hands of the nascent Catholic Church. Since then, the history of Lazio identifies with that of the Papal States until its final conquest in 1870.

The strengthening of religious and ecclesiastical aristocracy led to continuous power struggles between lords and the Pope until the mid-sixteenth century. Innocent III, for example, sought to strengthen its territorial power, trying to assert its authority to the governments of neighboring states in order to reduce the power of the Colonna family.

With the transfer of the papacy to Avignon, in France (1309-1377), the power of feudal lords grew because of the distance of the Pope from Rome. However, between 1353 and 1367, the papacy has regained control of Latium and the rest of the Papal States. Since the mid-sixteenth century, the papacy succeed in the enterprise to politically reunite Lazio in the only insignia of the Papal States. The government of the territories of provinces of Lazio became directly controlled by the popes through governors appointed directly from Rome.

After the short Roman Republic and the Napoleonic domination, Lazio returned again the exclusive domain of the papacy, until September 20, 1870 when General Cadorna entered the pontifical territory, conquering Rome. Since that time, Lazio is part of the Kingdom of Italy. Only a year later, the capital of the kingdom was moved from Florence to Rome, better suited to being the seat of government for historical and geographical reasons.