Rome in 1340

As any Roman will tell you, Rome is the most beautiful city in the world. Of course, most are arrogant and ignorant fools who have never ventured beyond their own city walls to seek a comparator. They will also tell you that it is no longer as it was and that its glories lie in the past.

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The Learned look up from their books and nod their heads at this. The crumbling Aurelian Walls circled a much larger City in the time of the Caesars. Colisseo, Castel Sant’Angelo and the Pantheon – ancient edifices now adapted to other use - bear mute witness to the glories that were Rome. Mighty columns and pillars lie strewn upon the ground; or are incorporated into newer, poorer dwellings; or stand haphazardly upright to point accusing fingers at modern dissipation.

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However, in the popular mind it is a far more recent calamity that has reduced the power, wealth and prestige of their city. It is a generation since the odious French stole their Pope. Now a French Pope does the bidding of a French King from a gilded cage in far off Avignon. No more do the great men of Christendom and their entourages buzz around the Vatican like flies on a turd, seeking influence, preferment and expensive forgiveness for their sins, bringing prosperity to all Rome. Now they go to cursed Avignon to take French lodgings, drink French wine, eat French food, hire French servants and guards, go with French prostitutes and French catamites.

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Not only has this Babylonian Captivity robbed Rome of its wealth but also its good government. In the vacuum left by the Church the “great families” who once secretly plotted and squabbled over the Pope’s mitre and red Cardinals’ hats, now openly contend for power in each Rione of the city. They seize strongholds and levy taxes and tolls upon ordinary citizens as might, not right, allows. Foremost amongst these robber barons are the Colonna and the Orsini but there are about a dozen powerful families who constantly make and break alliances with each other, seeking power and prestige in the shifting sands of the city’s politics.

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Meanwhile gangs of low-born routiers sell their swords to one or other of the houses or set themselves as “protectors” of neighbourhoods and war constantly to extend their petty realms amongst the tenements of the poorer areas. Meanwhile, in the absence of lawful protection ordinary folk band together as they may to defend families and property, but often do not scruple to impinge themselves upon their neighbours. Everywhere there is talk of revolt, but none to lead it.

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Although in numbers much reduced, pilgrims still come to gawp at the ruins grandeur and worship at Rome’s many ancient and holy churches and shrines. However, the lawless city is far from safe for them these days. Where once they were welcomed and given hospitality – and only cheated and preyed upon for a reasonable share of their purses – these days not only their money but their very lives are at stake. Many’s the pilgrim ends as a beggar on the streets or a corpse in the gutter. Even the Churches – those that are not shut up and derelict for want of patrons – cannot be relied upon for alms, with their priest more like to send supplicants (for a fee) to the pardoner to buy forgiveness for their sins than to grant absolution.

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Despite Rome’s hard times there remains a steady stream of adventurers seeking their fortune in the city. The warring families are in constant want of soldiers and though the Church has abandoned much of its building programme, there is always call for craftsmen, artists and artisans. Scholars come to Rome in search of ancient lore, for it is said that there is still much learning to be found. There is moreover a new appetite amongst the rich in Rome and throughout civilized lands for the art and artefacts of the ancients, to be found amongst the ruins, often deep underground. It is said that there are ancient terrors that lurk in the subterranean realms, but what do brave greedy men care for nameless dread though it imperil their very souls?