Rome in 1200 is a city of ruins, churches and fortified towers inside walls built for a far larger city, much of the walled area given to vineyards and gardens.
People crowd the Tiber bend round the Campus Martius, Trastevere and the bridges, and the road from the river to St Peter's, where pilgrims and petitioners to the curia arrive from all Latin Christendom. The Senate meets on the Capitol; the pope rules from the Lateran on the city's eastern edge. That winter the city's host is out against Viterbo.
Who holds it
- Name
- Pandolfo della Suburra (senator); Innocent III (lord)
- Title
- Senator of the City, under oath to the pope; the pope lord of the Leonine City
- Since
- Senator by late 1199 on Gregorovius's dating of the Viterbo campaign; on the later dating (battle early 1201) his term is late 1200 and the senator of 1 January 1200 is not pinned
- Confidence
- low
See Rome for the senate, the prefect and the families. Gregorovius lists the regalia the senator swears to defend for the pope (St Peter's and the Leonine City, Trastevere, the Tiber island, Castel Sant'Angelo, the Pantheon, the Senate, the mint, Ostia, Tusculum's land).
Lord in 1200
The commune (Senate and people) under its senator Pandolfo della Suburra, sworn to the pope; the pope holds the Lateran, the Leonine City round St Peter's and Castel Sant'Angelo; the prefect Pietro holds his office of the pope.
Overlord
The pope.
Allies and rivals
See Rome.
How things stand that morning
Governed by the pope's senator; at war with Viterbo; the communal party and the Orsini quiet but unreconciled.
Wealth
Pilgrims, the curia, the river trade, salt, the Agro Romano's grain and cattle.
Military
See Rome.
Threats
- Viterbo
- The communal party
- Baronial feuds
Charter
The commune of 1143-1144; the pact with Clement III of 1188; the senator's oath of fealty to Innocent III (February 1198).
Council
One senator with judges he names; the public parliament of the Roman people on the Capitol (it voted the war on Viterbo in 1199); papal judges in place of the commune's justiciars since 1198 (Gregorovius).
Communities
The Jews, settled mainly in Trastevere and by the river, an old community under papal protection; pilgrims and petitioners of every nation, lodged round St Peter's in the Borgo; the households of the cardinals and the curia.
Fairs and markets
No fair named in the sources checked; the great pilgrim feasts (Easter, Saints Peter and Paul on 29 June) fill the city.
Militia
The city host by districts and the knights of the great families; it mustered at the end of 1199 in the meadows of Nero by St Peter's (Gregorovius).
Walls and castle
The Aurelian walls with their gates; the Leonine walls round St Peter's; Castel Sant'Angelo on the bridge; the families' fortresses built into ancient monuments (the Frangipani at the Colosseum, the Pierleoni at the theatre of Marcellus); bridges at Sant'Angelo, Santa Maria, the Tiber island and the Milvian bridge to the north.
Trade and crafts
Inns, money-changers and notaries serving pilgrims and the curia; the river harbour at the Ripa for grain, wine, salt and timber coming up from the Tiber mouth; the salt of the Ostia pans; marble-workers who recycle the ancient city into church furnishings (the Roman marmorarii, later called Cosmati).
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
- 6 January 1200 (or early 1201)Victory over Viterbo on the road to Vitorchiano; prisoners brought to Rome.Depends on: Battle being given. Stopped by: A papal truce.
Places of note
- The Lateran: Pope's palace and cathedral
- The Capitol: Senate
- St Peter's: Basilica and pilgrim centre in the Leonine City
- Trastevere: District across the river; Jews, the Normanni and the Papareschi
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The institutions and the war are well described by Gregorovius and Luchaire; the Jewish community's size and quarters in 1200 are not given in the sources checked.
On the map: The tierra is the commune's district, the same ground as the Rome realm part.
Primary sources for Rome
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Annals of Montecassino; Annals of Ceccano (Fossanova) (12th and early 13th centuries; Ceccano to 1217). Two sets of annals from either side of the papal and Sicilian frontier. Read online
- Chronicle of Richard of San Germano, Richard of San Germano (first version about 1216, enlarged to 1243). The fullest southern narrative of the Hohenstaufen kingdom, written by a notary on the border of the Terra di Lavoro. Read online
- The Deeds of Innocent III, Anonymous (a curial official, perhaps Peter of Benevento) (about 1208 to 1209). The curia's own account of the pontificate's first decade, with letters copied in. Read online
- The Book of Census of the Roman Church, Cencius Camerarius (Cencio Savelli, later Pope Honorius III) (1192, with later additions). The papal rent roll: every church, monastery, town and kingdom that owed a census to Rome in 1192, diocese by diocese, with the sums, followed by lists of papal lands and castles, the ceremonial Ordo and copies of charters. Read online
- The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
Sources and studies
- F. Gregorovius, Storia della città di Roma nel medio evo, vol. 5
- A. Luchaire, Innocent III: Rome et l'Italie (PDF)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.