City commune · Southern Italy and the Islands · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Commune of Rome

Rome on 1 January 1200 is a commune that has given its key to the pope but still makes war on its own account.

The senator, chosen through the pope's elector and sworn to him, governs from the Capitol; the prefect of the city, once the emperor's man, holds his office of the pope since February 1198. The great families live in fortified towers on the ruins: the Orsini of Celestine III's line, the Conti and their Scotti and Oddolina kin, the Frangipani at the Colosseum, the Pierleoni and the Capocci who led the free commune of the 1190s, the Annibaldi, the Savelli, the Normanni of Trastevere. That winter the Roman host, under the senator Pandolfo della Suburra and paid for in part by the pope's brother Riccardo, is out against Viterbo, which had besieged Vitorchiano after the castle put itself under Rome; the battle that decides the war is fought on 6 January 1200 in Gregorovius and Luchaire, or at the beginning of 1201 in Maleczek and the Enciclopedia dei Papi.

Who rules

Name
Pandolfo della Suburra (Pandulfus de Subura), a Roman of the pope's party
Title
Senator of the City (senator Urbis), the commune's single chief magistrate, sworn to the pope
Since
Senator in late 1199, during the war with Viterbo (Gregorovius); start of his term not pinned
Born
Not pinned
Family
Of the Suburra quarter below the Viminal and Esquiline; called a kinsman of the pope in the campaign notes [thin]
Confidence
low

Gregorovius places Pandolfo della Suburra in the senatorship at the end of 1199, leading the Roman host against Viterbo with money from Riccardo Conti. Luchaire calls him a staunch partisan of the Church and has him acting as senator in 1202, when he sent the warring Orsini and Scotti out of the city. No dated list of senators covers 1 January 1200, so the identification rests on Gregorovius's narrative of the winter campaign.

Since February 1198 the senator is not elected by the people: the senator then in office, Scotto Paparone, resigned; the people took payments and gave up the election; Innocent named an intermediary elector (medianus) who chose the new senator, and the city's justiciars were replaced by papal judges (Gregorovius). Every senator swears fealty to the pope. Caution: Gregorovius dates the battle that ended this campaign to 6 January 1200; Maleczek (followed by the pat researcher) and the Enciclopedia dei Papi put the Roman victory at the beginning of 1201.

On the later dating Pandolfo's winter campaign belongs to the end of 1200, and the senator in office on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Overlord

The pope, by the senator's oath of fealty (February 1198) and the prefect's homage; the commune keeps its own courts, militia and wars.

What the realm holds

  • The city inside the Aurelian walls, with Trastevere and (under the pope) the walled Leonine City round St Peter's
  • The Capitol, seat of the Senate and of the parliament of the people
  • The district (districtus Urbis), the Agro Romano: the Campagna round the city from the Tiber mouth to the Alban and Tiburtine hills, with the salt pans by Ostia and Porto
  • The river harbour at the Ripa below the Aventine and in Trastevere, the bridges and the gate tolls
  • Vitorchiano, which broke from Viterbo in 1199 and put itself under Rome; relieved by the Roman host in 1199
  • Claims: the Sabina and the Marittima, which the commune had governed through its own rectors and judges before 1198 (Gregorovius), and the land of Tusculum, razed by the Romans in April 1191

How it was acquired

The commune dates from the revolution of 1143-1144; the pact of 1188 with Clement III recognised it and the pope's rights. Tusculum, given up to the Romans by Celestine III, was destroyed in April 1191. Benedetto Carushomo ruled as sole senator in 1191-1193, followed by Giovanni Pierleone and Giovanni Capocci. Innocent III's first weeks (February 1198) put the senate under oath to him.

Allies and rivals

Allies: the pope (as lord and mediator), Vitorchiano. Rivals: Viterbo and its podestà and captain Count Ildebrandino Aldobrandeschi; the Tuscan League, which sent troops to help Viterbo in 1199 (they reached Orvieto, per Luchaire) until the pope talked them into going home; Tivoli, which has defied Rome since 1142-1143 and took the emperor's side in 1155. Inside: the communal party against the pope's men; the Orsini against the Conti's kin.

The realm that morning

The pope's senator governs and leads the war (Pandolfo della Suburra on Gregorovius's dating). On that dating the Roman host mustered at the end of 1199 in the meadows of Nero (Prata Neronis) by St Peter's and on 1 January 1200 is in arms five days before the battle; on the later dating (Maleczek) the war is live, Vitorchiano is blockaded by Viterbo, and the decisive campaign is a year away. Before that, an earlier campaign had relieved Vitorchiano and camped under Viterbo's walls without result, with the senator going no further than Civita Castellana (Luchaire).

The barons hold their towers in the city and their castles in the district as their own. The communal party is quiet. Across the district's edges: the papal Sabina and Farfa to the north-east, Tivoli to the east, the Colonna of Palestrina and the papal Alban hills to the south-east, the Campagna and Marittima to the south, the counts of Anguillara and the prefect's lands to the north-west (pat).

Wealth

The pilgrims at St Peter's, the Lateran and the shrines; the curia's business (inns, money-changers, notaries, lawyers); the salt of the Tiber mouth; the river harbour and the gate tolls; the grain and cattle of the Agro Romano. The commune strikes the Senate's penny (the provisino) at the Capitol mint, the mint being among the regalia the senator holds for the pope.

Military

The city militia by districts, the knights of the great families and the knights of Rome's subject castles. Riccardo Conti paid for part of the force raised against Viterbo (Gregorovius; Luchaire gives a sum in pounds). No numbers are given in the sources checked.

Threats

  • Viterbo and its allies (the Tuscan League, Count Ildebrandino)
  • The communal party's resentment of the pope's grip on the senate
  • The Orsini feud with the Scotti and the Oddolina
  • The pope making peace over the heads of the Romans (the prisoners' affair)

Councils and offices

One senator (summus senator) since the 1190s; 56 senators had been elected in 1197, but only one held office when Innocent was elected (Gregorovius). The senator names the judges of his court for his term; papal judges replaced the commune's justiciars in 1198. Great decisions are taken in a public assembly (parlamentum) of the Roman people: it was the 'Roman parliament' that declared war on Viterbo in 1199 (Gregorovius).

The Senate sits on the Capitol. The prefect (praefectus Urbis), Pietro (of the family later called di Vico), keeps the roads and the high justice of the district; on 22 February 1198 (Luchaire: 23 February) he did liege homage to Innocent in consistory and was invested with a mantle instead of the emperor's sword; in 1199 the pope made him his envoy (missus) with powers of justice in Tuscia, Umbria and Spoleto (Gregorovius). His family's castles (Civitavecchia, Vetralla, Carbognano, Caprarola, per Luchaire) are pat's records.

Senator oath

The senator swears not to plot against the pope's life, limbs or liberty, to warn him of plots, and to defend the regalia of St Peter: St Peter's and the Leonine City, Trastevere, the Tiber island, the castle of Crescenzio (Castel Sant'Angelo), S. Maria Rotonda (the Pantheon), the Senate, the mint, Ostia and the land of Tusculum (Gregorovius).

Families

The Orsini (sons of Orso, the Bobone of Celestine III), enriched by that pope's grants (Vicovaro and its neighbours, 1191), seated in the Parione district by the theatre of Pompey (Gregorovius); rivals of the Conti. The Conti, the pope's family, led by his brother Riccardo; the Scotti, his mother's kin; the Oddolina, kin of the Conti (the marshal Giacomo is called 'Giacomo Giovanni Oddolina'). The Orsini already quarrel with the Scotti and the Oddolina over an inheritance; it breaks into street war in autumn 1202, and Teobaldo, leader of the Scotti, is killed in 1203 (Luchaire).

The Pierleoni (Giovanni Pierleone, a former senator) and the Capocci (Giovanni Capocci, a former senator and popular leader from the Suburra) lead the party of an independent senate: quiet in 1200, in open revolt in 1203-1204. The Frangipani hold the Colosseum and the towers by the arch of Titus and the Septizonium. The Annibaldi are kin by marriage of the pope (Annibaldo married his sister); Pietro Annibaldi will build a tower by the Colosseum.

The Savelli are the family of Cardinal Cencio, the former chamberlain. The Normanni, with the Colonna the oldest-rooted family of the city (it.wikipedia), live in Trastevere. The Crescenzi are represented in the College by Gregorio of S. Maria in Aquiro. The Paparoni or Papareschi (Scotto Paparone, the senator of January 1198; Cardinal Guido of S. Maria in Trastevere) are of Trastevere.

Coinage

The Senate's penny (denaro provisino), struck by the commune from the later twelfth century.

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.

  1. 6 January 1200 (Gregorovius, Luchaire); early 1201 in the Enciclopedia dei PapiBattle on the road to Vitorchiano: the Romans rout the Viterbese and take many prisoners, among them Viterbo's protonotary and Napoleone, viscount of Campiglia.Depends on: Viterbo offering battle; the Roman host holding together in midwinter. Stopped by: A papal truce before the armies meet; the Tuscan League sending its troops back.
  2. January to spring 1200The pope takes the noble prisoners from the Roman prison (the Canaparia) into the Lateran and then to his fortress of Lariano; Napoleone escapes from Lariano during the talks and the Romans accuse the pope of letting him go (Luchaire, Gregorovius).Depends on: The battle being won. Stopped by: The commune keeping its prisoners.
  3. Late 1200 or 1201 (Gregorovius); not pinnedPeace brokered by Innocent: Viterbo submits to the Senate and people of Rome, frees its captives, gives up Vitorchiano, swears fealty to the senate, pays tribute, pulls down part of its walls (or an outwork), and returns the bronze doors and the atrium fountain fittings it took from St Peter's in 1167; Rome hangs Viterbo's bell on the Capitol and fixes a chain and the keys of a Viterbo gate to the arch of Gallienus.Depends on: The Roman victory and the pope's mediation. Stopped by: Viterbo holding out with Tuscan or Aldobrandeschi help.
  4. 1200, not pinnedA new senator for the next term is chosen through the pope's elector.Depends on: The 1198 settlement holding. Stopped by: A popular rising for an elected senate.

Places of note

  • The Capitol: Seat of the Senate and the parliament; Viterbo's bell will hang here
  • St Peter's and the Leonine City: The pope's walled quarter across the Tiber; the Roman host mustered in the meadows of Nero beside it
  • Castel Sant'Angelo (castle of Crescenzio): Fortress on the bridge to St Peter's, among the papal regalia
  • The Ripa: The river harbour below the Aventine and in Trastevere
  • Ostia: Castle and salt pans at the Tiber mouth

Where the sources disagree

  • GM Part 5 marks Pandolfo della Suburra as senator [thin]. Gregorovius places him in office at the end of 1199, leading the winter campaign; if the battle is dated to the beginning of 1201 (Maleczek, Enciclopedia dei Papi, and the pat researcher's Viterbo record), that campaign and Pandolfo's term belong to late 1200, and the senator on 1 January 1200 is not pinned. Luchaire has Pandolfo as senator in 1202.
  • The decisive battle with Viterbo: 6 January 1200 in Gregorovius and Luchaire (from the Gesta Innocentii); beginning of 1201 in Maleczek and the Enciclopedia dei Papi; it.wikipedia (Vitorchiano) puts the relief of Vitorchiano in 1201. The GM should rule: it decides whether the battle falls five days into the game or a year later.
  • The prefect's homage: 22 February 1198 (Gregorovius) or 23 February (Luchaire).

Evidence: Thick for the 1198 settlement and the Viterbo war (Gesta Innocentii, used by Gregorovius and Luchaire); fair for the senator; thin for the commune's councils and for the real extent of its district.

On the map: The district is drawn as the modern communes of Rome, Fiumicino and Ciampino, which roughly match the Agro Romano. The commune's claims (the Sabina, the Marittima, Tusculum's land, Tivoli) reached further, and inside the district the barons' castles were their own.

Primary sources for this realm

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.

Sources and studies

  1. F. Gregorovius, Storia della città di Roma nel medio evo, vol. 5 (Project Gutenberg)
  2. A. Luchaire, Innocent III: Rome et l'Italie (PDF)
  3. Innocenzo III (Treccani, Enciclopedia dei Papi)
  4. Riccardo Conti (Treccani, Dizionario Biografico)
  5. Normanni (famiglia) (it.wikipedia)
  6. Tivoli (Treccani, Enciclopedia Italiana)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.