Release date is 2026-05-08

Barbara Magni and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library)

Roma nella cultura moderna by Guglielmo Ferrero is a commemorative speech and historical essay written in the early 20th century. It examines Rome’s place in modern culture and defends the continuing importance of Roman history as a model and mirror for contemporary society.

Ferrero opens with a personal reflection on why Rome must be repeatedly rewritten, presenting history as both science and art. He then sketches a sweeping panorama: the ordered Roman Republic, the influx of wealth and Greek ideas, the moral and social upheavals marked by avarice, ambition, and luxury, the restorations and civil wars, the reluctant birth of the Principate, the cosmopolitan, urbanized empire, and its later unraveling through over-urbanization, fiscal strain, intellectual mysticism, and the split between East and West. From this arc he argues that Rome offers a complete, synthetic image of universal history and a living resource for modern nations. He champions synthesis over arid analysis in classical studies, urges Italians to keep Rome central to a shared high culture, and even “rescues” Romulus by recasting Rome’s foundation as a deliberate colonial act from Alba. He closes by affirming Rome’s enduring value as a model of clarity, order, and balance, calling the Latin world to use that tradition to steady the disordered energies of modern life. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Milano: Treves, 1910