Rome, the capital city of the Lazio region of Italy is described by David Gleave MW as ‘a city that has been at the crossroads of Western history for well over two millennia.’

Ancient Rome: By the 1st-century BC, Rome had conquered the entire Mediterranean coastline. Most (90%) people lived within 15km of the sea and could buy corn from Egypt, olive oil from Spain and toga dye from Carthage. The Roman Empire prospered by being open to trade, people and ideas, says Johan Norberg, a Swedish thinker and author in Open: The Story of Human Progress (2020, Atlantic Books), as reviewed in ‘Lowering the drawbridge’, The Economist 12th Sept 2020), p.71.

Bibliography

David Gleave MW, ‘When in Rome…’Wine Magazine, February 1997, p.32-33.