The relationship between the Italian renaissance & Greco-Roman world

Introduction : A Roman Revolution

It was May 30 , 1347 . The city was once at the center of the world , and varying nations vied to pay homage . Since that time , however , its institutions , its buildings , and its very name seem to have been forgotten by time . Local nobility compete for control while the rest of the populace starved , and banditry thrived . The religious shrines and public buildings were dilapidated , and worn out from neglect

From this one day , however , and from one such ruin , issued a declaration from a man who stirred hope

in people 's breast . Cola di Rienzo , who in the course of time would ambitiously set himself up as a virtual dictator in the city , at that moment declared the restitution of the Roman Republic , to the cheers of an excited throng . The restless crowd seemed far disconnected from the reality of a Holy Roman Empire independent Italian city-states , Norman and Spanish sovereignty in the south , or the hundred more kingdoms and treaties that kept Italy divided and the Republic from becoming reality , but no one cared

A brief , tragic drama began to unfold , taking hold of the city and its dreamer alike . For a few months , the Roman Republic seemed to breathe life and its Dictator Rienzo came close to uniting Italy . The smaller city-states and principalities all sent their delegations and intentions to forming a loose federation with Rome . And the Dictator put ambitious reforms and decrees , which championed the cause of the people .His pride , however , got the better of him , and he soon alienated the senators and the Church . The senators amassed armies against him , and the Pope called to the people to reject him . Having lost all his allies , he fled the city , wandering Italy to find people to rally for his cause . Dejected , beaten , his spirit finally broken , he surrendered to the Pope in Avignon , and was allowed to return to Rome where the people could not long stomach his disillusionment and killed him as a traitor

This brief Roman Revolution was an early experiment of that age to attempt the reconstitution of an age that seemed lost in time . The people of the Renaissance , from the artisan to the poet , was fascinated with ancient Greek traditions and culture and created works of art that mimicked Classic styles . Ancient texts were gathered from the libraries where it was copied and preserved , and crude attempts at translation were made to introduce these historical artifacts to the world . Most of the entire Renaissance was electrified at the thought of the old heroic ' Roman Republic , and the Caesars and Ciceros that once walked the Forum

In due course , this would seek to identify the sources of the ideology behind the Italian Renaissance 's fascination with the ancient Greco-Roman , and how it seemed to suit their needs . The will then explain the various attempts to reconstitute the past in the present , and how close they were in succeeding

Once more , a Roman World

The...