The book Rome: The History of an Empire, by Greg Woolf, is an excellent example of how the elites of Rome created a image of omnipotence which would survive Rome itself. Woolf states that many modern empires made great use of Roman symbols and that this gives us great insight into the outlook of modern empires, but he argues that "Rome has its own romance (Woolf, p. 27). » Rome survived about 1,500 years. During these 1,500 years, Rome experienced many political changes. The elites of Rome, including the Republic and the Empire, made these political changes in order to create this image that would create the power behind Rome. Greg Woolf's "Rome: The Story of an Empire" is a work that brings to life the details of the rise, and decline of the Roman Empire. One of the main ideas of the story is when Rome reached its ultimate point of definition, that is, during the time of Virgil and Augustus. It was during the last decades CE and the first decade CE that Augustus and Virgil created this image of what it means to be Roman and how we think about ancient Rome today. Roman history is generally divided into two periods: the Republican and the Roman. empire. Most works begin the empire with Augustus. Woolf's work shows how misleading this can be. The reason this is so misleading according to Woolf is that, from Augustus onwards, the ruler of Rome is called "emperor", which creates confusion between the forms of government used and the way society was governed. Two centuries earlier, Augustus Woolf argued that what was called the Roman Republic was in reality an empire. The only difference with the Augustan period and the previous two centuries is that Rome stopped expanding. Augustus essentially changed the Roman image of a... middle of paper ...... in Western Europe they found a different type of climate. This climate, colder and darker, was very different from the hot and humid air of Italy. Rome's ability to Romanize the known world was as simple as the introduction of new agricultural and dietary methods. It was the movement of creation of this Romanization that gave other societies the need to pay homage and follow the authority of Rome. This is a great example of how the conquerors flaunted their luxuries and culture, leaving the native elites eager to become Romanized. At the end of the Roman Empire, the capital had left Italy to settle in foreign countries. The ancient capital of Rome was conquered by barbarians and no longer had the population it once had. The Roman Empire lost its power over the world, but it never lost its image. The image according to Woolf was created by the movement and not by institutions..