The book Rome: The Story of an Empire, by Greg Woolf, is an excellent example of how the elites of Rome created an omnipotent image that would survive to Rome itself. Woolf states that many modern empires have made so much use of Roman symbols, and that this gives us a great sense of perspective on modern empires, but argues that "Rome has its own romance (Woolf, p. 27)". Rome survived for about 1500 years. During those 1500 years Rome went through many different 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. "Rome: A History of an Empire" by Greg Woolf 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 the moment in which Rome reached its maximum point of definition, that is, during the age of Virgil and Augustus. This occurred during the last decades BC and the first decade or so AD Augustus and Virgil created this image of what it means to be Roman and how we think about ancient Rome today. Roman history is usually divided into two periods, the republican and the republican. 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 because starting with Augustus the leader of Rome is called “emperor” creating confusion between the forms of government used and how society was governed. For two centuries before, Augustus Woolf had argued that what had been called the Roman Republic was actually an empire. The only difference compared to the period of Augustus and the previous two centuries is that Rome stopped expanding. Augustus substantially changed the Roman image from... middle of paper... to Western Europe found a different type of climate. This colder, darker climate was very different from the warm, humid air of Italy. Rome's ability to romanize the known world was as simple as introducing new agricultural methods and new foods. It was the movement to create 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 conquistadors displayed their luxury goods and culture leaving the native elites eager to Romanize. At the end of the Roman Empire the capital had moved out of Italy and into foreign lands. The ancient capital of Rome was conquered by barbarians and had nowhere near the population it once had. The Roman Empire had lost its power over the world, but it never lost its image. The image that Woolf advocates was created by the movement and not by the institutions.