Cola di Rienzo Bust

Cola di Rienzo tried to turn the memory of ancient Rome into an instrument of government. Born in 1313 to a family of modest means, he trained as a notary and developed a fascination with the city's inscriptions and Roman history. He used that knowledge in a campaign against the violence and rivalries of the baronial families.

In May 1347 he established a new regime on the Capitoline and assumed the title of tribune. Public ceremonies, proclamations, and classical references gave his authority a visible language. He promised order and justice in a city whose papal court was based at Avignon, but his ambitions soon reached beyond Rome to a wider Italian political settlement.

His first period in power lasted only months. Conflict with the barons, strained finances, and the loss of support undermined the regime. After exile and imprisonment, he returned to Rome in 1354 with papal backing and the title of senator; a popular uprising killed him that October.

Later republicans found a predecessor in Cola, while writers and artists turned his rise and fall into drama. His own politics belonged to the institutions and religious expectations of the fourteenth century. Rome’s past supplied powerful symbols. It offered no ready solution to the problem of maintaining consent.