12. Ghost Town Rome
Rome in the ninth century was somewhat of a semi-deserted Mad Max ghost town. The city held an estimated population of about 20,000 to 30,000 – a huge decline from its early Roman Empire peak of about a million to a million and a half inhabitants. It was still encircled by the remnants of the Aurelian Walls that had been built in the 270s AD to a secure a city housing dozens times more people than it did in the days of the Cadaver Synod. Within that vastness, the relatively few ninth century Romans were like a few scattered peas rattling inside a huge pot. Most inhabitants were concentrated along the Tiber, because the aqueducts that had supplied the city in its heyday had been cut. As a result, the only sources of water were wells or the river. All other parts of the city, especially Rome’s iconic seven hills, were green areas occupied by farmers.
