The Papacy, the Commune, and the Struggle for SPQR in Fifteenth-Century Rome

The return of the popes to Rome at the end of the fourteenth century initiated a long process of political negotiation over the municipal government of Rome. Both sides of the debate cited prominent historical precedents in their favor: the city's medieval self-image as an autonomous Roman republic persisted, but was increasingly overshadowed by the new humanistic image of the pope as a Christian Roman emperor. The research and ideas of classical humanists such as Poggio Bracciolini, Flavio Biondo, and Lorenzo Valla—present in Rome as employees of the papal administration—fanned both sides of the debate. This paper will explore the place of an especially fraught symbol within these political negotiations: the Roman commune's characterization of itself as the SPQR (traditionally expanded as the senate and people of Rome). Its classical pedigree was impeccable, but its republican implications were antithetical to the new papal politics. Its appropriation by the popes was therefore one of the great propaganda triumphs of fifteenth-century Italy.