This volume (books 1 and 2) includes: a new introduction to Gregorovius and his work by David S. Chambers of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes in London; Annie Hamilton's preface to her translation; Friedrich Althaus's biographical notice on Gregorovius. Book One covers from the beginning of the 5th century to the fall of the Western Empire in 476. It treats: the description of the city, its churches and monuments; The transformation from a pagan to a Christian city; The city's encounter with Honorius, Radagaisus, and Stilicho; The sieges of Alaric; Popes and Vandals; Saints and Emperors; Empresses and Legends. Book Two extends from the beginning of the reign of Odoacer to the establishment of the Exarchate in Ravenna in 568 and includes: The career of Theodoric; The survival of Roman customs and festivals; The Jews of Rome and schism in the Catholic Church; The trial and execution of Boethius and Symmachus; Amalasuntha, Belisarius, Vitiges; Rome between the Goths and the Byzantines; Invasions by the Lombards and other Barbarians; The condition of Rome at the end of the wars.