The Roman Middle Ages and the Armed Vigil of the Fifth Century

For the first time in history Rome created Italian unity, and this unification, her political masterpiece, was the foundation of her extraordinary greatness, owing to the effective means of action it placed in her hands. At the beginning of the sixth century, when the Roman people, rid of the Etruscan domination, were taking their first painful steps in national policy, nothing seemed to foreshadow for Italy such a brilliant future as a unified State.