Book excerpt: Few other cities can compare with Rome's history of continuous habitation, nor with the survival of so many different epochs in its present. This volume explores how the city's past has shaped the way in which Rome has been built, rebuilt, represented and imagined throughout its history. An imaginative approach to the study of the urban and architectural make-up of Rome, this volume will be valuable not only for historians of art and architecture, but also for students of cultural history and film studies.