<P> For almost a thousand years , Rome was the most politically important , richest and largest city in Europe . Around 100 CE , it had a population of about 450,000 , and declined to a mere 20,000 during the Early Middle Ages , reducing the sprawling city to groups of inhabited buildings interspersed among large areas of ruins and vegetation . </P>
what city was the center of imperial life in the roman empire in the early fifth century
Rome