Ancient Rome is located in the same place as modern Rome: the capital city of Italy, situated in the Lazio region on the Italian peninsula. The historic center sits along the Tiber River, built across the same seven hills where the city was founded nearly 2,800 years ago. But if the question is about the Roman Empire rather than just the city, the answer stretches across three continents and more than 40 modern countries.
The City of Rome Today
Modern Rome is the capital of both Italy and the Roma province within the Lazio region. The ancient city’s core landmarks still stand within the modern urban landscape. The Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Roman Forum, and the ruins of Nero’s Golden House (the Domus Aurea) are all located in central Rome, surrounded by the living city that grew up around them over two millennia.
The famous seven hills that defined the ancient city’s geography are still there, though most are now covered with modern buildings, monuments, and parks. The Capitoline Hill houses Rome’s city hall. The Palatine Hill, where emperors once built their palaces, is now part of the main archaeological zone. The remaining five (the Aventine, Caelian, Esquiline, Quirinal, and Viminal) are home to a mix of government buildings, churches, residential neighborhoods, and green spaces. Walking through Rome today, you’re constantly crossing between layers of history, with ancient walls and columns built directly into medieval and modern structures.
Other Roman Capitals Across Europe
Rome was the original capital, but it wasn’t the only one. As the empire grew and eventually split, several other cities served as seats of imperial power, and those cities still exist today under different names.
Milan (then called Mediolanum) served as the western imperial residence starting in the late third century. Trier in modern Germany was the seat of one of the junior emperors under the system that divided rule among four leaders. Sirmium, now the town of Sremska Mitrovica in Serbia, held a similar role. When the western court moved again in 402 AD, it landed in Ravenna, a city in northeastern Italy that remained the western capital until the empire’s fall in 476 AD.
The most enduring Roman capital after Rome itself was Constantinople, founded by Emperor Constantine in 330 AD on the site of the older Greek city of Byzantium. Constantinople served as the capital of the eastern half of the empire for over a thousand years, outlasting the western half by nearly a millennium before falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. That city is modern Istanbul, Turkey. It holds the distinction of being the longest-serving capital in Roman history, surpassing even Rome.
The Empire’s Full Reach in Modern Terms
At its peak under Emperor Trajan around 117 AD, the Roman Empire covered roughly 5 million square kilometers, stretching from northern England to the banks of the Euphrates River in Syria, and from the Rhine-Danube river system in central Europe down to the North African coast and the Nile Valley in Egypt. Translating those borders onto a modern map produces a long list of countries.
In Western Europe, the empire covered all of modern Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Monaco, Andorra, Liechtenstein, and significant parts of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In the British Isles, Roman control extended across England and Wales, with frontier outposts reaching into Scotland.
Southeastern Europe was heavily Roman territory. Modern Greece, Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Hungary, and Serbia all fell within the empire’s borders. Cyprus and Malta were included as well.
In the Middle East and North Africa, the empire encompassed modern Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and parts of Iraq. Under Trajan’s brief eastern expansion, Armenia, parts of Azerbaijan and Georgia, and possibly a sliver of northern Kuwait were brought under Roman control, though some of these gains were quickly abandoned by his successors. A small strip of the Saudi Arabian Red Sea coast also fell within the province of Arabia Petraea.
Roman Roads Still Shape Modern Highways
One of the most tangible ways ancient Rome survives on the modern map is through its road network. The Romans built roughly 300,000 kilometers of roads across their empire, and a striking number of those routes are still in use today. Modern European highways frequently follow the exact paths laid down by Roman engineers, who chose routes based on terrain and efficiency that remain practical two thousand years later. The Via Appia heading south from Rome, for example, traces a corridor that modern Italian roads still follow. Across France, Spain, and Britain, major road and highway routes sit on top of or run parallel to their Roman predecessors.
This continuity goes beyond roads. Many of the major cities that dot modern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East were founded or significantly expanded as Roman settlements. London (Londinium), Paris (Lutetia), Vienna (Vindobona), Budapest (Aquincum), and dozens of others owe their locations and original street layouts to Roman urban planning. The empire is long gone, but its physical footprint is still embedded in the infrastructure of the modern world.