Rome's mythological past, its founding fathers, Romulus and Remus, couldn't be erased. Paganism was still deeply ingrained. But one pope who witnessed the sacking, Leo the Great, saw a way of channelling the prestige of the pagan world into the magnificence of the Christian. To find out how Leo shaped the Christian identity of Rome, I'm meeting historian Michele Renee Salzman. Michele, how did Pope Leo promote Christianity in a city that still had such a strong classical Roman tradition? Leo was very proud of the Roman tradition in the pagan past, he's the first pope to actually mention Romulus and Remus, and to take pride in the Roman Empire in one of his sermons. But a better empire, a stronger empire, a greater empire resides with Christ. And so he is very involved in maintaining the physical fabric of the city, but as a Christian centre.


罗马神话般的过去即它是由罗莫路和勒莫创建这一史实是不可抹去的。这些观念在异教徒心中根深蒂固。有位教皇注意到这一点，他就是教皇伟大的里奥（圣良一世），是他将异教的威望注入基督教那庄严瑰丽的世界里（他用这种方法来收买民心）。为了找出里奥如何将基督教的身份加诸罗马城，我将会拜访史学家米歇尔·伦尼·萨尔兹曼。 教皇里奥究竟是如何在罗马推广基督教的，须知那时候罗马城中传统习俗根深蒂固。 事实上里奥为罗马传统感到自豪，这些传统却是过去异教徒流传下来的。他是首位提及罗莫路和勒莫的教皇，并在某次布道中提到他们并引以为豪，不过，里奥也指出只有和主基督同在罗马帝国才会变得更完善、更强大、更伟大。因此，他在将罗马打造成基督教中枢的过程中致力于确保罗马城各个部分能完好地保存下来。