> I would have expected some wealthy modern "noble family" to be able to trace its roots to Rome Rome was never a monarchy, and even the imperial period was ne

> I would have expected some wealthy modern "noble family" to be able to trace its roots to Rome Rome was never a monarchy, and even the imperial period was never as autocratic as it is sometimes painted. The Romans didn’t delineate between the republic and empire the way we do. It was still nominally the Res Publica, and still effectively in some ways a Republic. Hence, the emperor ruled with the tacit consent of, and relied on support of various factions - the army, the senate, and the plebs. Bad emperors would get overthrown and people would think nothing of it. Because the situation at the top was so fragile there weren’t really imperial dynasties that lasted more than a few generations. Secondly, there was the ‘apocalypse’. Plague and warfare severely reduced the population of the Italian peninsula and the city of Rome (by about 95%). The countryside was overrun by various Germanic tribes who probably confiscated much of the wealth. People with money probably went elsewhere - Milan, Venice, and Constantinople for instance.