<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> Rome is seat of the Football World Championship . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 2000 </Td> <Td> Rome is seat of the Jubilee . </Td> </Tr> <P> In 1870, the Pope's holdings were left in an uncertain situation when Rome itself was annexed by the Piedmont - led forces which had united the rest of Italy, after a nominal resistance by the papal forces . Between 1861 and 1929 the status of the Pope was referred to as the "Roman Question". The successive Popes were undisturbed in their palace, and certain prerogatives recognized by the Law of Guarantees, including the right to send and receive ambassadors . But the Popes did not recognise the Italian king's right to rule in Rome, and they refused to leave the Vatican compound until the dispute was resolved in 1929 . Other states continued to maintain international recognition of the Holy See as a sovereign entity . </P> <P> The rule of the Popes was interrupted by the short - lived Roman Republic (1798), which was under the influence of the French Revolution . During Napoleon's reign, Rome was annexed into his empire and was technically part of France . After the fall of Napoleon's Empire, the Papal States were restored by the Congress of Vienna, with the exception of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin, which remained part of France . </P>

When did the ancient rome start and end