Rome in the century and a half after the Byzantine reconquest is characterized both by deep structural continuities with the past and by often profound ruptures and innovations that pointed toward the future. In purely topographical terms, however, the past prevailed. Some old monuments and infrastructure were retained in something close to their original condition, others were altered and/or repurposed, and many more were left to decay for want of sufficient human and material resources. In all cases, though, the physical contours of the ‘Byzantine’ present mostly consisted of features first created centuries earlier. Streets and piazzas, walls and aqueducts, housing and churches inherited from the imperial era still defined the parameters of the material environment in which Romans lived and worked.