AS Roma

The Yellow and Reds. The Wolves. La Magica. Few football clubs are so tightly bound to the identity of their city as Roma. Founded in 1927 through the merger of several Roman clubs, the idea was simple: create a footballing force powerful enough to challenge the wealthy giants of northern Italy. Since then, Roma have become one of Italy’s most passionately supported clubs, winning league titles, European trophies and producing legends such as Francesco Totti, the eternal captain who came to embody the city itself.

But to understand Roma’s badge, you need to understand Rome. Most of you will be familiar with the legend that inspires the badge – but let’s go back and flesh it out a little. According to Roman legend, the city was founded by the twin brothers Romulus and Remus, sons of the god Mars. After being abandoned on the banks of the River Tiber by their jealous uncle, the babies were discovered and protected by a she-wolf who nursed them in her cave. The twins eventually overthrew their uncle and set out to found a new city — but after an argument over where it should be built, Romulus killed Remus and named the city after himself: Rome. The wolf and the twins still sit proudly on Roma’s badge today, less a football logo and more a symbol of the entire Eternal City.

From those mythical beginnings grew one of the most important civilisations in world history. Rome began as a republic around 509 BC after the overthrow of its kings. Power was shared between elected officials, senators and assemblies of citizens, creating a political system that would influence governments for thousands of years. Through military discipline, engineering brilliance and ruthless expansion, the Roman Republic spread across Italy and eventually much of the Mediterranean world. Roads, aqueducts, armies and laws tied together an empire unlike anything Europe had seen before.

But republics can become unstable when they grow too large. By the first century BC, Rome was torn apart by corruption, inequality and civil wars between ambitious generals. Figures such as Julius Caesar gained enormous military and political power, weakening the republican system. After Caesar’s assassination in 44 BC, further conflict followed until his adopted heir Augustus emerged victorious. In 27 BC he effectively transformed Rome from a republic into an empire ruled by one man — though the emperors were careful not to openly call themselves kings. Rome had moved from senate debates to imperial dictatorship, and the empire would dominate Europe, North Africa and the Middle East for centuries.

Rome’s dominance did not last forever. In the 4th century AD, Emperor Constantine the Great transformed the empire by embracing Christianity after centuries of Roman persecution against Christians. He legalised the religion, supported the Church and founded a new eastern capital at Constantinople — modern Istanbul — closer to the empire’s richest trade routes and most threatened frontiers. Soon after, Emperor Theodosius I permanently divided the Roman Empire into eastern and western halves in 395 AD, hoping it would be easier to govern and defend. Instead, the Western Roman Empire slowly collapsed under invasions, economic decline and political chaos, with Rome itself falling in 476 AD.

Italy then fractured into rival kingdoms and powerful city states such as Venice, Florence, Milan and the Papal States. Yet Rome never truly disappeared. During the Renaissance, the city became one of Europe’s great artistic capitals once again, filled with the works of masters such as Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci. The Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, St Peter’s Basilica and countless ruins, statues and paintings ensured that even after the empire died, Rome still shaped the culture of Europe centuries later.

That imperial legacy still runs through Roma today. The club’s deep red and golden yellow colours mirror the traditional colours of the city of Rome itself, representing Roman imperial dignity and power. Their nickname, I Lupi — “The Wolves” — comes directly from the founding myth, while the badge ties modern football to one of the oldest stories in European civilisation. More recent kits have simply used a simplified version of the wolf's head (see image).

Roma are not just representing a football club when they take to the pitch. They are representing two and a half thousand years of mythology, empire, conflict and identity every time they step onto the pitch.