According to the medieval poet Jean Bodel, the Matter of Rome is the literary cycle of Greek and Roman mythology, together with episodes from the history of classical antiquity, focusing on military heroes like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar.Bodel’s division of literary cycles also included the Matter of France and the Matter of Britain (although "non-cyclical" romance also …

The three versions of Ancient Rome, in order of creation, are located in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Louvre in Paris. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Louvre each hold a version of Panini's companion piece, Modern Rome; and the third version is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. History