Rome is the largest city in and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, it is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia, metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Floyd County. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 36,303. It is the largest city in Northwest Georgia and the 22nd-largest city in the state.
Rome was founded in 1834, after Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, and the federal government committed to removing the Cherokee and other Native Americans from the Southeast. It developed on former indigenous territory at the confluence of the Etowah and the Oostanaula rivers, which together form the Coosa River. Because of its strategic advantages, this area was long occupied by the historic Creek. Later the Cherokee people expanded into this area from their traditional homelands to the east and northeast. National leaders such as Major Ridge and John Ross resided here before Indian Removal in 1838.