The interpretation of the images and symbols in Vyach. Ivanov “Roman sonnets” must go deep inside into the European history and culture. A vast perspective opens when comparing the " Roman Sonnets " with the European tradition of the sonnet and its distant Italian origins. Having found in the microcosm of the sonnet one of the codes of the universe , the poet tries to describe the entire macrocosm. Nine " etchings " of the nine " Roman Sonnets” continue and finish this European tradition. The poets object is the Eternal City and its myth. It is noteworthy that in the sonnets are described antique Rome , a pagan Rome, city of ‘800; the dome of St. Peter - the symbol of Christian universalism – arrives only in the last line of the last sonnet. But it is preceded by “arches " of Rome, another symbol of of universalism and peace.