In the period of the Counter-Reformation the city of Rome experienced a profound transformation. Particularly, popes Pius IV (1559-1565), Gregory XIII (1572-1585), and Sixtus V (1585-1590) played a prominent role in the urban renovation of Rome. I have focused my research on the restoration programs of the mentioned popes and on the propaganda of their projects for transforming the city. My primary sources are the occasional Neo-Latin poetry and oratory composed or/and pronounced in Rome during the second half of the XVIth century. With the help of these sources, I have analyzed how the humanists, in celebrating some of the most emblematic monuments of this period, highlight the parallels and contrasts between ancient and modern Rome, and how a propagandistic image of the popes is contructed through this encomiastic literature.