Drive back from outskirts of Rome with sign of life (7)
I believe the answer is:
repulse
'drive back' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'outskirts of rome with sign of life' is the wordplay.
'outskirts of' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (only letters on the outskirts).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'sign of life' becomes 'pulse' (a person's pulse).
'rome' with its centre removed is 're'.
're'+'pulse'='REPULSE'
'from' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for repulse that I've seen before include "Beat off -- rebuff" , "Disgust" , "Beat back" , "Check" , "kick in the teeth" .)