Well, the last week of my trip is finally here. I would say "wow, it has all gone by so fast" but that isn't necessarily true. As I look back on our massive itinerary list and review all of the places we have been and all of the sites we have seen, it really seems like we have accomplished something. It also seems like I have been here for a really long time, and I am more than ready to return home.
So, here are some of my last thoughts here in Rome.
1) As you can see from the last pic, "condiments" in Italy means simply "more olive oil." At most restaurants you have to pay for tiny packets of ketchup, which means that it just isn't worth it - especially considering the fact that ketchup here like an odd combination of our versions of bbq sauce and ketchup. I posted this pic to show that the food situation here has been a bit maddening for me. In fact, I have had some digestive issues throughout my stay here, and I am certain that it is due to the peculiarities of the Italian diet. Let me explain. Breakfast here consists of coffee + pastry (yogurt if you're lucky). Lunch is usually either a sandwich (mostly bread) or pizza (also bread). Dinner unfailingly consists of pasta (more carbs) followed by some sort of meat and veggies, but the veggies are available only if you're lucky and they are seasonal - which means that right now all that is available are green beans and squash. Basically, my diet has been turned upside down by this trip, since at home I don't even buy bread. Just one more reason why, although I have loved being here, I need to leave.
Also, don't ever let anyone disparage American food to the glory of European food. Trust me, although they have hardly any "fast food" joints here, their food is just as greasy and just as bad for you, if not more so than a lot of American fast food. The Italian food philosophy seems to be something like "just add olive oil and cheese to anything and it will taste good." I'm not so sure about that.
2) The first two pics are meant to be taken together. The first pic is of the Aurelian walls - a brick wall with fortifications every 100 feet or so that surrounds the 4th century AD city. The wall is actually really well constructed. It looks kind of castley (my own word), as you can see from the picture. At the entry points there are two gates, you know, just in case you need to drop some hot oil on invaders while they are coming through the first gate. The wall was constructed to protect the city from what the Romans thought was an imminent threat - the northern Celtic peoples. But there is one historical fact about the walls that you must realize - they NEVER worked! Despite the intense amount of labor, despite the hundreds of fortification spots, despite the manpower and preparation, the walls never did what they were supposed to do. This is probably because if you have a massive army invading you and a crippling interior political structure, you simply aren't going to be able to hold out long against any enemy intent on sacking your city regardless of the walls you have built up. Wishful thinking? Perhaps more of a psychological coping mechanism than anything else.
In sequence with this theme of futility and decline, we see the portrait of husband and wife. I was struck by this solemn fact - despite having had portraits of themselves made, history has long forgotten who these two people were, and the label just reads "man and wife." Not even a name. They must have put in quite a bit of money to have these portraits made, and that isn't even counting the tomb structure that these would have been a part of and the plot of land that was probably purchased along one of Rome's main roads - the Appian, perhaps.
Long story short, it is understandable to me now why ancient historians and the ancients in general adopted a view of history that was the complete opposite of our own - namely, the view that history is a process of decline from some golden age, which is quite the opposite of the theory of progress that permeates modern culture. What do I think? If nothing else, history can help us obtain a perspective from which to view what is currently happening in the world.
3) The dancing guys and the pomerium inscription. So I don't have anything to say about the dancing guys, I just thought it was a funny pic.
The old rock there in the 4th pic actually says something. You can just make out the word "POMERIUM." This was a boundary marker for the original (think "Republic" and "Romulus and Remus") city boundaries. I've included this picture because the concept of the POMERIUM illustrates what is, to me at least, the most intriguing thing about the Romans - they seem to near to us (running water, politics, empire, etc.), yet in certain ways they were so incredibly different. The POMERIUM was the ancient city boundary line, but it was way more than just that. It was like an invisible force field from a sci-fi movie. There was an elaborate ritual involving plowing with white and black bulls and throwing the clods inside of the plow line, probably accompanied by sacrifices and who-knows-what. There were a ton of restrictions as to what could be done inside the boundary line - for example, no dead bodies, no killing. When commanders were given imperium (the power to command troops and wage war) by the senate, their power of imperium only became active when they crossed the pomerium line, and when they re-entered the city when they crossed the pomerium line again their power was no longer valid. Yes, like an imaginary force field!
The Romans also had an ingenious war-time ritual that I'll briefly mention. Basically, Rome only went to war out of "self-defense." How was this possible? The priests would designate a small plot of land within the city as "foreign soil," and they would go so far as to import dirt from whatever land they wanted to wage war with and pour it there. Then, the priests would take weapons and hurl them into Roman soil while standing on the "foreign soil," thereby allowing Rome to go to war in self-defense. Interesting, huh?
Ok, I've blabbered on for way too long now. I can't wait to get back and see many of you in person!
Ciao!
