Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

Over at Spotlight magazine, the December issue asks "Is America the New Rome?" Hmmm. I was pondering that same question three weeks ago while examining a series of stonework maps on the outside wall of the Forum. The first one shows a swampy habitation on the banks of the Tiber and the final one shows a vast empire embracing Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. And then a couple asked me if I'd take their photo with their digital camera. "Sic transit gloria mundi," as the old Romans used to say.

So, what then, if anything, can those on the banks of the Potomac today learn from Rome's ruins? Well, by the time of the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180), Rome was suffering from overreach, although the senators and citizens didn't see it like that. Their city had more than 1.5 million inhabitants and its wealth was reflected in temples, theatres, circuses and libraries. The aqueducts provided public baths with hydrous spectacles and private houses with running water and flush toilets. Visitors from the hinterland gaped in awe at the Colloseo. The list of wonders was lengthy. Ominously, however, Marcus Aurelius spent 14 years of his reign fighting the barbarians, regarded at the time, no doubt, as terrorists. It was the beginning of the end of empire.

A stroll today through the majestic ruins reminds us of how great Rome really was. But the same ruins also prompt vexing questions about the limits of military might, so let's hope that some of those advising the Boy Emperor have read Gibbons' Decline and Fall. It might be too much, though, to expect that they know Aurelius' Meditations, one of which reads:

"Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and its current is strong; no sooner does anything appear than it is swept away, and another comes in its place, and will be swept away too."