Romans and Barbarians (then and now)
IT was so cold in Venice last week that Rainy Day was forced to seek shelter at an exhibition. The philistine philosophy here is that life's too short for museums, but principles won't keep you warm so they have to be sacrificed when temperatures plummet. However, this was one exhibition where we were glad to seek warmth for Roma e I Barbari at the magnificent Palazzo Grassi hints at parallels between today's Europe and the continent during the decline of the Roman Empire.
THE chief curator is Jean-Jacques Aillagon, a French former culture minister, and in the preface to the exhibition catalogue he writes that "Europe at the start of the third millennium is living through a cultural revolution not unlike that of the first." Who are the barbarians at the gates today? Muslim immigrants? Sovereign funds? The notion that the hordes are surging across the borders again is given further credence by the Patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Angelo Scola, in his catalogue essay on contemporary Europe when he talks of "the mixing of peoples and civilisations to which our Western societies are now involved to an extraordinary and unprecedented degree."
NATURALLY, the more vocal school of declinism will argue that the exhibition refers not to contemporary Europe but to Washington, which in their eyes is both Rome and the barbarians. Typical of this lot is Martin Jacques, who has been dining out on US decline for some years now. More strident, though, is the French fruitcake Emmanuel Todd, who has spent the last 30 years basking in the glory of his La chute finale: Essais sur la décomposition de la sphère Soviétique (The Final Fall: An essay on the decomposition of the Soviet sphere). In 2001, he roared back with Aprés l'Empire: Essaie sur la décomposition du systéme Américain (After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order), in which he predicted the fall of the United States as the sole superpower.
BACKGROUNDER: Those who don't buy the allegory of imperial decline in which the Tiber becomes the Potomac will find Michael Lind's cover story in last month's Prospect enlightening.
AND, if you are thinking of going to the Roma e I Barbari exhibition, note that it displays much of the Venetian effect that can be both charming and maddening. The sections lurch from minimalist to overwhelming and the descriptions are translated according to some obscure system that thrives on randomness. The audio-guide is essential to making sense of it all. Overall, it is well worth seeing, especially if you think history repeats itself and particularly if the weather is bad.
