Making the Connections
They call Rome "The Eternal City" for a reason. Whether you are buying groceries from COOP, riding the Metro, looking at centuries-old works inside St. Peter's, or standing right in the middle of the Foro Romano, one thing is common between each of these activities - interaction with the city.
We start with Ancient Rome. Seeing the Foro Romano and Colosseum, to start, was surreal far beyond the simple sense of seeing an image of a postcard in person. Enough of what was in Classical Rome managed to endure the rough tests of time to not only tell the story firsthand of how people interacted with the ancient city, but allow us to feel as if we were in that time period. Image right photo credit Melissa Canaan
The Roman lifestyle was evidently different. Bedrooms were just that - bedrooms. A room with a bed. Most of everything else is done outside of the residences, notably one being bathing. The Terme di Caracella, Roman Baths (image right), in the old city, made the bathing process something enjoyable in a sense, for instance offering games by one of the pools. Not to mention, the grandeur of the complex conveying royal look. As with any baths, these came complete with frigidarium, tepidarium, and caldarium.
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It could drive the question of whether the increased use of our bedrooms has any role in reducing our interaction of society. I feel that there is some resulting disconnect, but not as much as that caused by the use of technology.
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What got me most amazed about the Circus Maximus and the Colosseum were the capacities - it clearly seemed Romans liked battles. But there did not seem like all too much to do back then. I saw it as simply entertainment for the Romans. Today, football, thoroughbred and automotive racing come across as modern analogs. The passion of fans towards these events comes akin to the enthusiasm implied in this era. I do not carry that drive, but can empathize with those who do.
For me Catholic Rome was approached with both an intellectual critique and a celebration. I am not religious but I appreciated each and every visit to all the churches. A highlight of Rome was visiting the Papal Audience one Wednesday morning, where I got to see the Pope in person. To see basically a modern version of such a pilgrimage was not only a timeless scene, but was awe-inspiring. A tradition of the past is adapted to today where the Pope, Jesus's messenger on Earth, delivers inspirational messages, in perhaps almost the same fashion as was done centuries ago. Here in the States, leaders hold speeches like these which serve analogous purposes. No matter what one takes away, I feel that these gatherings are effective and important to solidarity as well. This draws up an understanding of the roles of leaders as well.
The Pantheon, aside from an impressive architectural piece, lives today as a church. For it to primarily serve the Catholic faith today does call into question its origin as a church for all other religions. Being a Roman artifact (120 AD), seeing it restored albeit re-purposed does it more good than harm (the harm being its not serving its original purpose). In a sense, when religious celebrations are not held, people from all over still gather here for visits. Perhaps it remains a pantheon, after all.
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I also drew a similarity here to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey. The Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya) was a church, but now it is a mosque. Another outlook on this is while empires and leadership change, edifices and artifacts of past regimes are adapted to serve the new purpose. By the way - the Ottoman Empire which succeeded the Byzantine Empire lasted half the time of the Roman Empire, a limited sense of perpetuity in and of itself. Change is the only constant, whether it happens over a second or over millennia.
Fora were like commercial centers. In Rome, we were introduced to Trajan's forum, dubbed the first shopping mall, and more colossally, the Palatine Hill and Roman Forum. They are relics, but what little is left of the fora still embody what they have had to offer. The Roman's forum allowed me to, in a sense, witness some of the dominant traits of the Roman Empire. If the law courts and civic centers were not enough to convince me of the greatness of the empire, the arches of Titus and Constantine, which ascertained the winning mentality, did. To see these ancient structures in as good of a condition as they can be evokes an ongoing influence that rides on in modern states.
The Vatican was of no exception when it came to art. Michelangelo's Last Judgment ("no photo") and Raphael's School of Athens, to name a few, carry resonating meaning that anyone can benefit from. I recognized a few familiar faces in the philosophy-themed School of Athens - Euclid, a Geometer, Phythogoras, Aristotle and Plato. The first two are important to me given my mathematical background, and their incorporation into the painting connected the history of Math with the present, reaffirming its significance in life (where it is normally taken for granted and disregarded by many).
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To be fair, when I saw the Last Judgment I was amazed and perhaps a little bit perplexed. There was so much going on in the painting it was a little difficult to follow - although the message is there with it depicting scenarios in the afterlife. A place as grand as the Sistine Chapel is appropriate for this work.