Roaming Rome

I have fulfilled a long time wish and am in Rome!  I've been a Roman Empire buff since about fourth grade.  Here's the interior of the Pantheon, first built by Marcus Agrippa in Augustus' time around 27 BC, then enlarged by emperor Hadrian in 120 AD.  It has been the largest unreinforced dome in the world since then.  Built as a shrine to paganism, it's been a Christian church since 608. 

Looking up at the Oculus, a hole in the roof that admits light.  The top of the dome is exactly as high as the interior is wide...43 metres.  It's huge. 

Il Vittorio, a monument to king Vittorio Emmanuelle II, was begun in 1885 as a celebration of the unification of Italy.  It wasn't finished til 1925 under Mussolini, and became a symbol of his fascist regime's power...or wannabe power.  Erected on the Capitoline Hill, it displaced some very old, historic neighborhoods and is visible for miles around.  Check out the people on the steps to get an idea of its scale.  Il Duce wanted to restore the Roman empire, and encouraged grand architecture like this.  It worked until he actually went to war, at which time it became apparent that, except for a small elite corps of professional soldiers, most Italians wanted to drink wine, eat pasta, and make love instead of fighting.  The Italians were especially cool to the idea of helping Hitler on the Russian front...imagine tromping through the snow, 20 below zero, mean people shooting at you, versus tending your fields in a mild 60 degree winter, then going home to your wife and a bottle of good wine.

This is detail from Trajan's column.  Trajan was the last Roman emperor to make major conquests, mostly in Mesopotamia and Dacia...todays Romania.  The artwork mainly shows his Romans kicking Dacian ass.  After Trajan, future emperors realized that it didn't make economic sense to conquer more territory, far from Rome; better to trade and conduct diplomacy instead.

The arch of Septimius Severus, in the Forum.  Emperors tended to construct columns, like Trajan and Marcus Aurelius, or arches, like Severus, Titus, and Constantine.  In the background are the remaining columns of the Temple of Saturn, which was Rome's version of Fort Knox.  Lots of gold and silver was stored there.

In Severus' case, he kicked Parthian ass.  Ruling a century after Trajan, by that time Rome's chief concern was repelling invasions from other empires such as Parthia (today's Iran, basically) and keeping the barbarians out (Germans and Goths, later Huns and Vandals).