I Explore the Forum

Today we, as a class, followed our professors, Davide and Emilio, to the Roman Forum, on an architectural tour. Did you know that the area of the Forum used to be under 9 meters of dirt? Apparently everything in Rome is built upon something else, like science or legos. People kept knocking buildings down, filling in the cracks with dirt, and rebuilding.

Also, did you know that Mussolini was responsible for the excavation? He wanted to connect his Fascist regime with the Roman imperial glory of the past, or something or other. That's why he partially instigated the war: in order to reclaim Roman territory. So he excavated and restored not only the Forum, but countless Roman structures and artifacts all over the city and state. Evidently he's not such a bad guy.

So we saw the Temple of Saturn, referred to as the Fort Knox of Antiquity, because it seems the god Saturn was modeled after a leprechaun, and the altar where Julius Caesar was burned, and where now people lay flowers, in honor of his salad, but the thing that interested me the most was the Temple of the Green Gods.

It isn't much; just two perpendicular rows of columns. But it was the last pagan temple in Rome before the Christians shut it down. The Christians, who previously were horribly persecuted, now in power, were persecuting everyone else. It always sounded like Christians do their best thinking while under fire: Paul, the apostles, the pastor from The Patriot. Other times we don't think so straight, like lighting heretics on fire. It makes me think maybe this environment we've cultured is a bit unhealthy, where sometimes we are concerned more with politics and boycotting movies than forgiveness.

That's probably all rubbish, though.