We spent last week in Rome, Italy and did our best to balance work and seeing the popular sites like the Colosseum, the Forum, and the Pantheon.

I really enjoyed learning about the history of the ancient Romans and over-indulging in the amazing food, coffee, and wine.

However, I am struggling to reconcile some things in my head.  I LITERALLY went back and forth on writing, re-writing, not writing, re-writing, not writing and eventually writing about it.

So, here goes…

“Things that make you go hmmm…”

There were three things that really struck a nerve with me when seeing these ancient places with my own eyes and hearing some of the stories about them:

1. We revere some pretty awful people.

Take Julius Caesar for example…

He is still a very celebrated person.  There are statues of him all over Rome.  Also, the words Kaiser and Czar are all derived from this name!

While he did some very good things and was a bit of a ‘rags to riches’ story, he really wasn’t a “good” person…

During his life, he started many wars (particularly with the Gauls, Germans, and Celts) to expand his empire.  He conquered lands, stealing riches and capturing prisoners that he sold into slavery.

He also thought pretty highly of himself such that he declared himself “dictator for life” in Rome. Incidentally, this high sense of self-importance likely contributed to his ultimate demise.

Julius Caesar is just one example of a person from ancient Rome who was not really that good of a person.  Owning slaves and effortlessly condemning people to death was just commonplace among many of these leaders.

2. Many Roman buildings and structures have pretty awful back-stories.

Did you know the Roman Colosseum was funded from the “spoils” of Vespasian’s Jewish Campaign – aka the gold looted from the temple in Israel?

Did you also know that nearly a hundred thousand Jewish people were brought back from this campaign to be slaves who would eventually build the Roman Colosseum?

It is very hard for me to reconcile iconic buildings and monuments like this after learning about the means with which they were built! I appreciate the skill and labor but am disgusted by the manner and pretense which it happened.

3. A LOT of people (and animals) were gruesomely killed for purposes of entertainment and to demonstrate power.

The Rome Colosseum is known for being the site of many bloody gladiator battles and epic hunts pitting humans against wild animals purely for the entertainment of the Roman citizens.  Seems pretty disgusting, huh?

It was also the site of many gruesome executions of prisoners of war and criminals.  Many Roman leaders used these events to demonstrate their power and effectiveness. They also publicly executed people to make examples out of those people who didn’t obey their demands or who had dissenting opinions.

Please don’t be naïve to think all these condemned “criminals” received fair trials either.

Experts estimate that upwards of 400,000 people (eg. gladiators, slaves, convicts, and prisoners) and 1,000,000 animals died in the Colosseum during the nearly 400 years it was active.

Measuring in at only 83 meters by 48 meters (less than 1 acre), the arena floor of the Colosseum might have had the most blood shed per square meter of anywhere in history.

Inconsistency

These are just a few thoughts that popped into my head as I learned more about these very historic Roman people and places.

There’s an interesting inconsistency that exists between how we think about things from the ancient Roman times and the things we struggle with in the US, trying to “right the wrongs” in our own history.

It’s interesting that we continue to celebrate and revere these Roman people and places.  Yet, at the same time, we politic in the US for name changes and the removal of historical statues.

Lets be honest, the history of Rome is not all bubblegum and roses.  However, Italians are not destroying buildings and monuments in hopes of re-writing history.  They accept it, remember it, and learn from it.

Conclusion

I certainly don’t have all the answers but, if we want consistency, we have two choices:

• The US should continue removing statues and re-naming places and Italy should start doing the same.

OR

• The US should stop removing statues and re-naming places and accept its history (good and bad) like Rome does.

I never really realized this inconsistency until I visited Rome last week.  I hope sharing these thoughts might make you stop and think about things too.