Picture of the Day - Remnant of the Empire

It was a very special day for me...my first time ever wandering through the ancient forum in Rome. This was the very center of western civilization 2,000 years ago. Some of history's most famous and infamous persons walked these very paths. And here I was, at last, in the heart of the Roman Empire.

Of all the eras of history, it was the Romans that have fascinated me the most. Even as a child, I wanted to learn more about them. Being educated in a Catholic school, I wanted to learn more about these ancient people who were, as we were taught, the enemies and murderers of Jesus Christ. I knew there was more to them than what I was being taught...and there most definitely was.

I read the life stories of Julius Caesar, and Augustus, and many others...the writings of Suetonius and Marcus Auraleus, and countless historical accounts of the that era. I even read the three volumes of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (very depressing) and tried to understand how civilization fell from the high water mark of the Roman Empire to the barely civilized Dark Ages.

So, indeed I was standing in the one place I wanted to visit for most of my life. And what a day it was! The light was amazing, as was the sky. I saw the remnants the Roman Senate, the temple of Vesta, the Arch of Constantine, and the supposed burial site of Caesar's ashes, where flowers are still placed anonymously almost every day. I shall never forget this day.

This photo shows the remnants of the Temple of Saturn. The partially intact pediment above the columns reads, "Senatus Populusque Romanus incendio consumptum restituit.", ("The Senate and People of Rome restored what fire had consumed")

One day soon, I hope to return. More pictures of Rome in the future.