Rome Part 1 - Maximus Decimus Meridius

In 2000, I unwittingly sat down in front of the new Ridley Scott movie 'Gladiator' hoping to enjoy this new film, but without any high hopes for it. Two hours later I came out of the cinema with one of those rare glows, that can only be achieved by witnessing cinematic perfection. Old Ridley has made some complete crap over the years no doubt, but every now and then the movie Gods align and allow him to make an 'Alien', a 'Blade Runner' or a 'Gladiator'. On a good day, he is able (and please forgive the movie critic babble) to create believable worlds on that screen. With 'Gladiator' he brought a dead civilisation back to life, made the Roman Empire breathe once more, and created one of the best popular films of the last 30 years. Suffice to say, I was quite taken with his work. Then a little later I devoured both series of HBO's brilliant 'Rome' series, which is out on blu-ray very soon by the way. After that it was time to get serious, and I invested in all eight volumes of Gibbons' complete 'History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'. As a boy I'd been fascinated by Rome, but as an adult I was entering into full nerd status.

When you look into the history books a little, you see that Imperial Rome set the template for the modern world. Our language, culture, law, architecture, food and weapons can all be directly traced back to that time. We owe our entire civilisation (a stolen Greek word but never mind) to them, for better or for worse. But it all went wrong, and the Western Empire fell 1500 years ago. The Forum became neglected and overgrown, and the Coliseum was used for building supplies. But then came the Renaissance, inspired by books discovered in the Eastern Empire, Roman learning once thought lost forever was re-discovered. And so on and so forth. You can read the rest for yourselves if you want to. Point is, when my wife and I discussed my 40th birthday and where I wanted go for it, I had only one place in mind. I wanted to tread the streets that the Caesars had trod.

So, on the 5th of September 2009, bright and early, we reached the Forum. For those that don't know, this is the part of Ancient Rome upon which stood the Senate, the houses of the rich and the tokens of victory. It's where Julius Caesar was murdered, where Nero built his house covered in solid gold, where Caligula copulated with livestock and where the modern world began. Having seen photos of it, I was expecting little more than a ruin, and in a way that's what remains. But what a ruin. Standing in several acres, and covering various periods of the 1000 years that Rome ruled supreme, the Forum is an astonishing piece of history. Amazingly until recently it was little cared for, and even now you feel it could be better preserved. True, some of the buildings are little more than single columns, like teeth left behind where once a giant stood. But other parts are better preserved such as the extensive remains of the home of Emperor Augustus (the first and most revered of all the Emperors). Then there is the 'Via Sacre' the main street of the forum, where one can still walk under the remarkably well preserved victory arches dedicted to Titus and Trajan. Parts of the old senate building also remain, where Caesar was assassinated, although these structures are nearly gone.

But the overwhelming feeling one gets from this place is that of a ghost Empire, once all powerful and now left like the rotting hulk of a shipwreck. I think it would be something to walk amongst these ruins in the dead of night, just to see if one might run into a ghostly centurion or a vaporous senator. The lasting impression I took from all this was that of the cautionary tale. That no matter how big, how powerful and how rich your empire may be, it can so easily end up like this. A group of ruins, open to tourists and historians of the future to walk round and surmise what went wrong. It would do many current politicians good to have a long hard look around the place. Personally I was bowled over by it, and despite the nearly unbearable heat I spent as much time as I could looking round and trying to soak it up. It's something I'll never forget.

At the other end of the Via Sacre and past a final victory arch (yes Paris, this is where Napolean got the idea for the Arc De Triomphe) lies the best preserved and most iconic part of Imperial Rome, The Coliseum. Built by the Emperor Vespasian long after the likes of Caesar, Augustus, Nero and Caligula were dead, even now it is spectacular and intimidating. Even in a world where we are used to large sports stadia (yes, a Latin word) the thought that the Coliseum was packing in 80,000 spectators nearly 2000 years before Wembley Stadium had even been thought of is an impressive one. As you approach the place the first thing that strikes you is how big it is, even by modern standards. Quite honestly I'd expected it to be small and pokey, but no. It was bloody enormous and I'm a modern man. What it must have meant to Romans in A.D. 79 I can only guess at. Of course there's nothing very attractive about what went on there. Thousands met their deaths for the entertainment of the plebs, criminals were publicly executed, wild animals were slaughtered (ever wondered why there are no tigers left in Africa, ask the Romans about that), Christians were allegedly fed to lions, and women were even raped by wild animals.

But there's a power about the place, even in its dilapidated state. Maybe it's because of the bloodshed that took place, but there's an unmistakeable atmosphere. It's now possible to see down to the catacombs that were situated directly under the main arena. The cells where the Gladiators and condemned criminals alike were kept. Trap doors that released a lion into the arena in the middle of the show. And floors where blood sometimes ran like rainwater. A cross now stands at the side of the arena, installed by a relatively recent Pope in order to preserve the Coliseum and to commerate those that died there. As a result the Coliseum is now consecrated ground and a fascinating relic of the ancient world. It's easy to be bloodthirsty about it 1500 years later, but a lot of men, women and animals died there. And like it or not it's the bloody birthplace of our society.

Of course I couldn't resist doing my best Russell Crowe impression for my embarrassed wife while we were there, and I tried to imagine the scene with a full house, a team of Gladiators and buckets of blood. And if I'm brutally honest can I say that I wouldn't have have loved it ? And could you ? After all, we're all plebians really aren't we.