Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

My wife El and I completed the Italian portion of our sabbatical time with a one-day trip to Rome, the Eternal City. While she napped I walked my favorite piazzas and visited my favor monuments, including the Arch of Peace newly re-assembled. It was dedicated by the emperor Augustus after his defeat of Cleopatra and Marc Antony and it was meant to mark an enduring Pax Romana.

The most famous monuments and ruins of Rome date from the time of the arch’s dedication in 9 BCE to the time of the barbarian sacking of the city in 410 CE. 420 years is not a bad run for an empire.

While on Sicily we visited an archeological site that truly displayed the decadent grandeur of empire. The Villa Romana di Casales is a 25,000 sq. ft. summer mansion of a former emperor built in 290 AD. It was covered in a mudslide in the 11th century and only began to be excavated in 1950. What has been uncovered is the most amazing set of mosaics from antiquity that has ever been found. Every square inch of floor space in this magnificent villa is covered in hand-laid tiles depicting vast scenes from nature, history and mythology.. The grand dining room depicts the feats of Hercules. The great hallway shows scenes of the capture of wild African animals for the spectacles at the Coliseum. The gymnasium has women in bikinis working out with dumbbells. It is one of the most astounding archeological sites I have ever experienced. But its beauty is dwarfed by its grandiosity and the incredible sense of entitlement that its extravagance confirms. This mansion represents the pinnacle yet also the exploitation of empire. Talk about the 1%.

At other sites on Sicily - Syracuse, Agrigento, Taormina - we saw the root of Rome’s promise. The Greek ruins dating back to the 6th century BCE are most impressive. The Temple of Concordia is the best example of a still-standing temple in the world. It centers a site that is a prime example of how architecture feeds philosophy. Democracy was in force in Agrigento as the city was built up following their defeat of Carthage. The forum, the theatre, the temples celebrated the citizen. Later, however, it turned to empire.

I come home to America with many lessons learned from the ancient world. So much of how we still operate as a society was laid out in stone in the Greek and Roman communities of the Mediterranean. I hope our own empire can learn some lessons before we too are left in ruins.