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Melancholy of the antique world - Judy |
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written
by jwang3 / 10.24.2005 |
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| melancholy of the antique world |
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Part 1: |
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In first walking through the Roman Forum and then sweeping my eyes across the entirety of it, I gained an understanding of the phrase "melancholy of the antique world." Throughout the presentation on the Forum, I was mesmerized by the might of the Roman Empire. The Forum is huge, yet each monument remaining today is merely a shadow of what existed before. Upon learning about the functions of these buildings, knowing the roles they played in triumphal processions, in reigning over the people, and in keeping the city of Rome alive, my idea of this sense of power was only heightened.
When I was standing in the middle of the Forum, it was easy lose myself in the enormity of what was set before me – the sheer size of the remains of the Temple of Saturn and the Arch of Septimus Severus was astounding. On top of that, when I tried to imagine the act of building these gargantuan monuments, the thought seemed barely tangible.
Later, however, when the entire spread of the Forum was before me, all the ruins in one giant panoramic view, it somehow reduced in size, becoming just rubble, piles of rocks, arranged together in an effort to make a single cohesive shape. Huge as the monuments had been while standing in the middle of the Forum, they became ruins as a whole, serving little to no function, except as a memory of the past.
For the Roman people, these buildings had been everything. They represented the power, pride, and glory that Rome stood for. They housed the fire that kept Rome burning, the monuments that divinated rulers, and the places for Roman laws to be upheld. Centuries later, after the fall of the Roman Empire, these buildings have become nothing but empty pieces of stone that the modern world has pieced together in order to gain somewhat of an understanding of the Roman culture. Even with these tools, however, there lie still many mysteries to which we do not have the answers for.
Seeing the Forum as a whole evokes the sense of melancholy Flaubert refers to in his quote. All the majesty of Rome, all the powers controlling Rome, and all the might representing Rome lay in the Forum, symbolized by the display of strength and majesty in the Roman architecture. Since the beginning of time, no empire has held the power that Rome has held, nor has such fame and glory attached to its name. Now that the buildings that made Rome the epitome of glory and might have deteriorated, so has Rome itself. That what was once the greatest civilization on earth has become nothing but rubble makes me somewhat pensive of the outcome of my own world. Even today we marvel at how the Pantheon was constructed to withstand two thousand years of weathering and how Rome was able to conquer everything within its reach. If something that our own current civilization can barely understand could end in such devastation, what does this say about our own world? What will our own universe look like two thousand years from now? The great accomplishments of Rome mean nothing now – what about our innovations and cutting-edge technology now? Will we end the same way? Do we mean nothing as well?
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Part 2: |
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In comparing the forums of Pompeii and Rome, I find little difference – except that one is better preserved than the other. The sight of the Pompeiian Forum is slightly less desolate than that of the Roman Forum. Instead of dust, we find grass. Instead of hellish heat, we sense merely the rays of the sun. Everything else, however, is exactly the same. The same tourists are flocking to picturesque spots, taking pictures of monuments whose names they do not know. The Forum, broken and fragmented, stands there once again, a remnant of its past glory. The questions evoked by my initial reaction to the Forum still exist; they are not lessened in their degree by Vesuvius’ preservation. The power and glory of Roman Empire has become extinct, regardless of which Roman city we look at.
The Tarquinian tombs, in contrast, do not elicit the same type of melancholy as do the Roman Forums, for they were designed to represent death. The Etruscans are immortalized by the tombs which they themselves chose, while the Romans are remembered by the fragments of their world that remain. The greatest empire in history is memorialized by its failure.
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