Here’s my take on why the ruins of ancient Rome are so awe-inspiring. Then think about ancient (or at least relatively old) sites near your home — is a road trip in order?
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A couple videos on the topic:
The Ancient City of Rome (travel video)
Music: Jens East — Daybreak (ft. Henk) www.soundcloud.com/jenseast
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution V4.0
Transcription (remember, this is a direct transcription of what I said and is not actually how I write!):
Welcome to Nine Minutes of Wonder. I’m Betsy Hedberg. I hope this podcast will help you rekindle your sense of wonder for this awe-inspiring world. If you like what you hear in the next few minutes, please subscribe and share.
A few weeks ago, I was in Rome, and of course I went, because it was my first time there, I went to see all the famous ruins, not all of them, but many of them, right? The Colosseum, the Forum, Palatine Hill, so many of the famous, the Pantheon, so many of the famous places. But my favorite, they were all incredible, but my favorite of all was the Baths of Caracalla.
And this is the ruins of a huge public bathing complex that could hold 1600 bathers at one time. It’s not actually as big as the Baths of Diocletian, but the cool thing about the Baths of Caracalla, for me anyway, it was in ruins. So the Baths of Diocletian are now a gorgeous museum, and I didn’t go there, I’ve just seen pictures.
I’ll go there next time if possible. But the Baths of Caracalla don’t have any roofs, they have some of the tiles remaining, but not most of them. They’re just these exposed brick behemoth ruins of this enormous public bathing complex.
And it was so big that it could hold 1600 bathers at one time. And in order to complete the work on schedule, workers had to install 2000 tons of material into the baths every day for six years. So think about that, this is massive.
It had a public library, a huge outdoor recreation area, saunas, and of course various large rooms for hot, tepid, and cold water. One of my favorite things that I saw was on the side of the cold water swimming pool, there’s a game board etched into the marble where people sat in the pool as they played the game. Look it up, you can see some pictures of it. It’s really remarkable.
These baths opened in 216 AD, so you know, they’re really old, like all the ruins of Rome, right? The reason I think I loved the Baths of Caracalla so much, besides the fact that I love seeing examples of daily life, is also the fact that you can see the complete story, in a way, of the ruins. Because they’re ruined, they’re not restored, they’re not dressed up or dolled up in any way.
And it’s like looking at these layers of time, including how it ended up, because it didn’t end up, you know, it didn’t end up in very good shape. And like I said, I was pretty awestruck by all of the Roman ruins in general, more than I’d expected. Not in a glorifying way, but in a “Wow, they really went big” sort of way.
And I felt this awe that they probably (“they” being the Roman elite) would have wanted me to feel with their power. Even though the empire didn’t survive, obviously, and of course the buildings are less impressive than they were back then, if by impressive you mean grand and opulent.
And I hadn’t expected the ruins to be so big, even though everyone says that they are. But the books and photos and documentaries just can’t do justice to the size of these ruins. I’d seen Roman baths in various other places, including Braga in Portugal, where I live, and in Bath, England, but nothing came close to the scale of these public baths in Rome.
And when I was visiting other sites like Palatine Hill, where the emperors had their home, I also found myself contemplating some big-picture ideas that made me go, wow. Not that I was the first person to do this, of course, but this was my first time there. So because this inspired wonder in me, I thought I would share it with you and wherever you are in your car or sitting at home or whatever you’re doing — you’re probably not in Rome while you’re listening to this, although maybe you are, but hopefully this can give you just a few minutes of inspiration the way I experienced it.
When I was sitting on a bench overlooking Circus Maximus and Palatine Hill, I couldn’t stop thinking about all these hugely powerful guys and what they’d think if they saw their part of the city in ruins like this. And yes, it’s memorialized, right? Because we’re all there to see it and we’re all gawking at it. I wasn’t the only one who was sitting or standing looking and taking pictures, and the sun was setting in just this perfect way on Palatine Hill.
But these are in ruins. They have no roofs. It’s exposed brick when once it was white marble.
And when you go inside, there are fountains, but the fountains are empty, and there are ponds that used to have fish. It’s not in great shape, but it’s still something that we admire. And I had this thought, these powerful guys were there back then at that time, and they thought it would last forever, didn’t they? And I think all powerful people think it’s going to last forever, but it usually doesn’t.
It usually ends up in ruins one way or another, because really, we all do, if you want to put it that way. And it felt to me like, wow, this is like looking at the future of my bully tormentor in school, who’s someday going to get his comeuppance, and maybe looking into the future of people who are really powerful now. And it really got me thinking.
Yet, of course, I was sitting and admiring it at the same time, and wouldn’t they be pleased with that?
The next day, I went to the Forum, which is a very large area. It actually takes a while to get around. It was really crowded, and it was kind of a hot day, so I was trying to get a little space in the shade away from the tour groups. And I thought the only real elements between me and the Roman people, either the elite or the poor (mostly the elite) were in this particular area, that is the Forum. But the only real thing between them and me today is this weird thing that we call time, that we can’t actually put our fingers around very well at all. But in a way, of course, their empire has survived, because I’m talking about it now, you’re listening to me talk about it. And there were so many tourists, it was packed. So there’s a reason that people are still going to this place and gawking at it.
So what in the world does all this mean for you, since you’re probably not there, and maybe you don’t really care that much, or maybe you’ll go there sometime, or maybe you’ve been there. But what might this mean for you today? And I’m thinking that you might think about places near where you live that still have evidence of life a very long time ago.
So if you live in North America, for example, it may at first seem like a challenge. But of course, many parts of North America have evidence of civilizations from way before the European settlers, like the impressive ruins in the American Southwest, the Cahokia Mounds in Southern Illinois, and Serpent Mound and the Hopewell Mounds in Ohio. Also, there’s Poverty Point World Heritage Site in Louisiana, and many others. You do have ancient, or at least very old, sites in North America. And by very old, I don’t mean 150 years ago, although in Chicago 150 years ago is relatively old.
So there are cool things to see that aren’t that old, even in North America and the United States. And think about a place that’s near you, or that you’ve been to, or even right in your town. And imagine, even just for a minute, being somebody living at that time.
And think about a time in the past, maybe when the town was founded, or maybe 500 years ago, or maybe 1,000 or 2,000 years ago. And can you imagine, even just for a minute, being someone who lived at that time? Would you really have been all that different from how you are now? You might find it kind of disturbing, as I do, to think about your own personality having to put up with some of the things that people had to put up with back then, like obviously horrendous things like slavery but also many of the cultural rules and beliefs about the place of women, and the bad medicine, or ineffective medical treatments, or surgeries, and many other things that sound really hideous to us today. But, then again, you wouldn’t be just the same as you are now, because your culture would have shaped you.
So I think it’s really interesting to put my mind around that. And also to put my mind around how random it is, in a way, that we were born when we were, and that I was born when I was, instead of a long time ago. Not just born when I was, but where I was.
It’s kind of random, right? And then I look at the people around me, in places I go, or even animals, like there are cat colonies in some of the Roman ruins. And are these people, or are these cats, descendants of people or cats who lived back then? Yeah, of course they are. Many of them are. Some of them are. So I find that pretty cool too. I’m very interested in time, and I’ll be talking about that more in other episodes, as I already have previously.
So those are some fun, if maybe a little bit disconcerting, thought experiments that you can do. And if you’re in Europe, you probably don’t have to go very far to see signs of the Roman Empire. But you also probably don’t have to go very far to see places created by people millennia before the Roman Empire. And that is very cool.
So don’t forget to do that from time to time, and see how those places and the people who used to live there might speak to you, whether you’re in Europe, or the United States, or Canada, or Asia, or anywhere. There’s a history wherever you are.
Okay, that’s all I’ll say today. Talk to you next time.