The Last Day

Sunday. The last day. I can't believe I've gotten to this point. I can't believe I made it.

I started out the last day as the first day of the week ought to start, by going to church. However, this was some church: I went to St. Peter's Square at noontime to enjoy a papal audience and blessing. You could barely see him, but there he was, Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, in the flesh. I can't say there are many popes in the past 1500 years that I've liked more.

Afterwards I climbed the dome of St. Peter's for the magnificent view of the church and, above, the best view of Rome you can get anywhere. One climbs the dome in between its double-layered shell, so I was inside it. The walls curved more and more on the ascent. It's really quite hair raising, knowing that all that is supporting you is hundred year old engineering, with nothing but the fifteen stories of emptiness beneath. But the views, inside and out, were breathtaking. Remember that seven foot tall lettering (notice the grown man on the catwalk)?

I toured around St. Peter's Square as well, once the crowds gathered for the pope's appearance had dispersed. Recall that I got into St. Peter's the first time through the back door from the Sistine Chapel, and therefore never took a good look at the square (designed by the omnipresent Bernini). The square, actually an oval, is concave, so that even from the edges people can see what is going on in the middle. It is lined by Bernini's Doric columns and topped by a hundred or so statues of his favorite saints. The obelisk in the middle came from Egypt, saw the rise and fall of the pharaohs and of the Greeks, and was in Rome here at Vatican hill's Circus of Nero where Peter and countless other Christians were likely executed. They've put a tiny cross atop it.

And speaking of history: this was it, the grand climax. To avoid the lines at the Colosseum, and to make sure that it would be the last thing I did, I bought my combo ticket at the Palatine. Most people think of Palatine hill as an extra, but I found it fascinating.

The Palatine Hill was the palace complex of the Roman emperors (in fact, we get our word palace from palatine), a political center adjacent to Rome's religious center, Capitoline Hill. Sloping off them to the northeast is the valley of the Forum Romanum, which descends further into the location of Nero's Domus Aurea and the Colosseum.

The ruins atop the Palatine date from the period of the Emperor Domitian, the third emperor of the Flavian dynasty. The first two Flavians, by the way, were Vespasian and his son Titus (Domitian's brother); the former commanded the legions against the Jewish revolutionaries between AD 66 and AD 69, when he was crowned emperor in the chaos following Nero's suicide; at that point Titus became commander (it was he that actually besieged Jerusalem) and later become emperor himself. Domitian is also known as an early persecutor of Christians, like Nero.

The Palatine Hill palace was an enormous structure built around two giant atria, one a gymnasium (above), the other a fountain (right). To the south, the palace loomed over the great Circus Maximus, which we all know from Ben Hur; to the north, it commanded a view over the Forum. Tradition was that Romulus founded his settlement at this spot, and indeed there are Iron Age huts on the site.

But it was Caesar Augustus, as always, who really made the Palatine what it was. His rather simple house- he was always a modest and moral man true to his farmer-warrior stock- was purposefully placed near the legendary huts of Romulus. He lived in his own home throughout his reign. The Emperor Caligula built a sprawling palace that swept down the north side of the hill into the Forum, but following the Great Fire of AD 64 and Nero's building of his Golden House (Domus Aurea), which Vespasian had destroyed (more on that below), Domitian built the Palatine palace that served emperors throughout the remainder of the empire.

I found it especially interesting to stand in the actual throne room of the emperors and imagine both approaching them as subjects (the terror) and being a Caesar, ruling from that spot (the thrill).

After spending awhile touring the site I went down to the Forum.

To emphasize: every proper Greek city had an agora, but the one in Athens shall always be the Agora with a capital A. So too here. All proper Roman cities had forums; indeed, Greek or barbarian cities reconstructed as Roman towns were all given forums. But the Forum of Rome, that will always be the Forum with a capital F.

Think of the Forum and the Capitoline as the Agora and the Acropolis. The Capitoline and the Acropolis were the religious centers of Rome and Athens, respectively. The Forum and the Agora, however, were the political, economic, and social centers. Although the Palatine would eventually supplant the Forum as the official headquarters of political life, the Senate always met at the Curia in the Forum, just at the bottom of the slopes of the Capitoline.

And the Curia, I might add, is magnificently preserved (left). It is a full standing building with a roof because for hundreds of years it was used as a church. One thing I didn't see coming: it's a square. I'd always imagined it to be a semi-circular building.

If the last of the Flavian Emperors, Domitian, put his great mark on the Palatine with his palace, it was his predecessor and brother, Titus, who shaped the Forum. That's probably an overstatement, but the entrance to the Forum today is at the Arch of Titus, which, like the Ara Pacis, was one of the most moving, jaw-dropping, and fulfilling moments for me.

The Arch of Titus, you see, was erected to commemorate the Roman victory over the Jewish rebels of the Great Revolt, and it depicts the plunder of the treasures of the temple: most distinctively the candelabra or menorah from the Most Holy Place. It was a vivid reminder of just why I am doing what I am doing: because Jesus Christ is risen and his Spirit is poured out, the temple no longer need be the center and focus of God's meeting with man. Therefore, I can go on pilgrimage to Rome, in the opposite direction of Jerusalem. And what's more, it provides another contrast: the glories of the temple were brought to Rome as booty by the force of empire, but the glories of Christ were brought to Rome by Paul in chains.

And then, the last site to see: the Colosseum. Honestly, there's nothing I could say about the Colosseum that you couldn't read for yourself. Yes, there were battles of man against man, man against beast, beast against beast; yes, in the early days it could be filled up to create mock sea battles; yes, Christians were crucified and lit on fire to provide lighting for night games; yes, Gladiator was an awesome movie.

But lets bring this back to the pilgrimage aspect of it, eh?

The Colosseum was built by the first of the Flavian emperors, Vespasian (notice that we've worked backwards through the Flavians). It was built atop the demolished ruins of Nero's Golden House, or Domus Aurea.

When the Great Fire of Rome broke out in AD 64 it destroyed a third of the city, especially this area east of the Capitoline and Palatine hills. Nero, not caring a fig about the severe problems this caused the city, took the opportunity to acquire this prime real estate so that he could build himself the greatest palace-mansion even built: the Domus Aurea. It was unlike anything ever built by Romans before, and it would not be surpassed as a palace complex until the palaces of the early modern age like Versailles and Peterhoff. No wonder the Roman populace and later historians, seeing his glee at the opening up of key space for the project, blamed the fire on him (and no wonder he immediately turned around and blamed it on the Christians).

Vespasian, a rough and ready military commander who took power after Nero's suicide in AD 68 and a succession of three other emperors in AD 69, would have none of it. He demolished the Golden House and decided to give the land back to the people in the form of a massive double stadium capable of meeting the demands of a rowdy and unhappy populace in need of bread and circuses. Thus, the Colosseum.

That's the one way in which the Colosseum relates to early Christian and Jewish history. The other is that the Colosseum was financed with booty brought back by his son and lead general, Titus, from the Great Jewish Revolt (as well as from the Domus Aurea). It was constructed by Jewish slaves carted back for the triumph parades in Rome. Forget the later murder of Christians, which likely occurred more often in the Circus Maximus and the circus on Vatican hill, anyway. From the very beginning, the Colosseum was a monument to the persecution of God's people for their faithfulness to him- however misguided we believe the Jewish way of expressing that fidelity to be. Once again, Lord God shows up in the absurdity of resistance to Lord Caesar.

I walked out of the Colosseum and thought, "Done. The last site is seen." A real weird feeling.

Fortunately, the evening afforded me the opportunity to go out with a number of other hostelers who were also on their last night in Rome and enjoy a nice walk and fine dining experience in Trastevere, south of the Vatican on the other side of the Tiber. Italian meals include antipasti (appetizer), pasta, secondi (a meat dish), desert, wine, and coffee. How do these people stay so thin? But all and all, a very relaxing evening, when I allowed myself to spend a little more money than I should, have one more glass of wine than I should, eat one more scoop of gelato than I should, and- catching the plane from which I type this- stay up an hour later than I should. Boy, it felt good.

I have some final thoughts I'm going to detail in two or three posts over this coming week. I hope you'll enjoy them. As for now, I'm safe and sound at home in Boyds, Maryland. My pilgrimage along the route of the Exodus, the ministry of Jesus, and the journeys of Paul has ended. God bless.