If you look down at the Roman Forum from the Campidoglio, especially at night, the magic is inescapable: you are at the Center of the World. From here came our finest traditions starting with religious tolerance, rule of Law, market economy, representative government.
Yet Rome also produced colonialism, exploitation, pollution, man's inhumanity to man. Whatever it is, Rome invented it for the Western world, and always in excess.
Fountains, statues, temples, basilicas, columns, paving stones are here piled one upon another in apparent disorder. But make no mistake; order is what the hub of the Empire was about.
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