EUROPE TO-DAY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 52, 29 January 1938, Page 2

EUROPE TO-DAY

THE ETERNAL CITY. Who can approach Rome for the first time (or for the fiftieth time for that matter) without being groatly stirred ? Where in the wide world is there a city with more to show, a city with foundations deeper in the past, a city with so many stones that speak ? Ancient Rome, mistress of the world, the Rome of ruins, the Rome of the Middle Ages, the Rome of the Popes, and the Rome of to-day, Mussolini’s Rome, all are here. Its beginnings go back at any rate to over 700 B.C. when a band of Latins, one of the peoples of central Italy, founded a small town on the left bank of the yellow Tiber, about 15 miles from the sea. That is the period of the lengendary Romulus and Remus, and in those days Rome was ruled by kings—or so it is said. The wars of Rome belong to the history of the Empire. It is sufficient to say tliat as conquerors went forth and added vast areas to the expanding dominion, Rome itself, the centre and seat of government, the mainspring of all, rose to unrivalled greatness, all roads leading to its gates, all lands ransacked for its glory. To-day the capital of Italy—as it was once the capital of the mighty empire—Rome is ancient and modern. We may still see much that is old. In the days of Trajan the city is believed to have had a population of about two million, and it is believed to have been defended by at least three walls built at different times. Ancient Rome had eight bridges over the Tiber—three of them standing today. The open spaces of the old city are to be found still, the most famous of all being the Forum of Trajan and the Forum Romanum. The great central street of the ancient city was the Via Sacra or Sacred Way, beginning in the space between the Esquilino and Caelino Hills, and going on by the east slope of the Palatino and north of the Forum to the base of the Capitoline.—(G).