The Old, Old World

In America, we sometimes talk of the "Old World."  We live in the New World, "discovered" by Columbus in 1492.  It's difficult to comprehend what constitutes the Old World.  Two years ago when Mark and I were in Rome, we lived a stone's throw from the Milvian Bridge, the site of a major inflection point in the history of Western culture and religion.


Constantine defeated his rival (and brother-in-law) Maxentius and, in the process, is said to have had a dream in which he was told to mark the shields of all soldiers with a sign - the Latin Cross (or maybe the Chi-Rho, there are conflicting accounts). Later, on his deathbed, Constantine converted to Christianity. (It wasn't until later that the Empire became officially Christian, under Theodosius I.)  After his victory, Constantine marched up Via Flaminia into the center of Rome, where he soon would be sole ruler.  This, incidentally, is the way we went to school every morning.

So anyway, it's a cool bridge.

This afternoon, we took a visit to another old site from the era of Constantine (his son actually, Constantius II).  The oldest Catholic Church (324 A.D.) in the world - Archbasilica of St. John Lateran. In the front of it is the oldest standing obelisk in the world (1,500 B.C.).  The obelisk was taken from the Temple of Amun in Karnak.  To the Romans, the obelisk was an historic artifact. Timewise, they viewed the Egyptians the same way we view the Romans.   In fact, the ancient Egyptians were about 1,000 years older to them than the Romans are to us. Note the cross on top of the obelisk, which, of course has nothing to do with Egypt.   The Roman Catholics put a cross on top of everything.

So Contantius II brought the obelisk with him on his only trip to Rome (he was more of an "Eastern Empire" guy).  It was installed near the Circus Maximus (where they held chariot races) and remained there until the fall of the Western Roman Empire.  The Circus soon went into disuse and the obelisk (along with another one) broke into 3 pieces and eventually was covered in mud.   In 1587 it was dug up, dusted off and put in front of the church.

It's amazing to think that over 400 years ago this obelisk was considered ancient.  It was already about 3,000 years old.  So, given its history, its new home in this square is pretty new.

Then 200 years later the United States Constitution was written.