Ingenium Romanum

The soul is the city of Rome, which, despite general thinking, was indeed built in a day. For when Romulus turned back after seeing the twelve vultures, and heard about Remus's six, he saw the city of Rome clearly, and Rome was complete. Despite Remus's departure, and the halving of his own followers, Romulus constructed the Quadrata on the top of Palantine Hill, and Rome was complete. Rome was complete after the rapture of the Sabine women, and under Titus Tatius's rule it was complete; it was complete when the Circus was built, complete when the kings were exacted, and complete when the Consuls replaced them. When Hannibal looked over the city, Rome was complete. When Caesar and Pompey fought for it, Rome was complete. Augustus ruled over Rome, and after him, Tiberius. Claudius also ruled, and Nero and Vespasian and Constantine and Romulus Augustulus. The Pope, in the absence of the Emperors, watched over the city, and he too ruled. And through all this time, even when Mazzini pushed il Tricolore into the hands of Marcus Aurelius, Rome was Rome, and Rome was complete.

The soul is the city of Rome, which remains to this day the city of Rome. The city that Livius Andronicus was made a slave in remains the city of Rome. He wrote a new Odyssey, an Odyssey that his captors could read, and because of this he was freed. The ground that he ran upon, that he danced and sung upon with his new found freedom, remains, and it is still the ground of the city of Rome. Ovid said "Hic ubi nunc fora sunt," because in his time there were forums in the city of Rome; and though he is dead, and the men he sang these words to are buried with him, the forums remain, and they will always remain. The city of Rome is still the city of Rome where Cicero spoke upon the rostrum, where Aulus Gellius shared his experiences in the Attic, where "Under the oak near the theatre of Pompey you used to pace, or sit, beneath the shade. It's there a mother gave her gift of marble at which, even the rich, would marvel. And you would stare, not at the frescoes inside, but at the wall; the name 'Livia' inscribed." These things all happened in Rome, these words were all spoken by Romans, for they have been imprinted and inscribed into the foundation of the city, and not one can be taken away from the city of Rome.