Rome – How eternal is the Eternal City?
Rome
Rome has been known as the Eternal City far longer than one might think. Of course we consider Rome to be rather ‘eternal’ nowadays, because the place has been around for some odd three thousand years, but you’d be interested to know that even ancient Romans would refer to Rome as the Eternal City.
This characterization came to be because of the belief that people had that no matter how many empires would rise and fall, the existence of Rome would never be placed in jeopardy. When you take a careful look at the history of the past two millenia – of course there have been good and bad times for the city – you are inclined to join that assertion.
So how did that name come to be? Well looking back, it would like that it has stayed true, Rome has been an integral part of the world’s history for as long as it has existed, especially but no relegated to when the continent of Europe was the entire world.
Rome is referred to as being eternal by a plethora of Roman writers, including Tibullus, an elegiac poet who lived between 54 and 18 B.C. as well as Ovid, one of the greatest Latin poets. However the phrase came into the modern public’s lingo and conscience with the novel “The Eternal City”, written in 1901 by Hall Caine, the novel dealing with the idea of a Rome Utopian state.
It’s rather intriguing when you think about it, but there are other sayings related to the city of Rome, for instance: “Rome was not built in a day” and “All roads lead to Rome”, and then there’s also the less formal “When in Rome…”; it just goes to show the importance and impact that the Roman Empire’s capital had on the development of European culture on the whole.
Nowadays Rome is a thriving metropolis, a city which celebrates its history as well as continuing to evolve and develop, maintaining its reputation that no matter what happens in or around it, Rome shall forever be eternal.
