The Eternal City

Following a day of just about the same number of hours on a bus as on our international flight, of which we spent winding up the narrowest road in a 22-passenger bus to a sheep farm in the village of Zerri in the region of Liguria, we arrived in the Eternal City. What a drastic change in scenery from the majestic, mountain sunset we left behind just hours earlier. Having grown up in a similar setting at the base of the Cascade Mountain Range, this visit pulled at my heart strings. I embraced the fresh mountain air as we watched the sun dive behind the peaks of the mountain, and a part of me wanted to stay behind as we made our way, slowly and carefully, back down the mountain. Little did I know that what awaited me in Rome was just as spectacular.

Our day began with a walking tour of the city of Rome beginning in the Piazza Navona, making our way around the city, and ending at the Roman Forum. We learned how the Pantheon was originally a Greek temple given as a gift to the Pope. The Pope stripped the front entrance of the temple of bronze, and it was melted down and used to adorn St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City. This was common practice for the Roman Catholic Church, who in an economic sense, acted as a monopoly providing religious and legal services and used their market power to prevent market entry by Protestants. The goal of this monopoly was to eliminate competition in the market by promoting political/social pressures against unorthodox practices, discouraging Judaism and Islam, and denouncing magic and superstition which were alternative services to those of the Roman Catholic Church. In societies where wealth was concentrated and first-born sons inherited their father’s estates, the Roman Catholic Church was able to maintain power and authority. However, Protestant Reformation began in wealth-creating societies where there were increasing opportunities to participate in the market and new alternatives to the Roman Catholic Church were offered. This left me wondering whether or not Christianity as a whole could be considered a similar monopoly in today’s society in the United States.

As we ended our day with a tour of the Colosseum so dramatically visible against the vibrant blue sky, I stood in awe at the structural and economic intelligence of the ancient Romans. The remains of such massive structures may be the only tangible evidence left of ancient Rome, but one cannot deny the influence and lessons learned from ancient Rome in our modern economic and political system in the United States.