Rome wasn’t built in a day, so the saying goes. But according to legend, it was founded on a particular day, and today, April 21st, is the anniversary of that day 2761 years ago. That was the day when Romulus and Remus, who had apparently been raised by a she-wolf, inaugurated the city that has had so much influence on all the rest of mankind.
Even those who have never been there, or have not heard of the place, have not escaped its influence. There’s a joke question isn’t there? What have the Romans ever done for us? All our laws are ultimately traceable back to Roman law. Most of our grandest public buildings, especially government buildings, are in a style that copies the Roman style. The Catholic Church is based in Rome. The city gave us films like Roman Holiday, La Dolce Vita, Ben Hur, Carry On Cleo.
The Romans were in many ways a peculiar nation though. They had a very strange number system. For instance, Rome was founded, according to them, in 753 B. C. but the following year was 752! It must have been very confusing having to count backwards all the time. (Although oddly enough, our forwards number system was invented by the Arabs, who write backwards). What the Romans did when they got to one is not very clear, history is silent on this question. Go to zero, you might think, but unfortunately the Romans hadn’t thought to invent the zero. Perhaps they hoped they wouldn’t have to think about it because it might never happen.
The Romans were in denial.
Can you imagine it - a world without zero? This means they had no way of talking about nothing. Which must be why they talked so much, and ended up founding the legal system we use today. And as everyone knows, it meant they couldn’t take no for an answer. Which is why they kept invading, invading, invading until the entire world was in their control. The bits that mattered anyway.
People say the Romans invaded Britain. In fact they only invaded England, but they called it Britannia. This is the essential root cause of the confusion over the true name of that country - is it UK, England, Britain, Great Britain, or England. However this is a confusion only in foreign countries. Every man, woman and child - indeed every infant at the breast - in these islands, understands the subtleties of distinction in those names. And we welcome that confusion in other countries, as Britannia seeks once again to dominate the world and rule the waves. The world will be conquered again with tea, fish and chips, politeness, and Harry Potter.
And what about Rome? You might think it is the rather faded and jaded capital of a small insignificant country in the middle of a large lake. But its influence spreads far and wide. And influence is power. There’s more than one way to skin a cat, as they say, and you can influence world events without being politically powerful, or having huge fire power.
And of course, all roads lead to Rome.
