My Second Biggest Regret...

... is not going to Rome. And pouring salt on the wound was the guy I sat next to all the way from Amsterdam to Philledelphia that had just been telling me just how wonderful and amazing the place is.

Ask any European and they will tell you the top 3 must see cities in Europe are Paris, Rome, and Barcelona. All so different from each other. To really simplify things... Paris has culture, Rome has history, and Barcelona has beaches... being a history major you can bet where I'm drawn.

So these are just a few of the totally amazing things that I've learned about Rome in my life...

When the city was rich, the men were poor... in the founding of Rome the great men gave themselves up to the city, and the city prospered.

When the men were rich, the city was poor... near Rome's downfall the leading men gave no more thought to their city or it's people and cared only for ammassing wealth and power for themselves. Shame the Americans election process favors people with money...

Examples:

1) Lucius Velerius... was Consul of Rome, yet so poor at his death that his funeral had to be paid for from a collection of the people.
2) Quintus Cincinnatus... Owned four acres of land and plowed them with his own hand, was asked of the people to be dictator (even greater than the consul), yet after his victory on the field of battle went back to plowing his fields.
3) Fabricius... offered 1/4th the kingdom by Pyrrhus king of the Epirots and yet preferred the poverty of being a private individual in Rome because he would not forsake his city.

And talk about putting the city ahead of your own interests... they were willing to kill and die for it... when we talk about zeal for our countries we fool ourselves:

1) Torquatus... put to death his own son because he disobeyed his command as general and rushed in to do battle with an enemy against his father's command. The son slew the other man yet was still put to death.
2) Mucius... put his own hand into the fire to show his commitment to killing his enemy. He had snuck into Porsenna's palace in order to kill him (the leader of the nation they were at war against). Unfortunately he slew the wrong man mistaking him for the king. He was caught, and before he could be completely taken down he put his hand into the fire saying that in Rome there were a great many men with the same kind of zeal as he... This display awed the king and very quickly afterwards he made peace with Rome.
3) Curtius... drove his steed off a cliff as the oracles commanded the Romans throw their greatest possession into the gulf in order to gain the gods favor... since their greatest possession was their military might in men, and Curtius was their best soldier, he obeyed the Oracles and spurred himself off into the gulf.
4) The Deceii... a group who dedicated themselves to death in hopes that the Roman army would succeed on the field of battle.
5) Regulus... he had a chance for freedom in Rome as his Carthagian captors brought him there to barter for his release. Instead Regulus argued against paying for his freedom, and instead killing his captors and taking his freedom in Rome, he kept his oath to his captors and returned to Carthage. The Carthagians executed him by standing him upright inside a box lined with spikes all one inch from his body in every direction... he could not lie down or get any rest or he would be pricked by a spike, and thus he died from lack of sleep.