Past Glory
Posted on Wednesday 10 May 2006
Cornelis van Poelenburgh (1594-1667): Ruins in Rome
O thou new comer who seek'st Rome in Rome
And find'st in Rome no thing thou canst call Roman
Arches worn old and palaces made common,
Rome's name alone within these walls keeps home.
Behold how pride and ruin can befall
One who hath set the whole world 'neath her laws,
All-conquering, now conquered, because
She is Time's prey and Time consumeth all.
Rome that art Rome's one sole last monument,
Rome that alone hast conquered Rome the town,
Tiber alone, transient and seaward bent,
Remains of Rome. O world, thou unconstant mime!
That which stands firm in thee Time batters down,
And that which fleeteth doth outrun swift time.
— Ezra Pound [1].
Roman Ruins with Figures. Giovanni Paolo Panini 1730s
A fantasy amalgam featuring the astonishing but very real Pyramid of Cestius
Roman Ruins with the Arch of Titus. Giovanni Paolo Panini 1730s
Figures Discoursing
Among Roman
Ruins. Giovanni Paolo Panini 1730s
Capriccio: Ruins and
Classic
Buildings. Canaletto 1730s.
Capriccio: View with Ruins. Canaletto
c 1740. 
Rome as it was c 300 AD. Model by Italian Gismondi (1887-1974) now housed at the Museo del la Civiltà Romana in Rome
(For more information see this post)
Other posts on ancient Rome:
Forum[1] Time consumeth all — This is a poem made famous through its appropriation by a numerous authors. This Ezra Pond version was a translation from a French poem by Joachim du Bellay who in turn translated it from the original Latin by Giano Vitale (Janus Vitalus).
The Marble Plan
Roma, Romolo, Remo
Naumachia
The Colours of White
Maps of the Roman Empire
"At the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth century, a Frenchman was able to read a poem on the ruins of Rome signed by Joachim du Bellay; a Pole knew the same poem as the work of Mikołaj Sęp-Szarzyński; a Spaniard, as the work of Francisco Quevedo; while the true author, whom the others adapted without scruple, was a little-known Latin humanist, Ianus [Janus] Vitalis of Palermo."John Emerson (the Savant Formerly Known as Zizka) was prompted by this curious fact to follow the lingusitic journey this poem has made around Europe. Though its original author is hardly known today, the poem's sentiments about the transitory nature of power and glory strike a chord even today.
— Czeslaw Milosz, The Witness of Poetry, 1983
