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| Eternal
Rome |
No
man will ever be safe if he forgets you;
May I praise you still when the sun is dark.
To count up the glories of Rome is like counting
The stars in the sky. |
Rutilius
Namatianus, c. 416 CE |
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Oh
Rome! Your very ruins are a joy,
Fallen is your pomp; but it was peerless once!
Your noble blocks wrench'd from your ancient walls
Are burn'd for lime by greedy slaves of gain.
Villains! If such as you may have their way
Three ages more, Rome's glory will be gone. |
Pope
Pius II, 1462 |
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Quamdiu
stat Colyseus, stat et Roma:
Quando cadet Colyseus, cadet et Roma:
Quando cadet Roma, cadet et Mundus.
"While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand
When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall
And when Rome falls - the world." |
Venerable
Bede, c. 700 CE, transl. Lord Byron |
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Oh Rome, my country, City of the soul!
The orphans of the heart must turn to thee,
Lone mother of dead empires! and control
In their shut breasts their petty misery,
What are our woes and sufferance? Come and see
The cypress, hear the owl, and plod your way
O'er steps of broken thrones and temples, Ye!
Whose agonies are evils of a day --
A world is at our feet as fragile as our clay. |
Lord Byron, Childe Harolde's
Pilgrimage IV.LXXVII.694-702 (1812) |
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