THE GRANDEUR THAT WAS ROME.

Evening Star, Issue 21510, 7 September 1933, Page 8

THE GRANDEUR THAT WAS ROME.

Heuii Hitlkii has copied very closely tho first acts of Mussolini’s Fascist career. The two supermen are at present contemplating like schemes for commemorating their supreme greatness. Probably this idea, also, sprang first from tho Italian brain. The island of Heligoland, however, is to be renamed Hitler Island, and on it is to bo erected a great Tower of Liberty, which will be seven times higher than the statue in New York harbour. Associated as it will always be with tho name of the Nazi dictator, most naturally it will remind future ages of the destruction of liberty in Germany under his regime. The Italian plan may bo happier in its implications. A colossal statue of Mussolini, 236 ft high, is to bo erected on the summit of Monte Maria, the highest hill in Rome. It will contain two staircases, so that visitors may enjoy a panorama of the city through the Dime’s eye sockets. Tho Rome which they will see will be tho Rome of ancient grandeur as he restored it, to bo an inspiration to all future Italians. There has been wisdom in that restoration. “ The sense of greatness,” it has been said, “ keeps a nation great,” and the spirit of Italians may well bo raised to new heights of confidence and achievement by considering all that their ancestors did in tho past. It wiT bo a long day, at least, before the personal significance of this monument can share the fate of that which was erected long ago, bearing the inscription My name is Ozyinandias, king of kings, Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair. When the modern traveller saw it, broken and half-hidden by the desert, there were no works to bo seen—only the barren sands stretching in all directions. Even in tho last two years Mussolini, who has been elsewhere a great builder, has made- striking changes in Rome. Moan streets and buildings which obscured the approach to ancient glories have been cleared away, and many new relics of the past have been discovered in tho process. The Tarpeian Rock has been cleared of tho wine shops that obstructed it, and is now surrounded with gardens, so that the Capitol and tho Palazzo Cafarelli can be seen from the street where Virgil played at black magic with looking glasses. The Colosseum, which the traveller was wont to reach by drab streets, rises now much earlier before him. “ Tho very hill,” it has been said, “ where clustered tenements and terraces with their peculiar colour schemes of family washing and geraniums in blue enamel pots, lias vanished. Ho sees instead a broad thoroughfare, flanked by ancient monuments dug out since his last visit. The new street is the Via del Impero, opened last October on tho tenth anniversary of the March on Rome. The Colosseum is at the far end. On the right stands the Roman Forum; on tho left the Forum of Trajan.” Tho Column is now on tho edge of the road instead of in the middle of tho Forum where Romo's stray cats were fed. Thanks to the disappearance of walls, houses, and other barriers, the vast area between tho Palace of the Csesars, on the Palatine, and Trajan’s Market, is now one. In the Roman Forum the Ara of Julius Ctesar, put up by his friends many years after his assassination, has been rescued from oblivion, although none of its magnificence remains. Buried portions of the Temple of Venus Genetrix, built by Julius Caesar, are being reconstructed from fragments that have been recovered. All its glories have gone long ago; a famous statuo of Venus, Caesar’s statuo, a picture of ancient date, pearls from Britain, coffers filled with gems nd beautiful ornaments. But the “ coll ” of the templo can bo plainly seen and also its apse. Mussolini may be said to have deserved the monument to himself that will crown this work of restoration. Tho only detraction that can be made from his services to tho Italian nation is that they have been all on the material side. Ho has given it new strength and order, but liberty has been tho price of those benefits. It would be a poor panegyric on his achievement if the sense of an earlier tribute to the imperial city, Now tho Rome of slaves hath perished, And tho Rome of freemen holds her place, had to be reversed as a verdict on his life work.