“At the sight of the city utterly perishing amidst the flames Scipio burst into tears, and stood long reflecting on the inevitable change which awaits cities, nations, and dynasties, one and all, as it does every one of us men. This, he thought, had befallen Troy, once a powerful city, and the once mighty empires of the Assyrians, Medes, Persians, and that of Macedonia lately so splendid. And unintentionally or purposely he quoted [Homer],—the words perhaps escaping him unconsciously,—
The day shall be when holy Troy shall fall
And Priam, lord of spears, and Priam’s folk.” – Polybius
I have always been fascinated by ruins. Looking at them brings me a feeling of melancholy and sadness. And that always made me wonder what the cause of this sadness was. Why do I feel sad when I look at ruins? Why do I find them so fascinating? Maybe it is a sadness borne of feeling like the world lost something valuable, or imagining how people used to live in these places and visit them regularly, and how they are all gone now, with the significance these places used to hold.
I visited, for example, a town in the north of Jordan called Umm Qais. This town is full of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine ruins. The museum housing many of these ruins was originally a house built in 1860. What I found fascinating about that experience was that I was in an Ottoman-period house, looking at ruins that dated all the way back to the time the Greeks ruled the Levant.
I felt astonished looking at the statues, tombs, and mosaics, each crafted in the unique style that was prevalent during their respective periods. I felt like I was jumping hundreds of years in time when I moved from piece to piece. I also felt sad. It saddened me how the Roman road there was completely empty. How the old temples and churches were but a few columns in an empty space that used to be a building. And how the Roman Theatre was completely abandoned and only used as a tourist attraction, losing its original purpose and significance.
Are all civilizations destined for such a fate?
Will there be another version of me, at some point in the future, looking at the buildings I now take for granted and feeling the same feelings I have when I look at Roman and Greek ruins?
The False Sense of Immortality
If you read enough history, you eventually come to the realization that all the people who started, contributed to, and fought for an empire or a country thought they were part of something eternal. They were all contributing to something they imagined would last forever.
Take The Code of Hammurabi, The Colosseum, Hagia Sophia, or the Taj Mahal. These are all monuments built to symbolize greatness and triumph and, most importantly, to last. It seems that even though all of these civilizations saw the demise of their predecessors, they thought they were going to be different. That they would last. Rome was even called the Eternal City.
Ruins
“The Earth is littered with the ruins of empires that believed they were eternal.” ― Camille Paglia
In addition to making you feel sad and reminding you that everything ends, ruins have another quality to them. They inspire. And maybe that is the reason all these empires decided they could make something better than those that came before. Because if they could achieve such greatness and power, why can’t we achieve more?
I see this spirit of inspiration and belief in unprecedented greatness in America today. In the US, there are many monuments being celebrated today, resembling the monuments of old empires. Monuments like the Lincoln Memorial, Mount Rushmore, and the Washington Monument.
These monuments resemble how far the US has come since its independence in 1776. They also resemble power and superiority, but will this superiority last forever? Or will the American empire fall like all the empires of old? Will these monuments become nothing but ruins for people of a future civilization to observe?
Thoughts
I think there are lessons to be learned from this dynamic between new and old empires. Because even though the old empires perished, many of the ways they governed their peoples lingered on and were used and modified by their successors.
Emperor Justinian, for example, compiled Roman laws since the time of Hadrian to establish the Code of Justinian. Napoleon derived most of the Napoleonic Code from the Code of Justinian, and many European countries today still have many laws from the Napoleonic Code.
We can see from that example how, even though the old empires perish, their teachings and achievements still impact the world to this day.
The same can be said about individuals. We live our lives planning for the future and how to accumulate more wealth, not thinking about how we could die at any moment and how none of our material possessions will be of any use to us in the grave.
I believe we should instead focus on what we can contribute to the world so that when we die, we will have left the world a better place, and people could actually benefit from our contributions.
