Villa Ineprium Sine Fine - Rome

All empires collapse from greed. Rome gathered the plunder of the known world. Virgil described the city on the Tibet as Imeprium sine fine. The Glory of the Empire without End attracted the Visigoths to plunder the fabled wealth of eternity. Not the first nor the last army to lay waste the Eternal City. Yet as much as the invaders looted, there was always more treasure in the ruins to reveal the Splendor of Rome, until all that remained were stone ruins too heavy to be hauled to Ultima Thule.

“I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.” Augustus (Roman Emperor 27 BC – AD 14)

"Rome was too grand to be burned in a day."

Pascha Ray - unknown poet

Painting by Joseph-Noel Silvestre "The Plunder of Rome"

Da Bronx Then

When the Bronx was Da Bronx.

1976.

The birthplace of Rap.

A neighbor has a photo of two boys playing basketball with a tenement on fire in the near background.

That's the way it was.

Two Days To Go

In 1990 I visited Tikal with my Aussie friend Cathy. We stayed at a horrible hotel, but slept atop the Mayan pyramids surrounded by the thick Peten jungle. Howler monkeys dashed from tree to tree and the buzz of insects hummed outside our mosquito nettings. This abandoned city had had a population of 90,000 souls around 600AD. No one lived there now. And this was before the time of Baktun. Enjoy the last two days of the 12th Baktun. The 13th will be a good one.