Just down the road from the Parliament Building and Obelisk is Piazza Colonna and Via del Corso, which features a massive column dedicated to Emperor Marcus Aurelius and his victory over barbarians around AD 170.
Except the Romans didn't really win this. The barbarians were winning, kicking off Rome's three century fall from glory.
Interestingly, in the great movie "Gladiator," Marcus Aurelius is played by Richard Harris. He's the emperor whose murder begins General Maximus's downward spiral (I won't spoil the rest of the movie, because apparently there are at least five people in this country who haven't actually haven't seen this Oscar winner for Best Picture).
The column is nearly 100 feet tall, is twelve feet across, and is made with Carrara marble (which is even better than rich Corinthian leather -- IYKYK). It's not a single piece of marble, but 28 blocks stacked on top of one another. A carved frieze runs bottom to top, showing heroic scenes from the "win" -- a "win" just like Vietnam was a "win" for the U.S.
The statue of Aurelius has been replaced by Paul, who lit the fire that brought Christianity to Rome.
The piazza includes the headquarters for the prime minister's cabinet, and the headquarters for the Il Tempo newspaper.
This is a longer post than I expected to write for this little stop, so let's end the post with a couple of photos and get on it.
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