While Qin Shi Huang left behind only an underground tomb said to be full of organs that no one dared to excavate, the Roman Empire left behind countless construction projects, from roads to sewers, which are still usable two thousand years later. But this point, the East and West comparison, without further ado, the high and low.
The Roman Empire had many signature buildings, each with its own heart. Let the citizens of the civilized world vote, number one should be the Colosseum in Rome.
When the population of Rome was one million, the territory of the north from Scotland, down to the Sahara, east from Iraq, west of the Atlantic Ocean, without a mature road system, not enough to sustain a thousand years of the empire – the upper five hundred years of the republic, the next five hundred years of the monarchy, with the Senate and the military, quite mature checks and balances of power. Refracted in municipal construction, roads, fountains, baths, underground waterways fit together in a very rational calculation.
By that time, it was already known how to use the suction of the earth’s core to bring the underground water from the bottom of the volcano to Rome, so that each Roman citizen could enjoy one cubic meter of water. Because of the abundance of water, the beams of fountains and baths were decorated with artistic carvings. The citizens of the Roman Empire left the oral cavity early, and their imagination and creativity were unleashed to create a true civilization, all because of water.
Yes, Qin Shi Huang drove millions of slave laborers to build the Great Wall, which was also aesthetically spectacular. But the peasants of northern China tore down the bricks of the Great Wall of China to make stoves. For 2,000 years the commoners of European countries were not so foolish. Hitler swept through Europe, although he wanted to build a Germanic utopia of tomorrow, but did not “break the four olds” and did not touch a single brick or stone of the Roman ruins. This is the basic bottom line of civilization.
Also, the Roman Empire was contemporary with the Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Sui and Tang dynasties, so why did the Romans use concrete as a building material long ago, instead of the perishable wood? With wood construction, in all fairness, but there is a benefit, the change of dynasty when they go crazy a fire will be burned such as the Alhambra, or break the four old themselves will be the West Lake Yue tomb, Su Xiao tomb even pavilion demolition, the human cost is much lower.
Today’s Italy, whether Rome Venice, or Naples and the mountain city of Madira, the country is a superb treasure trove of monuments. Stay in Verona a brick and stone drab old hotel, the room with balcony history of at least seven hundred years, think how many people have made love in this room, draped mosquito nets, sleep until midnight will wake up laughing.
Because of Rome, Italian intellectuals such as Umberto Eco and Cardinal Martini can discuss the relationship between God and time in Rome, without having to waste time arguing, as the Chinese do in the twenty-first century, about whether Liang Sicheng Lin Huiyin’s request to preserve the old city walls of Beijing is an attachment to the feudal dynasty and an obstacle to economic development.
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