In ‘Rome, the infinite Empire’, the vice director of the ‘Corriere della Sera’ reviews the mark that Rome has left throughout History
The Reign of Charles V, the Napoleonic and British empires, the fascist and Nazi regimes, the North American hegemony and even the virtual community of Facebook… All of them are heirs of the Roman Empire. That is the thesis of the new book by the prestigious Italian journalist Aldo Cazzullopresented this morning at the Book Fair by the director of EL MUNDO, Joaquín Manso.
In Rome, the infinite Empirethe vice director of Corriere della Sera take a tour by the current legacy of Roman powersince Cazzullo maintains that “The West is a construction that is governed by the foundations of ancient Rome.”
«All the emperors in history They have felt like the new Caesar and all the revolutionaries have felt like the new Spartacus,” declared the Italian journalist in the Europe pavilion in Retiro Park, in response to questions from Joaquín Manso at the event, attended by the Italian ambassador to Spain, Giuseppe Buccino.
The director of EL MUNDO defined the book as a mix of reflective essay, absorbing story and historical novel, a text that combines intellectual rigor with a style accessible to all types of readers.
As Cazzullo explained, for the Romans the important thing was not to dominate the territories but to conquer souls and exert a cultural and economic influence on the population, a strategy that the Americans later knew how to replicate very well. Another of Rome’s achievements was to turn her enemies into allies, a maneuver that the United States also copied with Italy, Germany and Japan, after World War II.
Anyone could be Roman
The language of politics and power also comes from Rome. Emperor and people, dictator and citizen, law and order… They are all Latin words, just like Republic, which comes from the expression res publicasince in Rome the idea was born that the state belongs to everyone.
The vice director of Corrielle della Sera He highlighted that the Roman Empire sought a multicultural and multiethnic world and, for this reason, worked on the integration of immigrants so that they would become new citizens.
«One could become a Roman whatever its origin, their skin color or their god. And one could become Roman without ceasing to be Hispanic, Gaul, Syrian, Greek, Egyptian…,” says the book published by HarperCollins.
Cazzullo also recalled the enormous mark that the Roman Empire left in Spain. In fact, many Spanish cities have names of Roman origin such as Barcelona, Toledo, Salamanca or Valencia. Furthermore, the Spanish geography is populated by architectural works built by the Romans, such as the Aqueduct of Segoviathe Tarragona Amphitheater or the walls of Vigo.
The work takes a tour of the key figures of the Roman Empire: from Aeneas, the founder of Rome, to Spartacus, passing through Augustus, Constantine and Julius Caesar, who, in Cazzullo’s opinion, “He was a genius and the greatest man who has never existed, since he was a commander, politician, writer and journalist at the same time.
And, from the ancient emperors, the Italian journalist makes the leap to the current ones, since Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk also aspire to dominate souls through their digital platforms. In fact, The owner of Facebook is a great admirer of Augusto and has created a community of many people who do not know each other and who have an emperor, further proof that the legacy of Rome is more relevant than ever.
