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 HOW OLD IS IT ? CHRONOLOGICAL TIMELINE OF ROME'S MOST IMPORTANT MONUMENTS AND BUILDINGS |
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HOW OLD IS IT ? CHRONOLOGICAL TIMELINE OF ROME'S MOST IMPORTANT MONUMENTS AND BUILDINGS |
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Which of Rome's most famous ancient buildings, the Colosseum and the Pantheon, would you think is older than the other?
Everybody knows that Rome was not built in one day: actually, it took several centuries, both BC and AD; therefore, it is very easy to mistake dates, and to perceive the real chronologic distance between them is also rather difficult.
Intervals are so long that time distances are flattened, appearing much shorter than their real length, and centuries tend to overlap: for example, it is difficult to imagine that the Temple of Vesta and the Arch of Constantine, both Roman monuments, were built almost at the same time distance elapsed between the discovery of the American continent by Columbus and our present days. Doesn't it sound amazing, in these terms?
The purpose of this table, which features Rome's major works in a chronologic sequence, is to provide a visual equivalent of time distances concerning an age too generically described as 'Roman', actually spanning over 1.100 years, from the 9th century BC to the 5th century AD. Most rulers are also shown, for further reference.
The column on the right, instead, features a parallel timeline of important events concerning Rome and the rest of the world, for the same length as the Roman civilization, measured backwards from our days (year 2000). Surprisingly, the latter timeline starts from the age of Charlemagne, i.e. the early Middle Ages!
By the way, the answer to the opening question is that the Pantheon should be considered the older of the two, having been first built in 27 BC. But since it was completely destroyed by fire and rebuilt twice, the last time in c.AD 125, the building we see today really came half century after the making of the Colosseum, which was officially opened in AD 80.
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