LPiA-25 Nov. 12

[dukealien]

Milliarium Aureum


All roads led to Rome, and each
bore, each thousand paces, stones
carved with distance to next town
or, as often, back to Rome.

In the Forum, close beside
Saturn’s temple, glorified,
stood a golden milestone from
which all measurements began.*

Now it’s gone, a mystery:
who would want a gleaming gold
monument tall as a man?
Only a barbarian.

As with man’s life, so with Rome:
each year earns its marking stone
with the last set at his head
carved with dates alive and dead.

*In truth, more a monument to Augustus Caesar wearing his road-maintenance hat: distances were actually measured from the walls of Rome, not the Forum.