Byron on Rome and the Colosseum, and lines from “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”

Byron visited the Roman Colosseum in 1817, when the ruins were still wholly overgrown with thick vegetation and a veritable carpet of flowers.

He wrote of it: "I have passed some days in wondrous Rome, and am delighted with Rome. As a whole, Rome, both ancient and modern, is superior to Greece. To Constantinople, to everything in the world, at least to everything I have seen. As for the Colosseum, the Pantheon, St Peter's, the Vatican, the Palatine and so on and so forth, they are quite indescribable: they must be seen."

Later Byron mentioned the Colosseum in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage:

While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand,
When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall,
And when Rome falls, the world.

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

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Byron on Rome and the Colosseum, and lines from “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

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