Rome monuments attacked by vandals

[Omaha Steve]

Source: BBC

By David Willey

Three historic monuments have been attacked by vandals in the Italian capital, Rome.

In the first attack, a man was caught on security cameras chipping two pieces off a marble statue on a fountain in the Piazza Navona.

Hours later tourists watched as a man threw a rock at the famous Trevi Fountain in the centre of the city.

Police then said they caught an American student scaling a wall of the Colosseum to chip off pieces of marble.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14782948

---

The two areas of damage to the Piazza Navona fountain are clearly visible

[Igel]

1. Ah. I thought the news from 455 AD had finally made the MSM.

Lower-case "vandal," it would appear.

[TacticalPeek]

7. BBC headline writers live for a chance like that.

:toast:

[No Elephants]

11. But, would it violate the LBN thread posting rules?

[elleng]

2. Damn, daughter on her way there NOW, for honeymoon, staying at Navona!

[gateley]

3. No respect. Sad. nt

[Rowdyboy]

4. But I haven't seen any of it yet...Please, please leave it just a little longer....

I'm going but not just yet.

[Odin2005]

5. Heinous!

:grr:

[glinda]

6. Stop me from saying this....

"Child reared by Republicans."

[Bonobo]

8. Who better to attack rome than Vandals? nt

[boppers]

9. You win the thread.

:rofl:

[Diclotican]

17. Bonobo

Bonobo

Wel when The Vandals was going for rome it was more like a sack than a attack.. A attack kan be repelled, a sack is not that easy to repell.. It is a reason a vandal is going into the international words, as a person who really is destroying senseless everything in its path. And it was a senseless sack on the West Roman Capital And the Vandals was really a group who was destroying everything in its path.. It was then maybe not against logical widsom that in the end, the Vandals was routed out and more or less destroyed as a power, under Justinian and his general Belesarious who was maybe Justinian's best general, and in any cases the person who saved the Roman Empire as sutch.. Specially the East Roman Empire who got its shape, and power in governance and so one, for many centuries to come..

Diclotican

[Bonobo]

19. I am reading an excellent book on the Eastern empire right now.

I just finished reading about Justinian and Belesarious.

The book is called "Lost to the West".

[Diclotican]

20. Bonobo

Bonobo

Ah... that book I have never heard about.. Can you tell me about the autors, so I might get it myself?.. Justinian and his general Belesarius was quiet a couple I would say.. Even tho Justinian was not that gratefull against his great general all the time.. He, as all emperors was afraid of great generals they sometimes deside to get the throne for themsels..

But Justinian was maybe one of the "great" emperors of he eastern empire, and maybe also had a Queen that was one of the powers behind the throne.. An Advisor, ad confertant, and a dam good Woman to have with his side, when the Nikea Revolt broke out.. But it looks like he got the idea after that revolt and started a lot of reformers after that revolt.. Reformes, that made the Eastern Empire a powerhouse for the world.. Even tho he made more wars than needed, when he had this ambition of making the empire One again.. He never really managed to do that, and the wars against the Parthians also was hurting the empire... and after 620s, the new enemy from the arabians was making their debut on the international scene, and in few years was sweeping true most of the Middle east, and take most of the old eastern empire for themselfs.. Even tho Byzants, a more stable and "greek" empire now survived for many, many years and last untill May 19, 1453... More than one thousand years.. since Constantin the great made Constantinopel the new roman capital of the east..

Diclotican

[Bonobo]

23. Sure. It is;

"Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization" by Lars Brownworth.

http://www.amazon.com/Lost-West-Forgotten-Byzantine-Civilization/dp/0307407969/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315240405&sr=1-1

---------------
In AD 476 the Roman Empire fell–or rather, its western half did. Its eastern half, which would come to be known as the Byzantine Empire, would endure and often flourish for another eleven centuries. Though its capital would move to Constantinople, its citizens referred to themselves as Roman for the entire duration of the empire’s existence. Indeed, so did its neighbors, allies, and enemies: When the Turkish Sultan Mehmet II conquered Constantinople in 1453, he took the title Caesar of Rome, placing himself in a direct line that led back to Augustus.

For far too many otherwise historically savvy people today, the story of the Byzantine civilization is something of a void. Yet for more than a millennium, Byzantium reigned as the glittering seat of Christian civilization. When Europe fell into the Dark Ages, Byzantium held fast against Muslim expansion, keeping Christianity alive. When literacy all but vanished in the West, Byzantium made primary education available to both sexes. Students debated the merits of Plato and Aristotle and commonly committed the entirety of Homer’s Iliad to memory. Streams of wealth flowed into Constantinople, making possible unprecedented wonders of art and architecture, from fabulous jeweled mosaics and other iconography to the great church known as the Hagia Sophia that was a vision of heaven on earth.

Review
“Captivating…In Lost to the West Lars Brownworth shows a novelist’s eye for character, bringing to life some of the most fascinating — and yet little known -- figures of the Byzantine era. But it is as a researcher into the obscurities of palace intrigue, treachery, and battlefield carnage that Lars really shines. With dry humor and a palette of vivid images, he recounts the dizzying game of musical chairs that placed one usurper after another on the Byzantine throne, only to be pitched off in a gaudily macabre way. In the end, one is left agog by the irony that the upshot of this centuries-long scrum was the preservation of nearly all that the Greeks have bequeathed to us.”
—Steven Pressfield, author of Gates of Fire

“Rome never fell -- it simply moved five hundred miles East -- to Byzantium. For over a thousand years the Byzantines commanded one of the most visceral and vivid empires the world has ever known. And yet their achievements are consistently underplayed; written out of history. Lars Brownworth is a rare talent. His contagious passion brings murderous empresses, conniving eunuchs, lost Greek texts and Byzantine treasures of fairy-tale proportions blinking back into the light. Confidently striding through time and across the mountains and plains of the Eastern Mediterranean, Brownworth puts this theocratic superstate slap-bang in the center of mankind's global story; back where it should be. The Byzantines made our world what it is today. Lars Brownworth matches their verve and brio in his seductive and gripping account.”
—Bettany Hughes, PBS host and author of Helen of Troy

[Diclotican]

24. Bonobo

Bonobo

This looks like an interesting book, So I guess I just have to buy it next time Im at the bookstore;).. Thank you for your help.

The Byzantine History is often a history of great challengers, and a lot of tragecy as the Empire had some of the greatest shallengers that history was trowing at it....

But it standed for more than One thousand year, and helped the West maybe more than many wanted to claim that they did.. Withouth the walls of Constantinople, who more than one time, challenged and repelled enemies , and the power of the greek, byzantic empire, the whole of the West, was able to rebuild in the new world who emerged from the laste 400s.. And it was also a place where knowlegde was a important tool for emperors, and a lot of the knowlegde who have made West what it is, was suvirving in the bookchells of the old empire of the east. And mutch of this, survived to be collected by the west, when the time was right, to get the knowlegde from ancient times... The different roman emperors of the east, had good pleasure in education, and did mutch to build universities, and schools, even in grade school, to make it posible for most peopole to at least read and write. Even tho late antiquity was not an easy world where education was paramount, it is pretty clear that even in "the dark ages" when the voice of education allmoust was exctinct in the West, it was glowing great in the eastern part of the Roman Empire.. And the few who wanted and have the ressourses to travel to the east, did so, and in many cases was given a education few in the west really understood.. And it is intersting to look, that most of the Popes, at least to the mid 600s, was indeed from the eastern part of the roman empire.. Even long after the western empire was something of the past, the most prominent leader in the west, the Pope was often syrian born, or at least from that part of the world. Christinity after all, was born in the area, and had a great innfluence and impact of people there and later in the west, where the Church (Chatolic Church) should transform the west to what it is today..

Diclotican

[Diclotican]

25. Bonobo

Bonobo

This looks like an interesting book, So I guess I just have to buy it next time Im at the bookstore;).. Thank you for your help.

The Byzantine History is often a history of great challengers, and a lot of tragecy as the Empire had some of the greatest shallengers that history was trowing at it....

But it standed for more than One thousand year, and helped the West maybe more than many wanted to claim that they did.. Withouth the walls of Constantinople, who more than one time, challenged and repelled enemies , and the power of the greek, byzantic empire, the whole of the West, was able to rebuild in the new world who emerged from the laste 400s.. And it was also a place where knowlegde was a important tool for emperors, and a lot of the knowlegde who have made West what it is, was suvirving in the bookchells of the old empire of the east. And mutch of this, survived to be collected by the west, when the time was right, to get the knowlegde from ancient times... The different roman emperors of the east, had good pleasure in education, and did mutch to build universities, and schools, even in grade school, to make it posible for most peopole to at least read and write. Even tho late antiquity was not an easy world where education was paramount, it is pretty clear that even in "the dark ages" when the voice of education allmoust was exctinct in the West, it was glowing great in the eastern part of the Roman Empire.. And the few who wanted and have the ressourses to travel to the east, did so, and in many cases was given a education few in the west really understood.. And it is intersting to look, that most of the Popes, at least to the mid 600s, was indeed from the eastern part of the roman empire.. Even long after the western empire was something of the past, the most prominent leader in the west, the Pope was often syrian born, or at least from that part of the world. Christinity after all, was born in the area, and had a great innfluence and impact of people there and later in the west, where the Church (Chatolic Church) should transform the west to what it is today..

Diclotican

[The Northerner]

10. The idiocy and disrespect of some people

Hopefully this crime of US citizen won't be used to perpetuate a generalized hatred of the US.

We certainly don't need any more of it in the world.

[No Elephants]

12. I hate these incomplete stories. What was the reaction of the Goths?

In the very cold comfort area, at least it was not Michelangelo's Pieta again.

That vandal was insane. This one (or ones) just seems to be bratty, but we'll soon know more, no doubt.

[gunnergoz]

13. Sorrowful news - chaos wins over order once again

Originally Italian, seeing such news pains my heart. But to be fair, the works and edifices being damaged are the property of humanity, not just of Italy. So we all are lessened when such vandalism occurs. It happens in wartime in careless wholesale fashion and in peacetime in crazy, unpredictable ways usually perpetrated by the mentally ill or drug-addled. It is the victory of chaos over order, of the gods of destruction versus the gods of creation. Such incidents tend to happen more often during stressful times, when those who are already on the verge of acting out their madness or anger become sufficiently aroused to act upon their destructive impulses. I can only hope that these antiquities, and others, survive our species' current descent into communal misery.

[elleng]

21. Yes, Yes, and Yes.

Grazie.

(Daughter just arrived in Rome for her honeymoon, staying at the Piazza Navona. At least the weather is good there.)

[NashVegas]

22. We Need That Every Once In a While

Although I wouldn't agree this is a good example of it.

Just because something is orderly and peaceful doesn't mean it's good for people. What was it they said, about Mussolini making the trains run on time?

[DetlefK]

14. What if an Italian chipped off a piece of the Lincoln monument?

Do you think, this would make some headlines?

Come on, just the size of a fingernail.
Just a souvenir to remind me forever of having been at this place.
I might forget it otherwise and my friends won't believe my photos. They could be falsified, unlike a piece of stone.

[Kurmudgeon]

15. It reminds me of when the Taliban destroyed the Buddhas.

The only difference is scale, but both were utterly senseless acts.

[PuffedMica]

16. So TeaBaggers vacation in Italy?

[pschoeb]

18. The fountain damaged was the Fountain del Moro

Which is the Fountain of the Moor, it looks like two heads of hippocampi were removed that rest next to one of the masks on the outside edge of the fountain. The sculptures in this fountain are actually 19th century copies, the original Renaissance sculptures are in the Villa Borghese.