What the ruins of Rome teach us about power and survival

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak* 

Rome was overflowing on June 29, 2026. The eternal city had emptied its inhabitants onto the streets to honor Saints Peter and Paul, its patron saints and the founders of a new Christian Rome. Despite the oppressive heat and humidity, Rome pulsed with youthful energy, hosting social and spiritual gatherings through day and night to commemorate the martyrdom of its founding saints.

Emperor Nero crucified Saint Peter in the Vatican and beheaded Saint Paul with a sword. The same emperor persecuted countless others during the Great Fire of Rome in 64 CE, desperately trying to suppress the growing Christian population. Stories and mythologies have woven themselves around these events—the persecution, the martyrdom, and the subsequent celebrations that continue to this day.

Many filled the streets to witness the spectacular fireworks display known as the Girandola, illuminating the sky above Castel Sant'Angelo. Crowds flooded both Paul's Route and Peter's Route toward St. Peter's Square, where the two saints were buried "Outside the Walls." This annual ritual supposedly dates back to ancient Christian times. Public holidays, religious ceremonies, fireworks, infiorata floral displays, and holidaymakers seeking leisure combine to create a magnificent day and a magical Roman night.

Everything ancient defines Rome, and the pleasures found among its ruins bring smiles to visitors. Rome carries within it both the grandeur of human achievement and the ravages of rulers, the ingenuity of civilization and the destructive power of human evil. The monuments of lost civilizations, fallen empires, and vanquished emperors reveal the rich cultural, social, political, and economic history of this city.

The ruins of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Palatine Hills, the piazzas, the museums, the Pantheon, the countless churches, and the grandeur of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City are not merely landmarks or monuments—they are depositories of human creativity and labor in the making of Rome, past and present.

Preservation matters. Future generations must understand the lessons history offers: the innovations of the working class, the limits of empires, the fragility of emperors, and the legacies of timeless civilizations. The decay of power documented in Rome's ruins offers profound lessons on continuity and change. It reveals that adaptability, multiculturalism, human unity, and cultural integration are the four pillars of survival and sustainability.

Yet these lessons remain buried beneath the ruinous propaganda of white supremacist ruling classes and their rent-seeking approach to Rome's tourist economy. Market, religion, and state collaborate to manufacture legitimacy while undermining the democratic spirit of the people. Contemporary Italy finds itself under siege by religious and capitalist forces, and its people suffer from various forms of marginalization and exploitation from local to national levels.

Christian democracy destroys the deepening of democracy in Italy while upholding the interests of capital in its Italian, European, and international forms. Religion and its stories of sacrifice, emancipation, and martyrdom are weaponized to domesticate the masses, delaying the revolutionary forces that seek to lead working people toward peace and progress.

Nevertheless, the success of the antifascist movement by working people serves as a reminder that Italians will defeat all reactionary, religious, and capitalist forces to reclaim their democracy, state, and government.

Rome, amidst all its ruins and remnants, offers hope for progressive politics—the socialist, secular, and democratic politics that can reclaim peace, homes, happiness, and human innovation. The future of Italy depends on the ability of its people to defeat the entrenched troika of religious, fascist, and capitalist forces. This reactionary alliance remains dangerous for the people and their country.

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*Academic based in London