How Are the Mighty Fallen #1 is a photograph by Jean Hall which was uploaded on August 28th, 2013.
Title
How Are the Mighty Fallen #1
Artist
Jean Hall
Medium
Photograph - Digital Photo Manipulation
Description
These are the remains of the Temple of Saturn, the oldest temple in the Roman Forum. The first temple was consecrated in 498 B.C., during the early years of the Roman Republic, torn down in 42 B.C., and rebuilt. The second was destroyed by fire in 283 A.D. The eight surviving granite columns are from the third temple. and the inscription on the pediment above them translates, "The Senate and the People of Rome restored what the fire had consumed."
The building also served as the treasury where Rome's supply of gold and silver was stored. Seen from this angle, it puts me in mind of the last few lines of Percy Shelley's poem Ozymandias:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Uploaded
August 28th, 2013
