Italy: the mausoleum of the first caesar Octavian Augustus. History and the country should be ashamed.

If Augustus, the first emperor, were to speak today, he would say that during his reign, the Roman Empire was the biggest because of the conquests he made in Egypt, Panonia, Dalmatia, and, to a lesser extent, Germania. He could also claim that Christ was born in his reign's 23rd year and died in Tiberius' 17th year, on the 13th day of Nisan month (we know the last date of Christ's existence from the files, and in fact, all we know about the great prophet is from historical documents other than biblical stories). In reality, we can place Jesus in the historical frame and assign him an age based on the information we have about Augustus and his population count.

That's how historians define the dates of Christ's life, because, at that time, the calendar related to the dates of the reign of the Caesars. The current calendar, as a result of errors in recalculation, has c. 7 years of error from the real date of Christ's birth.

Augustus was a man who established an empire with permanent borders and probably protected our part of the world from Cleopatra's despotic governments, declaring war on her and eventually forcing her to commit suicide. She may be a feminist icon, but the truth is that she was a cruel man who had broken everyone in her path, including her brother and sister, because she was obsessed with power. He was an eminent politician who, before his death, just said that life is an art. He famously said, "Acta est fabula, plaudite." He was buried on the Field of Mars. His mausoleum exists still, but it will probably be really gone soon. That is very sad. The ruins of his mausoleum are standing there today, are not visited by tourists, and certainly are not as magnificent as the other mausoleum of Hadrian, known today as Castel St'Angelo. But it is still a memorial to the first Emperor of the Roman Empire and, to be honest, the last truly powerful and normal ruler of that country.

The mausoleum of a man who had a huge impact on the fate of our part of the world just disappears. From year to year, the damage is worse. Although there are plans to restore it, the residents realise that it's just a shame to let this place disappear. The problems have grown like a curse.