Even if I hadn’t lived in Rome for three years, I probably would have still heard that all roads lead to Rome. That fascinating phrase has both literal and metaphorical meanings. Literally, it refers to the extensive Roman road network that connected the vast empire to its capital. The Romans were master engineers who built over 250,000 miles of roads, with major routes like the Via Appia genuinely converging on Rome. This infrastructure was crucial for trade, military movement, and administration across the empire. Metaphorically, the saying means that different approaches or paths can lead to the same conclusion or destination. Whether you’re talking about solving a problem, reaching a goal, or arriving at the same understanding through different reasoning, there are often multiple valid routes to get there. It’s one of those ancient phrases that has stayed relevant because it captures something universally true about both physical journeys and the paths we take through life and thought.
But then Rome fell. The “fall of Rome” depends on which part of the Roman Empire you’re referring to, since it didn’t collapse all at once. The Western Roman Empire fell in 476 AD when the Germanic chieftain Odoacer deposed the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustulus. This is the date most commonly associated with the “fall of Rome.” However, the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) continued for nearly another thousand years, finally ending in 1453 AD when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks under Mehmed II. The decline was gradual rather than sudden. The Western Empire had been weakening for centuries due to factors like military pressures from Germanic tribes and Hunnic invasions, economic troubles and debasement of Roman currency, political instability and all too frequent civil wars, administrative challenges of governing such a vast territory (long before communications modernized), and the rise of Christianity, which changed traditional Roman culture. So while 476 AD marks the end of the Western Roman Empire as a political entity, Roman influence continued to shape European civilization for centuries afterward – which is why we still say “all roads lead to Rome” today.
Since the other major empires there has been the Mongol Empire (1206-1368), the largest contiguous land empire in history, stretching from Eastern Europe to the Pacific Ocean at its peak under Genghis Khan and his successors, the British Empire, which became the largest empire overall by the early 20th century, famously spanning territories “where the sun never set”, the Russian Empire/Soviet Union, at its largest extent controlling the most territory of any single state, stretching across eleven time zones from Eastern Europe to the Pacific, the Spanish Empire, the first truly global empire, controlling territories across the Americas, Philippines, and parts of Europe and Africa from the 16th-18th centuries, and the Ottoman Empire, controlling much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa for over 600 years.
People debate whether America has created the newest empire. Many historians and political scientists do characterize America as having imperial characteristics, though this remains a debated topic. America has exercised dominant influence far beyond its borders through military bases (over 700 worldwide), economic leverage, cultural exports, and political intervention. The US has maintained a global presence that shapes other nations’ policies and economies, similar to other historical empires. The country expanded territorially through conquest and purchase (Mexican-American War, Louisiana Purchase, westward expansion displacing Native Americans), and later acquired overseas territories like Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Now Trump is talking up adding Panama, Greenland and Canada. Even after decolonization, America maintained significant control through economic and military means. But unlike traditional empires, America doesn’t directly govern most territories under its influence. Many relationships are based on alliances, trade agreements, or voluntary cooperation rather than conquest and occupation…or at least they have done so prior to Trump.. The US also promoted decolonization after WWII and granted independence to territories like the Philippines. Many scholars use terms like “informal empire” or “hegemony” to describe America’s global dominance – wielding imperial-like influence through economic, military, and cultural power rather than direct territorial control.
But based on our location on an entirely separate continent and hemisphere, no one would accuse us of being a crossroads. It so happens, we are heading into Rome this morning, and guess what? We are doing it through London, Heathrow Airport, one of the three busiest in the world. The title of busiest airport rests with Atlanta Hartsfield for some strange reason, but then Beijing and London are next. It seems like most of our foreign travel has us transiting through London and we feel like Heathrow is a familiar madhouse to us. All of these airports are almost too big to navigate by foot these days unless you have lots of time and need to get your 10,000 steps in. I know I don’t ever appreciate trying to go from 6+ hours of sitting on a plane to stringing through seemingly endless corridors in Heathrow or any other airport. We have had a few frantic transfer marathons here in the past to be sure. Today was much better. After making it through the FAA Dead Zone that is Newark Liberty Airport, we had an uneventful flight (I will give relatively high marks to British Airway’s Club Class seta) that put us down here at Heathrow about 30 minutes early. The boarding ramp to get into the terminal was incredibly long and torturous, but then it was a quick walk to a shuttle train that took us to the general Heathrow British Airways terminal space. Things are so busy here that they won’t even announce your departure gate until 45/50 minutes before the departure time. That makes this place even more like a bus station than it needs to be, with everyone clamoring for a seat writhing sight of a flight announcement board.
We really cannot complain too much about the logistics of this half of our trip. All flights have been on time both in departure and arrival. All in-between transfers, whether in the airport or on the road have gone smoothly. I do wish there were more direct flights to the cities of Europe, but it’s only gotten less likely that Europeans will work hard to accommodate us Americans given that our fearless leader is finding every excuse to make their lives more difficult. In the meantime we will just need to accept the reality that all roads lead to and through Heathrow.