Togate Reflections

by Gnaeus Equitius Marinus

Togate, I stood

In a foreign place

Proud, assured, confident.

Roman.

Son of Aeneas and of Romulus

Standing before the world

A bright beacon of the best that man can be.

Togate, I stood

On the steps of the Curia Hostilia.

Despairing, ashamed, abashed.

Watching as the children of Aeneas and Romulus

Destroyed one another viciously

There, in the well of the Comitia.

Togate, I walk

Along the Carina after dark.

Awash in the sounds of my City,

Wondering... Why?

Why is it I feel least Roman when I am in Rome?