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I never thought I’d go so far as to say that Roman ruins are boring, but as I walked past a handful of teetering columns on a street in Jbail (I couldn’t bring myself to pay to see them from a closer vantage point), I realized that, to me, that’s just what they are: boring. I used to feel awe next to the marble megaliths. I used to feel small. Now, I feel nothing. The only stirring within me is one that approximates irritation. I’m bothered because I feel like I should be impressed and that my lack of reverence reveals me as an uncultured ingrate. But I am thankful to the Roman Empire for the advances it brought to modern civilization, such as the alphabet and the sewage system. I only ask why they had to have so much military prowess? Why did they conquer all the land that I want to travel through? And why did they leave behind so many columns? I’m ruined for Roman ruins. I want to see something completely new.

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