A Story of a Blessing and a Curse

I have the rather dubious distinction of having been both thrown out of the Vatican, and blessed by the Pope. Though not on the same day.

The Vatican Incident (a good Robert Ludlum title) happened while I was on a semester abroad with Eastern Michigan University’s European Cultural History Tour — 14 countries in 4 months. We’d just arrived in Rome, and were doing a Vatican day.

Now, I’m a huge fan of Roman history, especially the latter days of the Republic. Recently, when naming all the Romans who interested me, a friend said, “You like all the butchers!” That’s not strictly true, but I am certainly fascinated by several of the more, shall we say, colorful of the Romans. One of them I have a special interest in is Lucius Cornelius Sulla. He carved the path that Caesar would later follow, using his army to take the city of Rome itself and give victory to his political faction. He was later made Dictator, and rewrote Rome’s constitution — which worked out so well that Caesar had to do it again 25 years later.

Anyway, I’ve always wanted to get a glimpse of Sulla. There are two busts in existence. One I’d seen in Germany. It portrayed him old, toothless, and decrepit, with a clever (if insulting) detail from the sculptor of showing Sulla’s real hair sticking out of the curly wig he wore.

Old Sulla