"Two Romes fell, the third is standing, and the fourth one is not there," our distant ancestors once said, and the third Rome was understood not as the capital city of Italian lands, but the center of medieval Russia was Moscow. Such a bold statement (it seems to us, the inhabitants of Appenin would be greatly upset to learn that the poetry sung by the Eternal City is simply absent from the picture of the world of nerds northerly), meanwhile, in many respects similar to the truth.
Actually Rome and Constantinople, called the second Rome, were really destroyed - the first vandals, the other - the Turks; Moscow still stands - rich, regal and brilliant. As for the fourth Rome, there will be time to visit him or not. Ah, yes - but what about the current capital of Italy? Generously forgive her for her existence - after all, where else would we admire the "airs" of Michelangelo on the vaults of the "Sistine" or enjoyed in every way a spicy "granelli" dish!
| x160px |
A bit of history ...
For the first time, the idea of calling the capital city the third Rome came to the enlightened head of spiritual figures in the late 15th century on the wave of the revival of Russian patriotism, the unification of principalities in a single Moscow state, the political successes of Russian rulers in the international arena and other events of significance for the country .The authorship of the phrase can not be precisely determined (it is understandable - since then, how much water has flowed under the bridge!) - according to some sources it was the Pskov elder Filofei, on the other - Metropolitan Zosima .In a letter to the then sovereign, Basil III, the holy elder calls him the successor of the Byzantine emperor (and even, to no avail, points to a direct kinship: the ruler of Constantinople, they say, was the great-grandfather of the Russian prince), and Moscow names, respectively, the heiress of the capital city the banks of the Bosphorus - the third Rome .
This epithet entrenched behind the capital also thanks to numerous legends about the Byzantine origin of some relics of Russian tsars. The Monomakh's cap, for example, was allegedly sent by the Emperor of Byzantium as a gift to our sovereign, and the ivory casket belonged at all to the glorious Roman Caesars.
... and the present
Today, we are unlikely to think about the origin of this expression, but the third capital of Rome is still willingly called .And that is all the grounds .Firstly, an exceptionally rich and, especially, metropolitan history - let Moscow for as many as 20 centuries younger than Rome, and in the days of Romulus and Remus, the wolves in the primeval forests of the future treasured the wolves, but there are enough events for the past nine centuries with enough events for several modest European capitals .Secondly, our gold-domed - exceptionally beautiful, noisy and simultaneously cozy, rich and poor, hospitable and arrogant city - is as contradictory and crazy as Rome .And thirdly, do they have some kind of common soul, or what? ... The narrow streets of the Roman suburbs are surprisingly like the quiet side streets of Zamoskvorechye, here and there, in our "Brazilian way" immodest sheets are hanging on the clothespins, Italian matrons and energetic Moscow old ladies at the first signs of the approaching rain rush to the street (both those and others, as it were - in curlers and robes) to save freshly washed underwear .Let us mention the love of Romans and Muscovites to Versace and Baldinini, and Romans and Muscovites to spaghetti, chianti and mozzarella ... in a word, you understood that we are both with our hands for such spiritual globalization! Here's another to rename Rome in New Moscow ... but this is a completely different story ;-) .