in this, hadrian was typical of well-to-do romans throughout the imperial age. roman sculpture, it's such a rich subject. the romans, their artists, roman patrons delighted in the collection of sculpture in the round-- sculpture which they displayed in their public places, sculpture which they used to decorate the fora, palaces, gardens-- a variety of situations-- sculpture, which i may add, they put into museums because, indeed, the delight in works of art was something that gave enormous pleasure both to the romans and also to their friends. indeed, it has become clear that much of greek art has, in fact, survived not in originals, but in roman copies, much like the copies in this room in the capitoline museum in rome. such a special work is this statue in marble, from hadrian's villa of a tormented centaur. the statue in dark marble comes close to the bronze original of the hellenistic period, and one can see what effort the sculptor's expended in attempting to reproduce as closely as possible the ancient original. hadrian, who we must imagine collected this

in the second century a.d., it ruled an empire whose soldiers stood guard from the windy hills of hadrian'sall in scotland to the persian gulf, and whose merchants traveled as far afield as india and china-- the culmination and the unifying of the old cultures of the mediterranean world and western europe. from that day to this, rome would be the greatest single influence on the western cultural tradition. indeed, it could be said that rome is that tradition. it's not merely that rome gave the west the latin language, roman law, roman ideas on state craft and on society. it was rome which passed on to the west the artistic, philosophical, and spiritual legacy of ancient greece, which rome had conquered, looted, and then learned from. it was rome which would be the agency of transmission to the west of an obscure, near-eastern religious cult which became the dynamic, motive force in western society and spiritual life-- christianity. but rome also gave the west a practical legacy, a legacy which western people see every day of their lives, from washington square to trafalgar square. and that

over its use of airstrikes foreign affairs analyst richard hadrian says the latest incident involving nato is making a bad situation even worse for washington. well i think america is in a very delicate situation right now it's already paying the price for all uncreate to go to supporting all sorts of rebel oppositions across the region especially in the case of levy but it's for self concern that america is also paying the price for not looking for leave to go approach to solving the taliban insurgency each so what we see right now is not only a conflict between international security force this is it and that's what the. internal problems also between. u.s. forces and the nato forces when we talk of all of this began clash with the least something to strike it is also a reflection of the warning we're in that americans and nato forces are increasingly about laying on not very surgical and not the jewel in the operations in order to eliminate the very enemy call but that's obviously what you see and according to a lot of research us for us for us the operation circle sort of every te