From the BBC: Cracks threaten Rome’s majesty.
The Emperor Augustus said he found Rome a city of brick – and he left it a city of marble.
But 2,000 years on, the cracks in his legacy are beginning to show.
The Forum, the Colosseum and the palaces of the Palatine Hill still stand as proud testament to the Roman builders’ genius. Yet today they are betrayed by monumental neglect.
The problem of course is money.
It costs millions to protect the treasures of Ancient Rome.
Not to mention the funds needed to safeguard the newly discovered ruins, which in Rome they find practically every week. The budget from the Italian Culture Ministry doesn’t even begin to cover it.
One of the latest closures came in November 2005, when a 16th-Century wall collapsed without warning in a well-visited area, near the Emperor Tiberius’ palace. [continue]
Not much has changed, has it? I seem to remember reading that 1st and 2nd century Rome had problems with repairing damaged buildings and monuments; rather, coming up with the funds to do so. Depends on what you value or whom you can steal from.