URBEM FECISTI - SCRIPT

Passports of Italy, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia

The articles of the series Urbem Fecisti are dedicated to the way Rome has shaped the modern world, to its modernity. It's a fact that Roman Empire is still living inside each of us in the western world and not only.

Do you like travelling? You are reading the posts on this blog so, very likely, yes.
Therefore, have you bought your flight ticket? Have you reserved your room, possibly at San Lorenzo Guest House or Villa Borghese Guest House or St. John Villa in Rome? Have you packed your luggage? Yes, yes, yes; last thing to do is to check if you have money and credit card in your wallet and your passport ready.

Greek passport

Have you ever noticed a detail of your passport? No matter which is your country, no matter which language is spoken, no matter which alphabet is used in the country, everything is always written using also the Latin alphabet, including the cover sheet.
Well, there is one small exception for the cover sheet, the passport of Greece; the front page is written using only the Greek script.
That's because the prestige of the Greek alphabet is very close to the prestige of the Latin one. Both Latin and Greek were official languages in the Roman Empire and Greek became the only official language in the Eastern Roman Empire in the VII century.
That's only one of the many legacies of ancient Rome that has allowed a wild world to become a single city, a common code to communicate.

Urbem fecisti quod prius orbis erat