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You'll never catch me at a RenFest. I don't mingle with high society, literati, historians or college professors. I look, more or less, like I should be on stage with a guitar in my hands. In point of fact I do, at times, get on a stage and hammer out power chords and blues riffs. I get together with friends on occasion and drink beer and we talk about movies and women.

But I have somewhat of a fascination, if not an obsession, with Rome. With her history, the men and women that made her great (and not so great), why she grew so quickly and fell so hard. With everything that was the Roman Empire, and why.

And there was a point to the preamble. And that point is that there is no face for a lover of history. There is no prerequisite (other than something of a thirst for knowledge). There is only what you don't know, and what you now want to know. You don't have to look, act, think or be anyone other than the person you want to be. Provided, again, you want to learn.

The question of why history matters is almost superfluous. Of course history matters. Nosce te ipsum - know thyself. It is nearly impossible to truly know one's self without knowing one's own history. And history is so much more than merely a family tree. Perhaps your ancestry is Celtic. That's good to know. But how far back would you trace them? Perhaps they migrated, along with two other tribes, from Thrace to Asia Minor in 281? Perhaps your ancestors helped with the sack of Rome. What would that tell you about your ancestry? Any number of family traits can be seen in an entirely different light by learning far beyond mere genealogy.

Our modern world climate may be technologically advanced. But she still breathes, responds and moves as she has throughout history. As an American, to see Rome in her best days is to often see America. To see Rome in her worst days is also, it seems, to often see America.

Constantine I sought the unity of the Roman Empire. He is sainted by the Eastern Orthodox Church. He adopted Christianity and moved the religion toward the levee that finally broke and became the powerhouse religion that we know today (and, in fact, if one looks at the spread of the Roman Catholic Church today, it begs the question: Did Rome actually ever fall?).

Most anyone who's heard the name Constantine knows this. But what else do you know? That he had his wife, Fausta, and his son, Crispus killed during an ill-fated trip to the city of Rome? Do you know why? No one else does, either. Do you know his

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