Last July Samuel Alito, one of the nine justices of the US supreme court, delivered the keynote speech at a gala dinner held in the gilded splendour of the Palazzo Colonna in Rome.
Alito ruminated on the “proud civilization” achieved by the Romans two millennia ago, asking himself how modern America would be remembered thousands of years hence. “As I think back, I also think ahead, and I wonder what historians may say centuries from now about the contribution of the United States to world civilization,” he said.
