Which was more?

These stones, manufactured to protect the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, are stacked in a pile not far from St. Michael, sculpted by an assistant to Michelangelo, believed to be the spiritual warrior, a symbol of the inner struggle to combat evil, the "battle within."

I had to admire these stones. A fan of historical warfare, I sometimes marvel at the ways men of ancient times fought like boys, quite similar really to the way my boyhood cousins and I would play rock wars and use sling shots like catapults while we hid in groups behind piles of construction gravel along the roadways near our homes.

I remember flinging rocks. Fondly.

Please don't misunderstand me though. I know it is inappropriate to romanticize war in any way, yet when I consider modern warfare and weaponry by comparison...it sickens me. Especially today, another day swallowed up with senseless terrorism. And it makes me wonder: then or now--which was more barbaric?