The Upper Via Sacra, Crypt of the Capuchin Monks, Spanish Steps

Day 2-Monday
The Upper Via Sacra

This morning we climbed the Palatine Hill in hopes to see the House of Livia, which Francesca had been told opened at 8:30 am, but when we got there found out it opened later. We did get to see parts of Domitian’s Palace though. We got to overlook the Hippodrome, and went to the Gallery which overlooked the Circus Maximus. Domitian had a great view of the games that would have taken place there, and we got a great view of Rome, it was a wonderful place to be and think about all the history of the Circus, and the Aventine hill which was directly across from us.

 So then we returned to the Roman Forum, starting the lesson with the Aedes Vestae, built in the 3rd century BCE. The remains of this temple are between the temple of Castor and Pollux and the House of Vestal Virgins. It was a round temple with two outer walls and columns around it. The Aedes Vestae holds the flame of Vesta inside it, but it was never dedicated and had no statue of Vesta, so it serves as a sacred space, but not as an actual temple.  The idea of this space being sacred is reinforced by the story of Metellus. The flame inside the temple is believed to be the flame of Troy, providing a link to the Palladium, an ancient statue of Athena. The Temple burned down twice, first in the fire of 64 under Nero, and again in 191, ironically it did not burn due to the fire that was inside the temple. It was restored both times.
We also looked at the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, opposite side of the forum to the Aedes Vestae. It was begun in 141 by Emperor Anoninus to his wife Faustina. After Antoninus dies Marcus Aurelius rededicated the temple to both of them, the deified couple. The Temple has colored marbled columns, typical of Roman temples. It still stands today, because it was converted to the Church of San Lorenzo in Miranda.

Next was the grand Basilica Nova, aka Basilica of Maxentius, aka Basilica of Constantine. This was the largest building in the Roman Forum; construction began in 308 under Maxentius, but was finished in 312 by Constantine after he conquered Maxentius in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. The basilica had a large nave that led to the colossal statue of Maxentius, whose head was replaced with Constantine’s later, was meant to symbolize that there was no tyrant anymore.
The triumphal Arch of Titus was dedicated by Titus’ older brother Domitian. The arch was in celebration of the end of the Jewish wars. In the scenes on the inside of the arch are depictions of soldiers carrying the menorah and other spoils from the temple of Jerusalem. The inner archway is coffered with the apotheosis of Titus and an eagle that represents the funerary aspect of the arch, also the attic holds the ashes of Titus.
We finished our journey in the Forum and moved up to the Palatine Hill. We learned about the Banquet hall, which Richard read from Aicher as being “sublime and vast”, according to Statius, it was in competition with the gods, “No need for you to hasten to heaven” (Aicher 167). After reading this entry we discussed that while the banquet hall seemed large, it did not seem as grand and as large as Statius’ account made it seem. It was rather small for having such a description as “more space than the sky” (Aicher 168).

As we were seeing the Banquet hall and exploring some of the Palace remains, Francesca was holding our place in line to see the House of Augustus. When we went to get in line there was a conflict about “30” people “cutting in line” that needed to be sorted out. In the end about half the group was able to go in, the rest to the back. While I was waiting with others in line Jordan pointed out that one of the groups in front of us was a guy who came from the back of the line to the front to tell us to go to the back, then cleverly stayed where he was in line and told his kids to come to the front. Haha. Regardless, the House of Livia was beautiful. The wall paintings remained, all the walls were covered in bright, beautiful paints, and it was really amazing to see what an ancient roman house would have looked like on the inside. After being able to be inside it for only five minutes, I did think it was wonderful to see Domitian’s great palace and then Augustus’ simple and humble home. It really did enough to say something about the two rulers, and I am already a big fan of Augustus. We looked around for a while, able to see where the Temple of the Magna Mater would have been and the remains of the huts of Romulus. While looking around an Asian woman asked me about what we were looking at, as I proudly told her what I knew she asked “Is this Roman times?”, I said yes but could not help smiling about it and thinking how much I am glad to know so much about the sites I am seeing, it really does make a difference to really know what you are looking at.

After lunch we met back at the Arch of Constantine. We looked at the different reliefs and statues that were taken from monuments belonging to Emperors Hadrian, Trajan, and Marcus Aurelius. After learning about the different pieces we went over the Colosseum. They had a Roman Triumph themed gallery upstairs, which we were free to roam. They had busts of Generals and scenes depicting the triumphal processions. We enjoyed being inside the Colosseum, we got to see the reconstructions they were doing on the floor, Greg told us where the Emperor would sit, with the Vestal Virgins on the other side, we saw the seating at the top, which would have been where slaves and women had to sit. Luke and I wondered if there were hand rails like we have now, the seating seemed pretty steep for an arena so high.

With our free evening most of us went north to see the Crypt of the Capuchin Monks. We were not able to take photos, but it was a series of rooms decorated with the bones of previous monks. There were bones all over the walls and in patterns on the ceilings, even making chandeliers, and when we got to the last room there was a small skeleton with a scythe and a plaque on the floor saying “ What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be.”
After leaving the Crypt we went to the Spanish steps. We were there long enough to take pictures and hang out for a little while, but I was ignorant of why it was such a tourist spot. Later that night we went back to the Hotel where Dana, Hilary, and I made a roommate pact to get dinner later that week.

The Capitoline Hill and Roman Forum

Day 1-Sunday
The Capitoline Hill and Roman Forum

As we excitedly made our way as a class to our first session in Rome, we blindly followed Professor Tronchin and Professor Fletcher to arrive on one of many sides of the Capitoline Hill. There we stood looking up to the hill, most dominant was Michelangelo’s ramp that stole the attention from what was waiting above. Richard eagerly started teaching and we soon learned that this was not the only way to ascend to the top of the hill, but there were many different approaches that we would be taking. Michelangelo’s ramp was but one of many options. I found the history of this ramp to be quite interesting, since it was a way of sealing off the ancient city and changing the direction of the focus of the hill towards the Vatican, done by Michelangelo in 1560.  Another approach that we were immediately able to see was a more ancient stair case, sadly just to the right of the grand ramp. As we made our way up the ramp we soon realized it was not quite a ramp, more like a series of very long and wide steps that happened to slope slightly upward. At the top of the steps were statues of Castor and Pollux and the Piazza del Campidoglio between two separate buildings which were both part of the Capitoline Museum and a third senate building which was where the Tabularium would have been. In the middle of this courtyard was a statue of Marcus Aurelius on horseback, a reproduction that was placed there in 1999, and we learned that the original bronze statue from 1538 was kept inside the museum. From here we made our way to the left side of the hill and gained our first glance of the Roman Forum, which I was eager to get to. There were two other approaches to the hill, one winding road on the opposite side of Michelangelo’s steps that led up past the tarpean cliffs and the “Pantheon in the sky” aka Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. The last approach was from the side of the hill on which would have been the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus led us back to the Piazza.
At the base of the hill we were also able to see ruins of shops and apartments. I thought this was interesting because it allowed us to see the different ground levels throughout history. People would just build on top of older buildings, and like cities now we saw that they had apartments built over shops.

Then we entered the Capitoline Museum. The first thing to catch everybody’s attention was the colossal statue of Constantine. Immediately we all started taking pictures of this. We were let loose and allowed to explore the museum on our own, and I was able to find some things of personal interest. Perhaps my favorite work of art that I found was the statue of Love and Psyche embracing and about to kiss. I think this statue is beautiful and was really able to capture how romantic Rome is as a city. This statue took me back to the night before when we had gone through a courtyard of trees and benches with lovers embracing with a view of the city over the river. The statue took my thoughts to love and to my boyfriend back in Ohio and inspired me to find more works of art that affected me the way that one did.

After lunch we went into the Roman Forum. First things first, we learned about what a forum was. It was a place for religious functions and temples, for court held in the basilicas, and for commerce since there had been no offices in ancient Rome. Of course it was not thought of as a forum at first, buildings were added as needed and it evolved into a forum. We found an approximate spot for the black stone which had an inscription stating that it was a burial place and it was sacred space. We also found the lacus curtius, which is significant in Roman history because Marcus Curtius, on the back of his horse, went into the hole in order to save Rome after an oracle said that Rome could only overcome the peril it faced if the city threw into the Chasm that which it held most dear, which Marcus Curtius understood to be a brave Roman youth. Another exciting mythological place was where stood a fig tree, grape vine, and olive tree, this is said to be the place where the wolf nursed Romulus and Remus. We discussed the shrine of Janus, the entry to the forum that symbolized doors of peace which were closed under Augustus to symbolize that Rome was in a time of peace.
The temples in the Roman Forum were amazing, although we could only see the ruins we could imagine how large they would have been. The Temple of Concord had political significance, seeing that it was vowed because of an agreement between patricians and plebs to Concordia. At the time the plebs were threatening to start their own town in response to harsh rule. It was continually the focus for fostering harmony in Rome, and was even sometimes used for senate meetings. Over the years it was destroyed and rebuilt many times until about 10 CE, and does not stand any longer. The remains of the Temple of Saturn were amazing, perhaps my favorite part of the Forum, and that is saying something. On the front of the temple we could still see the Latin that said it was built by SPQR in the 5th century BCE. This temple expressed the support that Rome had from the gods, and also was where the treasury was kept. Aicher gives us accounts from Lucan and Pliny the Elder about Julius Caesar taking the wealth of the Roman people from the treasury.

Close to the Temple of Saturn, on axis with the Arch of Augustus, was the Arch of Septimius Severus, which was linked to the Arch of Augustus, and Augustus himself with Septimius Severus, in that they were both celebrating victories over the Parthians. On the Arch of Septimius Severus there are personified victories with trophies made of tree trunks in the spandrels. On the bases of the columns are captive barbarians, and battle scenes on the square panels. Professor Tronchin also told us about the five column monument that was built under Diocletian to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the tetrarch. The reliefs we looked at showed the sacrifice of three animals during decanalia, a trophy being carried by barbarians, and four emperors in procession. There were five columns, four with portraits of each emperor and the fifth with a portrait of Jupiter. The Roman forum was probably my favorite part, to see how much history has happened there and to think of all the people, famous or not, who have walked there, worshiped there, and done business there. The forum was a great place and I can tell that just from looking at the ruins.