Day 4 saw us get up and get going to visit the Coliseum, the Forum and the Capitoline Museum. The Coliseum was called the Flavian Amphitheater by the ancient Romans, as it was built by the emperor Vespasian and finished by his son Titus, whose family name was Flavius. It gets the name Coliseum from a huge statue of the emperor Nero that was near the site--a colossus, as it was called in those days. After Nero's fall from grace, the statue was designed to represent Sol Invinctus, the unconquered Sun.
Here our intrepid tour guide, Richard, explains to the boys some of the background of the Coliseum.
A view of the neighboring Palatine Hill from the upper level of the Coliseum.
The interior of the Coliseum, showing a recreation of what the floor and some of the seating (white marble in center of picture) would have looked like.
The arch of Titus from the upper level of the Coliseum.
The Arch of Constantine which is immediately next to the Coliseum.
The inscription on the Arch of Constantine
The Arch of Constantine.
The Arch of Titus.
Interior detail of the Arch of Titus. The sculpture shows Titus carrying away the sacred Menorah when he sacked Jerusalem and the Second Temple there. Titus put an end to the first Roman-Jewish War. The Menorah was placed in the Temple of Concord (Peace) and stayed there until the Vandals sacked Rome in 455 AD. It was rumored that Roman general Belisarius, who almost regained the western Roman Empire, recovered the Menorah when he defeated the Vandals in Africa in 533, and later rumored to have been returned the the Jews by the Patriarch of Constantinople, but these rumors have never been confirmed.
A view of the Roman Forum from a terrace on the Palatine Hill. The Palatine Hill is where Romulus is said to have founded Rome. It was later the location of the houses of the wealthiest aristocrats in the Roman Republic. Augustus had his house there, which he enlarged because of the business of running the government needed more space. Our English words "palace" and "palatial" come from "Palatine."
The Basilica of Maxentius. Maxentius was a co-ruler of the Roman Empire with Constantine and later a rival of Constantine's. When Constantine defeated him, this Basilica was renamed.
The temple of the deified (declared a god) emperor Antoninus Pius and his wife Fausta.
A basin from the temple of Castor and Pollux, inscribed to Juturna. We will see the Spring of Juturna a few pictures later.
Remnants of the statues of Castor and Pollux (and their horses) from their temple.
Here is the Spring of Juturna. According to Vergil in his Aeneid, Juturna was a mortal girl raped by Jupiter. In return for sleeping with Jupiter, he granted her immortality as a minor goddess of this spring. Juturna was the sister of Turnus, who is the primary antagonist of Aeneas in the second half of the Aeneid. She tries desperately to keep her brother alive, even though she knows he is fated to die so that Aeneas can found what will become Rome.
Columns from the temple of Castor and Pollux. Castor and Pollux are the Gemini--the twins. Legend says that they appeared in a battle, the Battle of Lake Regillus, fighting for the Romans against the Latin League in 496 BC. After the battle they were observed watering their horses at the spring of Juturna.
A ground-level view of the temple of Antoninus Pius and his wife Fausta.
Julius Caesar's supposed final resting place. Augustus built a temple in the Forum in honor of his father, declared a god by the Senate after his death. In a couple of days, on March 15th (the Ides of March), this area will be filled to overflowing with flowers instead of this lonely spray of roses, by people paying their respects to Julius Caesar.
A statue of the emperor Commodus posing as Hercules. Commodus was a horrible emperor. He was so bad the Senate decreed a "damnatio memoriae" after his assassination. All inscriptions with his name were chiseled out and all statues of him were ordered destroyed. This bust was discovered in 1874.
A bronze statue of emperor Marcus Aurelius. He was the last of the "Five Great Emperors" and wrote an important philosophical work, the Meditations, based on Stoic philosophy.
A statue of Hercules.
Christian DiAntonio.
Our seniors--a shady bunch.
The famous Capitoline Venus.
Baby Hercules strangling the snakes Juno sent to kill him in his crib.
The statue of Marforio, a river god.
The view from the very expensive restaurant where Mr. Spearman and Ms. Thorner had lunch.
The boys enjoyed some free time that afternoon. We regrouped at 6:00 and headed off to see the Spanish Steps.
Below the Spanish Steps is a very famous sculpture, known as the Fountain of the Ugly Boat. It is believed to have been sculpted by Bernini (or perhaps his father). You will hear more about Bernini in the next two posts.
After visiting the Spanish Steps, we trekked over to the Trevi Fountain. The fountain is currently undergoing a major restoration and the basin is empty of water (Bernini also sculpted the basin of this fountain). Legend has it that if you toss a coin into the fountain with your right hand over your left shoulder, you WILL return to Rome. Sadly, with the basin empty, we could not do that.
After the Trevi Fountain, the group went to various restaurants for dinner. Some of the group went to Piccolo Arancio, run by cousins of the family that have Piccolo Arancio in Farmington, CT. After dinner, we went to the famous San Crispino gelato for a tasty dessert.
Tomorrow brings Gladiator School, a brief visit to the Circus Maximus and another evening adventure.
A domani! Ciao!
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