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Dec. 2nd, 2009 09:35 pm
jere7my: (Shadow)
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Portico of the Temple of Saturn

Saturday, June 27 - Rome

Only three more of these photo-posts to go. Whatever your response to that news, I've drawn a lot of satisfaction from recapitulating our travels, researching the things we saw, sort of rolling them around in my brain for a while. I'll be sad when the pictures run out. Guess we'll have to go back, huh?

The Forum was presented in the way I'd naïvely expected all of the antiquities in Rome to be — neatly contained, fenced off, collected in one convenient historical park. I didn't expect it to be so far below street level, though I should have: it was built on a drained swamp, and for a very long time it was buried beneath the returned soil, with monuments and temples poking up out of the ground like rock outcroppings. (There is evidence of this raised ground level all over the Forum — see the photos for details.) As of the 19th century, it's all been excavated, and we can walk among the ruined buildings just as the ancient Romans did when they were new. It's a humbling, evocative experience. [livejournal.com profile] adfamiliares caught fire as soon as we entered, impressing me mightily with her deep knowledge of everyone who ever sat on every paving stone we passed (or so it seemed to me).

The experience was marred by an art installation by Jimenez Deredia — vaguely Eskimodal sculptures with modern curves and bright blue-white surfaces. They might have been nice elsewhere, but against the weight of history they looked like disposable plastic. I did my best to pretend they didn't exist, but if you peer long enough at some of the wide shots you'll find them.

Above is the portico of the Temple of Saturn, the oldest building still standing in the Forum — about 2500 years old.

The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina / San Lorenzo in Miranda
The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, which was turned into a church (San Lorenzo in Miranda). That door that looks like it was built in midair used to open at ground level. You can see the grooves at the tops of the front columns where someone, sometime, tried to pull them down with ropes. Perhaps you can imagine why they had trouble, with all that dirt piled up around them.

Columns on the Arch of Septimius Severus
The damage to the bases of the columns on the Arch of Septimius Severus came from wagon wheels — they used to be at ground level, too. Happily, this means the reliefs below the pillars were well-preserved.

The Forum from the Tabularium
There's the Arch of Septimius Severus again, with a wide view of the Forum from the Tabularium (hall of records), now part of the Capitoline Museum. You can also see the Arch of Titus, the Rostra, the Column of Phocas, the Basilica Julia, and three pillars from the Temple of Castor and Pollux. The wee white pillars to the right of the arch are part of the modern art installation (*ptui*).

The Column of Phocas
The Column of Phocas was the last (ancient) monument erected in the Forum. It was built to honor Emperor Phocas in 608 by Smaragdus, who was running the Western Empire from Ravenna at the time. Two years later, Phocas was "captured, tortured, assassinated and grotesquely dismembered," and his statues were torn down, but his column remains.

Game board
[livejournal.com profile] adfamiliares says this was probably a game board.

The Temple of Vesta
The Temple of Vesta, exciting due to roundness.

The Lacus Curtius
The Lacus Curtius! This (now-sealed) hole marks the site of a widening chasm that appeared in the early days of Rome. According to Livy, an oracle said that Rome could only be saved if they threw what they held most dear into the chasm. A young soldier, fully armored, rode into the chasm, and the chasm sealed itself over him and his horse — signifying that what Rome held most dear were the lives of her brave young men. A pair of bound skeletons were found nearby, suggesting that in reality this might have been a spot for tossing human sacrifices into a lake. The Romans continued to venerate it long after they'd forgotten why, or why it was called the Lacus Curtius.

The Temple of Romulus, later Santi Cosma e Damiano
This Temple of Romulus was later incorporated into a church (Santi Cosma e Damiano: dedicated to physician twins, it was a bit of snark aimed at the nearby Temple of Castor and Pollux). The church today has a big glass window, permitting views down into the reconstructed temple, but we sadly didn't know about that at the time. The key, I am told, still turns in the keyhole of the bronze doors.

Opus sectile floor of the Curia
The Curia Julia (senate house) is remarkably well-preserved — again, because it was turned into a church. This is its opus sectile floor. It is daunting to imagine the feet that walked here.


The whole set is here.

Date: 2009-12-03 06:31 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] asmanyaswill.livejournal.com
How soon can you go back? Don't stop!

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