Daily Updates
Week Six: Oct. 30
30 October. Sophia reporting: Good day to all! And what a day it was for the Classics FSP as three more members of our stalwart crew educated us on their respective monuments. We began the day with Karen’s presentation of the Arches of Titus and Septimius Severus, located at opposite ends of the Forum Romanum. The Arch of Titus was interesting, albeit seemingly naked with its lack of grand exterior design but typically ornate, Flavian décor on some parts of it, such as the underbelly. Septimius Severus’ arch was comparatively much more decorated, with complicated friezes, three fornices (archways), and four columns protruding from each side that served no architectural purpose other than decoration. Some of the relief panels were incredibly rich with detail and almost dizzying to behold all at once—one even portrayed a man in a river after a city had fallen. Filled with newfound understanding about these commemorative monuments and the emperors they celebrated, we took a short break and reconvened at the Arch of Constantine just outside the Colosseum where Matt continued the day’s lesson. Strangely enough, this particular arch exemplifies a patchwork jumble of monumental butchery. To elucidate: it has been proposed that Constantine, when he erected the arch, used panels from other monuments that had either fallen into disrepair or that he simply desecrated and used for his own purposes. The purpose behind such an act would be, perhaps among other things, to establish an association between himself and the three famed emperors whose monuments he ‘borrowed’, namely Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius. In each case, it appears that he knocked off the heads of the main characters in these panels and replaced them with his own—which in turn, in later years, were also taken off, leaving the figures headless for today’s viewers. Many thoughts swam around in our brains after the first two presentations as we broke for lunch, and though the skies teased us with an occasional drizzle, we were able to soak in the knowledge of our peers without being soaked by the disgruntled white overhang. Katherine, Maya, Sarah, Cordelia, and I happened upon a lovely little Indian restaurant located on the Via Cavour a bit up the hill from the Colosseum called Sitar—if any of you is ever in Rome, make sure to go there! The food was wonderful, and the atmosphere, a veritable sanctuary from the chaotic din of the motorini and cars and languages and faces passing by at hyper-speed outside, left that unknowable smile of enlightenment on all our faces. We then gathered together as a group once more outside the entrance to the Domus Aurea (Golden House) of Nero, a sprawling subterranean complex presented to us by Professor Ulrich. We wandered for a good hour in the cool bowels of the monstrous residence, our imaginations repainting the mostly bare walls and refurnishing the empty space. Some of the preserved frescoes and mosaics, including the earliest known ceiling mosaic, revealed Nero’s passion for the Greek world with their recurring Homeric themes. In a few of the rooms, we were able to crane our necks and see the graffiti signatures left in large black letters by Italian renaissance artists who had been lowered into the tunnels when the structure was still mostly unexcavated. After our trip beneath the earth and into the past, we made our way over to Trajan’s column for the first leg of Adam’s presentation. As the sun began to set and cast the monument in half gold, half shadow, we puzzled over the spiraling mystery of the friezes. Adam explained to us that the glorification of the enemy on the column, in this case the Dacians, served to elevate the Roman victory for the people. After careful scrutiny, we picked up camp and headed over to the Via del Corso, where the great column of Marcus Aurelius stands in a small piazza. Truly amazing it was, looming over us—a beacon in the light of the dying day despite its years of undergoing earthquakes and pollution and the multiple sacks of Rome and her growing generations. We marveled over the piece of marble mastery for a while, learning how great a disparity there was between the depictions of the enemy on this column and on its predecessor. Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher-emperor, disliked warfare, and the column, though commissioned after his death by his son Commodus, reflects this distaste in the pitiable scenes of barbarian families being brutally conquered by the Romans. So, with a full day of learning and relief carvings bulging in our mind’s eyes, we have brought our weary limbs back to the Albergo Sole for a sweet night’s sleep under the vault of Roman stars. I bid you a fond goodnight.
30 October. Karen presents the Arch of Titus
30 October. The "intrados" of the Arch of Titus
30 October. The Arch of Titus
30 October. The sack of Jerusalem from the Arch of Titus
30 October. Captive barbarians from the Arch of Septimius Severus
30 October. Effects of Roman pollution on the Arch of Septimius Severus
30 October. Roman soldier leading captive barbarian
30 October. Winged Victory from the Arch of Septimius Severus
30 October. Matt presents the Arch of Constantine
30 October. Karen
30 October. Joanna
30 October. Plan of Nero's Domus Aurea, or Golden House
30 October. Discussing the house
30 October. Wall painting
30 October. What a floor looks like when the marble inlays have been removed
30 October. Close up of the floor
30 October. A painted stuccoed ceiling
30 October. Walking through the house
30 October. Graffiti of the great Renaissance artists on the ceilings of Nero's house
30 October. The house
30 October. A preserved "false ceiling" with frescoes
30 October. A stuccoed, painted ceiling
30 October. The octagonal room
30 October. The octagonal room
30 October. Lighting above the rooms around the octagonal room
30 October. Some students have come to love opus in a rather unexpected way
30 October. Brian and our Italian guide... wait, is she leaving him behind?
30 October. Sarah and Maya's Mission: snag a photo with an unsuspecting gladiator by rushing him
30 October. Foiled again, she will not be dissuaded
30 October. A mime is almost as good....
30 October. Great souvenirs for the whole family!
30 October. The Column of Trajan
30 October. Adam Prima Porta presents the column
30 October. A close up of some of the details
30 October. The Column of Marcus Aurelius, deftly presented by Adam
30 October. A detail of the column
30 October. An ancient bath basin from the Baths of Nero turned modern fountain
30 October. Roma by night