5/23 Founding of Rome I

Today’s lesson, class: orientation to the city, the founding of Rome, and the function of its government. Walking through the initial part of our tour, I couldn’t help but notice that all of the buildings had Hebrew inscribed on them. Found out that this was the old Jewish quarter of Rome, complete with Kosher delicatessens and all. We then came upon an ancient gate/entryway arch and Doug remarked on the different types of stone used in its construction, which could lead you to decipher from which period in Rome’s history this building can be dated. Granite, tufa, travertine, and marble are but a few of the various types of stone used in construction and I believe you could date a building to after the start of the Republic through its use of granite columns.

There really is too much to take in upon first seeing these sites. Thousands upon thousands of layers of time, stone, and people populate just about every square inch of Rome that you can see with the naked eye, let alone all of the foundations which I’m sure could tell the same if not more information. We then crossed over the Tiber River and was introduced to the various hills that make up Rome: the Quirinal, Palatine, and Capitoline are the only three I can name from memory. However, the 7 that constitute ‘Rome’ each have a varied and interesting history of their own. The control of the salt trade is really what made Rome and the people who defended it famous. They could, from the defensible position of the hills, guard the Tiber and anyone who attempted to cross it.

For me, the day’s highlight was the discussion by the forum, where you could actually visualize the different processions that would go on regarding the workings of Roman government, its inauguration and re-inauguration, and various other civic activities. From the founding of Rome on April 21, 753 BC, they would appropriate the same ceremony of connecting the heavens to the ground on a template of the cardinal directions to a myriad of other cities around Europe: Barcelona, Vienna, Ostia, Madrid, etc and on and on.

I also enjoyed Doug’s talk as we sat staring at Marcus Aurelius’ horse’s ass on the Campigdolio (sp?) Given Alberti’s “vast shipwreck”, it’s still amazing to see the number of artifacts that remain. Individual statues of Castor and Pollox flank the entry to the Campigdolio, which have been pieced together over the years and look like someone has glued a broken vase back together. You see statues without heads, statues with their faces worn down to nothing, monuments with pock marks from where metal ties have been taken out, free-standing columns in the middle of the forum which are the remnants of what I assume to be a great basilica or some public building, toppled sections of fluted columns, and on and on.

It’s hard to imagine the city as a whole given its varied history and the number of rulers/kings/dictators that have been in charge. Some of them have changed the orientation of the whole city, some have built monuments on top of foundations of older buildings, some have built structures in the carcass of a dead building, some have gone ahead and tried to create new public plazas dedicated to certain kings of Rome (Vittorio Emanuelle). We can only go by the material record, however, because most of the ancient stories (which were written several hundred years after the fact) which claim to be fact are in reality myths wrapped in some kind of poetic or moral lesson. Tomorrow, we descend into the forum, into the belly of the beast!

S P Q R