More backposting - November's Third Week

Week three of November:

Tuesday was the 20^th and we went to the Forum of Nerva (AKA the Forum Transitorium because it is long and skinny), which was actually begun by Domitian, but he suffered the damnatio memoriae, so he couldn’t have his name on anything. It was headed by a temple to his patron goddess Minerva, which is a fun play on words with the emperor who followed him (Nerva!).

This would be the fourth of the imperial fora built at this time. (Caesar, Augustus, Forum of Peace by Vespasian). Not much is left, but there are two columns that can be seen pretty well from the side of the road. We went down into the forum, then traipsed across the Forum of Augustus to get to the Forum of Trajan, our next destination.

The particular guardian we had that day told us we could climb up to the temple to Mars Ultor, so of course we did so. This is me standing where the cult statue goes, trying to look vengeful.

Of all the fora, Trajan’s is the biggest. He built everything bigger. Trajan’s forum is part of a huge complex that includes two libraries on either side of his narrative column, in front of which was the Basilica Ulpia, in front of which was the forum proper, which had apse ends that interlocked with the markets of Trajan. This isn’t madness: this is Rome.

Anyway, the column of Trajan has a spiral staircase on the inside which leads to a platform at the top. There used to be a statue of Trajan on top of it all, but now it belongs to the Papacy, so I think it’s Paul who is up there.

Well ,we climbed it.

This is the view from the top! Or not really.

The top of that column is a pretty sweet vantage point. The markets are simultaneously well-preserved markets (or, maybe administrative offices, but we don’t know), a museum of stuff from the surrounding imperial fora, and a place to display modern art. It’s a pretty interesting combination.

One of the shops at ground level.. there are like four and a half levels

After Trajan died, Hadrian put his temple behind the column, so the entire package was complete. It’s also sort of set up like a military camp, which fits because Trajan was a military man.

Wednesday, we went back to Ostia, but stopped first at the nearby Portus (next to the port of Claudius), which was the additional port Trajan built, and Isola Sacra which had a lot of good examples of tombs. Portus is very utilitarian and well-designed, and as a town it eventually became more important than Ostia (in 350AD, Ostia was just a residential area, while Portus was the working port).

Claudius really liked rusticated columns!

The technology of the granaries there blows my mind, because we do something totally different today that I am not sure I understand.

Isola Sacra was like a tomb village in use from the second century BC until the fourth century AD., mostly places with niches for ash urns, but a few places for inhumation as well. Romans never buried people inside the city except in very special cases (a few emperors, for example). The tombs are non-monumental, so not as big and grandiose as the ones along the Appian Way, and they look mostly like little houses.

The Village.

Then we went back to Ostia, but we only had time to look at the Synagogue and Christian Basilica really quickly, and then go home.

Thursday, which was Thanksgiving, we went back to the Ara Pacis which had been closed before. It was less rainy and awful, and since Emily and I got there early, we also paid a visit to the Mausoleum of Augustus, which is in a lot worse shape than I would like for The Man himself, Augustus.. but you can’t have everything.

This is the entrance, taken from sticking my arm inside the gate. There’s a rose there, but I’m not sure if it’s for Augustus..

The Ara Pacis is absolutely dripping with propaganda, and it’s amazing and beautiful. I didn’t bring a notebook or take any notes on this day, but here’s me in front of the Tellus/Pax relief on the outer precinct wall.

OMG.

In the center with the thing over his head is my ancient boyfriend, Agrippa.

Then we went to the EUR, which was the museum of fake things, so nothing there was original, but it was so awesome to see mini models of so many things we’d actually walked through, and casts and models all next to each other so you could understand and compare. I feel like the EUR is the greatest museum for getting an all-in-one dose of Roman civilization and history.

A cast of part of the relief from Trajan’s column. I liked the scales.

Plastic model of Rome from the time of Constantine, which was huge

We didn’t have lunch that day since we were going to have the feast later on…!

!!!!

OMG feast!

I also went on the art history field trip that Friday and we saw some awesome stuff! (S. Luigi dei Francesi, S. Agostino, S. Maria Sopra Minerva—by my obelisk!)

Campania!! part two

Day Five: Pompeii

Unfortunately, the fifth day was not as clear and bright as the one before. It began with drizzle and rain which was chilly and irritating.

It rained intermittently all day, so we took shelter as best we could under umbrellas and in structures with roofs. We saw a lot of sweet villas, but we didn’t see everything I had seen with my parents. We were let into the House of the Vettii though, and also Julia Felix (a big complex near the amphitheatre), where I (being last again) thought I was locked in, even though the gate was not fastened. We also returned to the House of the Faun.

Pompeii is interesting because it wasn’t even settled by Romans until the 80s BC, after Sulla took it over. It was originally an Oscan town with lots of other influences, and fought against Rome from 100BC forward.

Ever see that show Rome?

Some of my pictures are hard to see because most places did not allow flash, and were shadowed, not to mention the gloom of the day. We did get to go into the brothel and try to read the Greek and Latin inscriptions on the wall. It read more like the graffiti you find nowadays, and was sometimes even more vulgar! We had translations in our notes.

There is so much to see in Pompeii. We saw the Garden of Refugees, and the theatres, and the amphitheatre (we had our lecture in the tunnel because it poured then). Temples to Isis, Apollo, and Jupiter, and a temple so old no one knows to whom it was dedicated. Lots of houses, and a basilica and the forum. The dogs on site liked to hang out there, and were the best fed of all dogs on site I’d ever seen! One of them decided to do some impromptu archaeology at the ancient Doric temple.

Hahaha. .. NO! BAD!

So anyway.. the day was long and full of looking and listening and note-taking, and we were wandering halfway across the city toward our final destination which was next to our exit gate, the Villa of the Mysteries, the last stop, long awaited and very famous for the room where the frescoes show what seems to be an initiation rite of some kind.

And the sky just opened up. I had borrowed Hannah’s raincoat for the day, and I had my umbrella. Many lesser umbrellas succumbed to the wind, but I weilded my three-dollar Wal-Mart purchase well (actually adjusting it to the gusts) and it held up. Not that it mattered much. Head down into the wind, I was soaked anyway and wished I had worn my boots which, though they lack arch support, would have kept my feet dry.

It was ludicrous and we’d all been scattered, and no one could see anyone except those closest to them because even though it was not terribly late yet, it was getting dark. We knew we only had a little time before the park closed. I was near Nick and Will. We didn’t know where we were going and could not see the professors, and there was thunder and lightning all around, so we dove for a nearby arched space that turned out to be pretty small, and also leaky, but we packed about seven or eight people into it. It seemed to have benches along the sides, so maybe it was designed for ancient people to take shelter from the rain. Sweet.

I take pictures at terrible times

The rain didn’t slacken and it wasn’t getting any earlier, so we all plunged back out after waiting only a little while. After fording the path to the Villa, we finally made it inside. We had to wade through a courtyard to get to the frescoes, and by then it was too dark to see. Professor C gave her lecture, though, and then we trudged home, soaked but thrilled by the ridiculousness of the day.

We survived. This is the view from our hotel, and that’s the train line below.

I had planned to work on my paper in the evenings at the hotel. Hah!

Day Six:

We visited the Villa Oplontis first, which may have belonged to Nero’s wife. It’s huge and beautiful, with lots of neat mini-gardens.

Next, we went to Herculaneum, which is more out of the way than Pompeii, and also smaller. It’s a lot more manageable, though, and the day was nicer, which also adds to the impression of a place.

You can see the second story preserved here.

Herculaneum was preserved by mudflow rather than descending ash (Pompeii) so the effect is different, and I kind of like Herculaneum better. It’s also less crowded. We saw baths and houses, and wandered around for a short time. I followed our head professor around as he sought out the town center’s political structures, after a brief stop in some really awesome houses.

OMG mosaics

This is where the shore used to be. There were a lot of people trying to escape by boat who got trapped here.

We weren’t in Herculaneum for long, because we had an appointment in Stabiae. We stopped for a “Franco surprise” lunch at a great restaurant where we were informed that we were at the place of the world’s most important pasta. It was pretty good.

Stabiae is where the image of Flora comes from, which is the poster outside my door at the Centro. I bought a poster of it for myself, to redecorate my dorm room (and eventual apartment):

(Removed by Bourbons, now in Naples Museum)

The Bourbons were not especially concerned with preservation, and in fact roughed up the frescoes they did not take, so that no one else could have them either.

Hey! Jerks!

I really liked the two villas we visited at Stabiae (Arianna and San Marco). They gave me further proof that gardens were mostly only for looking at, and they had a sweet view. Here, as with most of the places we saw, the sea used to be closer in.

(Vesuvius view from Stabiae)

Day Seven

The next morning we went to the Villa Regina at Boscoreale, but it was raining again, so I didn’t really take any pictures. The museum was really cool though, and showed all kinds of preserved household items from the villa. Regina was a working villa (like Centro Due) with grain and olive presses or wine presses and stuff like that. I saw one up close and personal in the eerie dark of the Villa of the Mysteries, so I was fine with just looking at the model in the museum.

Capua, too, was a bit of a slog. We went to the museum first, which was thankfully indoors.. Then to the Mithraeum underground. The worship of the eastern god Mithras (who in the 14^th century BC was a Hittite god of trees, and in the 4^th-2^nd centuries, was a sun god) was one of the popular mystery cults for men in the Roman world, especially the military.

They gathered on the benches along the side. The front has Mithras killing the white bull.

From there, we went to the amphitheatre at Capua, but it was so cold and windy and rainy that we mostly just stayed inside the museum to hear about beast-fights and look at the pieces of the amphitheatre that were there, and really cool. We did pause to look at the real amphitheatre, but when you’ve seen one, and it’s freezing… well..

We didn’t even stay there for lunch, but went as a group to Montecassino where we went to a café. Franco called ahead for us, so they were ready. We had an awesomely American-like lunch of pizza, fries, and cappuccino (okay maybe not..) before going to our very last site of the Campania trip.

Montecassino is the site of a really intense battle that happened in WWII, when the Allies had to take the summit, where their enemies were holed up in the monastery on the mountaintop. The bus trip was intense and I can’t imagine trying to scale that thing under friendly circumstances, let alone to take it from an enemy. I guess the Greeks were on to something with their citadel plan. It was freezing, but the monastery is beautiful. I saw photos which showed that the whole thing is a rebuilding because the top of the mountain was basically blown up by the end of things. Still, the church was really lovely, and we happened to be there when the monks were about to sing Vespers. Johnny had been telling me to go check out Montecassino, so I’m really glad it was on our list, because I’m not sure how I would have gotten there otherwise.

Note the snow-capped mountains in the background.

What we visited wasn’t really the war memorial, that was a little further down, because I saw it out the bus window. Nonetheless, it was intense and a little hard to take.

Campania!! Part one

The Campania trip was awesome.

It was less intense than the Sicily trip in that we didn’t have to move every single night, but only stayed in two different places. The first was called the Villa Vergiliana, but we referred to it as “Centro Due” because it was like the country cousin of our beloved city dwelling in Rome.

Campania is Italian for ‘countryside’ anyway. We were headed south.

Day One: our first stop was not an ancient site. We went to an American military cemetery at Nettuno, where the American soldiers who fought mostly in Sicily were buried.

It was a really beautiful place and put me in mind of the clean new monuments I saw last time I was in Washington DC. There were a lot of elements that all combined and of course plenty of classical references. WWII monuments are always a little hard to take. I liked the gardens best.

From there we moved south along the coast to Terracina. I’d been looking forward to this since my Roman art history teacher showed us plans of the Jupiter sanctuary there, explaining the importance of its cliffs-to-the-sea view. There’s a bar now on top of the hill where there used to be a small temple with a portico. And some fan-freaking-tastic views of the sea.

The whole complex sits on a platform that is reinforced by barrel vaulting and arches underneath.

The town of Terracina/Anxur still has parts of the Appian way, which we walked. This was where I mailed my JET application in a nearby post box. Tragically for the two envelopes, they would be separated in their journey, and one would not see Nashville.

There’s a place further down near the sea where Trajan had part of the cliff-face cut away to give the road some space, so the Appian Way could get between the cliff and the water.

Engineers cleared an estimated 13,600 cubic meters of rock. Pretty intense, if you consider that when we do this, we use a lot more advanced technology, and explosives. They left numbers carved into the rock counting the Roman feet down from where they started.

Our next stop was Sperlonga, where the second emperor Tiberius had a villa. This villa is most notable for the dining grotto that’s built into a natural cave next to the ocean.

This is from inside the grotto where one of the biggest groups of statues would have stood. The people dining would be on the grassy platform visible on the left, while the platform in the middle had another statue. The ocean is behind it all, but the whole grotto is filled with water, for a sweet lighting and sound effect. It’s important because it’s so different from Augustus who lived modestly and in Rome.

Our last stop of the day was Minturnae, but since we were running behind schedule, it was pretty much dark by the time we got there.

noooooo.. come back!

So we couldn’t take as complete a tour of the place. We explored for a little while in the dark, then visited the little museum under the support structure of the theatre, and then moved on to Centro Due, where we had the best dinner ever, and hung about in the salon room before crashing out.

Day two:

First stop, Piscina Mirabilis! Which means roughly ‘amazing pool,’ and it was. Though it looked and felt unsettlingly like the Lord of the Rings ‘Mines of Moria’ setting, this was once a huge cistern that could hold 12,600 cubic meters of water.

Heck yeah

Then we went to Misenum, where the navy used to be, and then to a museum which had some pretty fun stuff (see: statue of Nerva/Domitian on horse), like some statues of Vespasian and Titus in which they have kind of realistic heads but heroically-nude Greek style bodies that just don’t match.

Next we went to Baiae, which was famous in Roman times both for being a place to regain health, and for its crazy debauchery. We explored a large bath complex with various ruins of swimming pools and rooms. Everyone kept saying the Mercury temple was the coolest thing ever, so I was on my way there when I came upon what was in fact the coolest thing ever:

That is not an optical illusion. That is my roommate and myself in a barrel vault where a fig tree is growing upside-down.

I’m not really sure how this happened. I thought this was what everyone had been raving about, but then I found my way into the Mercury dome which was in fact the coolest place ever, acoustically speaking. The dome was filled at the bottom with water, which meant the place had the greatest echo effect. We had a great time snapping, clapping, whistling, stomping, and otherwise creating a disturbance while the whole place reverberated.

We returned to Centro Due for lunch, an amazing lunch of pizza rustica (pizza rolls?), pizza, fruit (much of it from the trees outside, like the eggs we had at breakfast being from the chickens outside), and all kinds of wonderful homemade bread (from the big bread oven outside). I had no idea how close the Villa Vergiliana was to Cumae, but after lunch we were only on the bus for like six minutes before arriving.

Cumae is the location of Vergil’s Cumaen Sibyl. She’s the prophetess who goes into a frenzy and tells Aeneas what to do (Aeneas, eventual founder of Rome, sort of). It’s one of my favorite Vergil passages, where Deiphobea “raves in the cave.” Well, this was her cave, lengendarily speaking.

Dark.

We moved up to the summit, as Aeneas does in the story, to the temple of Apollo (which was not always a temple to Apollo, necessarily. The Greeks were in Cumae from the 8^th century BC, so it was theirs first, rededicated in the time of Augustus to Apollo). I thought we were on top of the hill there, but we were not. We climbed further to the site of the temple to Jupiter, mostly gone. But, from this vantage point we saw such wonderful things as a horse pulling a chariot along the beach, and this:

I mean.. whoa.

We went back to Centro Due from there, and there was an optional field trip to go and see an amphitheatre that was still being excavated. Of course I went to see it. It was basically on Villa Vergiliana property, and they believe that the associated temple to perhaps Mercury (idk how they figure this stuff out, still) is underneath the Centro Due.

You can just see the top of the amphitheatre outer wall in this picture of Centro Due

Day Three:
Day Three was Naples Day. The art history class professor “Tags” joined us to give us a sort of tour of part of the city. He was proud that we weren’t driving to the museum, and then driving directly out of the city. Naples has a bad reputation, but it’s still an important place to see, he said. It was pretty cool. There was a lot to see, and we only saw some of it (churches and some areas underground that were Roman shopping areas). Our Centro-Due bag lunches were so stocked that we were all able to give something non-monetary to the beggars that came by.

We also got to explore some shops that sold really cool and unique Nativity sets, and separate pieces, but I didn’t buy anything because I had no idea how to get something like that home in my already overstuffed suitcase.

We did go to the museum as well. There is a ton of stuff there, and sections are closed arbitrarily on certain days, so I didn’t get to see the Stabiae Flora painting, but we did see some really cool sculpture (including Isis statue from Pompeii sanctuary) and mosaic, and also the ‘secret room’ which has all the erotica material from Pompeii. Since so much of the material is from Pompeii, I felt lucky to have already been there before going to the Naples Museum (we were to go to Pompeii in a couple days).

Ever see that show, Rome?

That night, Emily C and I ate at the professors’ table, and dessert was tiramisu. We had been thoroughly enjoying our stay, between the amazing food downstairs, and the good times to be had in the salon room above. I tried to do my homework, but it was a pretty useless attempt during out stay at Centro Due. I had not managed to write my paper before leaving on the trip, so I had brought my computer with me. Which I used, of course, to other ends as well. And, we watched Scrubs and were all very hyper.

Day Four dawned bright and clear, and we left the Villa Vergiliana (farewell, oh best food ever and fierce shower competition) to head toward Pompeii. We stopped first in Beneventum along the way, where (among other Roman things like an Isis temple, a bridge, and a theatre, Trajan has an arch depicting him as just, capable, and divinely sanctioned:

This is a strategic place on the Appian Way

And we had lunch in a little courtyard before going into the museum, full of the materials that had been collected all over the Beneventum area (once called Maleventum, but changed so it would sound more pleasant). I’m not sure it could have been more pleasant.

This is where we ate lunch. Beneventum is super quaint and super clean.

Thence to Saepinum, a Roman colony. It was still an absolutely goregous day, and we explored Saepinum trying to figure out what was where.

Professor Wally: What’s that at the head of the forum?
Me: (sigh) Basilica…

It was a fun task, hindered somewhat by the hordes of ragazzi who seemed to have a similar assignment. And, a shepherd who happened to be driving his sheep through town (Saepinum is originally from Saepio which means enclosure, or sheepfold, so this has been going on since Roman times).. The town is cool because it’s a Roman colony but a mountain town, or it was until Rome settled the lower area, but still has a different style to it.

That’s my class; I’m always last.

Our hotel was right next to the Circumvesuviana Pompeii train station, called Villa Dei Misteri; we were ready for the Pompeii visit the next day; we were to be there from the opening of the archaeopark at 8:30 until it closed at 5.

Backposting

(I'm sort of doing this to help review for my final coming up!)

November’s First Week:

First, we visited the Temple of Divine Claudius (it became pretty common to deify emperors, or at least the ones you didn’t hate), or what was left of it. There’s not much. This is pretty close to the Colosseum, and it was a lovely day.

Foundations only

And there is even less left of the Temple of Peace, unfortunately.. so next we were lunching by the Arch of Titus, which is pretty awesome and well preserved. We fed the pigeons which became a horrifying spectacle. We saw that a lot of tourist groups stopped by the arch, but mostly they were getting information about the forum. Vinnie was helpful to some English speakers, pointing out some details. The arch is cool because it has Titus flying to heaven on an eagle’s back in the top of it. On the insides there are triumph scenes. This one is from the sacking of the Jerusalem Temple.

Titus and his father Vespasian took the Temple and had the triumph in 71AD

Our next stop was our official visit to the Circus Maximus (this time not filled with glowing balls, but instead with a woman whose dog was endlessly chasing a red ball and simultaneously making it roll).

Oldest sports arena. Ever.

After a brief race (no) we were off to the Montemartini museum, which is a converted power plant, so kind of interesting in its own right, having ancient sculpture alongside old generators.

Fortuna-On-This-Very-Day has Brookie by the leg!

I really liked this muse sculpture. She might have been placed with eight others in a garden or something

It was a long and tiring day! Happily, soon after that the leaves were falling golden in the courtyard.

I love it!

Our next field trip on Thursday also stayed within Rome. Our first stop was the often seen but not yet entered Colosseum, which I gratuitously overphotographed, but which was admittedly very, very cool. Some guys dressed as gladiators outside made a face at one of my friends, so she made a face back. He then apparently roared “King of KIIING!” at her as we hurried away. (This may be important later)

It doesn’t really look real, almost.

We proceeded next to the nearby Ludus Magnus, which is basically gladiator combat school. I loved it. I busted out some moves of my own.

I love this picture. That’s my roommate with a piece of wood she is about to use as a sword. And that’s the Colosseum behind her.

I fought a pokewar with Nick and I won, and would have loved to stay in combat school for longer, but we moved on to Domitian’s palace. It’s huge, even bigger than Augustus’s house and surrounding temples combined. He was the least well-loved of the Flavians and was actually the only emperor to suffer a true damnatio memoriae. Which means Nerva’s (small and pointy) face often appears on Domitian’s (big and wide) head to hilarious effect.

Oh man.

Anyway, we weren’t there very long before we were off to the house museum, which was cool but confusing since there were lots of layers of time in there. My favorite part was a room painted with scenes of Persephone. And, the museum in the back which reminded me of the game Myst because it was so modern and ancient all at once, and some of it was interactive (a tile set up so you could turn it). No photos allowed, though.

It was an easy week to make up for the fact that the one before had been a killer! And, we were preparing to go to Campania the following week… I tried to be a good kid and write my paper that weekend, to no avail.

Campania adventures to come. (Nov 10-16)

A Triumph of Elegance

Today was Centro prom. Arranged by Hanner (my roommate) and Nicholas, this was essentially to be the day we all dressed up fancy to go to the forum for our last forum field trip. So, we did.

It was really a lot of fun. We took tons of pictures (yeah, they will be up on here soon.. I'm still not prepared to dedicate that amount of time yet) and made fun. Photos under the Arch of Septimius Severus. You know. That kind of thing.

In addition to the forum, we went to several churches of the most ancient variety. The one that was first begun by Constantine (Lateran), and Santa Maria Maggiore (I had been to both on an art history trip, but this was cool as well), and San Clemente, and Santa Pudenziana.

We walked to the Laeran from the forum, and had a lunch break there. I was eating lunch on a bench in front of the Lateran lawn for the second time in my life with Captain Cook (my date to Centro prom; we have an overabundance of females). There were a lot of people in uniform outside when we arrived, but they were getting onto buses and leaving. We figured some kind of parade had ended. There were some guys in uniform hanging around in front of the church, but whatever.

Then, a fire truck came wailing down the road and pulled into the piazza area between the lawn and the church. We were perplexed, thinking they were just turning around, but then they parked just next to us and started getting out. We thought maybe something was wrong. A fire in the church? Was someone hurt? What was up with the guys in big headphones and orange suits?

They made us move off the bench by the lawn. We went a bit back, to the steps of the church, and then the helicopter appeared. "Yeeaaah." It circled twice and then landed. I took video with my camera. There's an interesting moment when the blast of wind hit me and I was unable to control the camera, too worried simultaneously about my skirt flying up, and the unexpected amount of dust just then hitting the back of my throat through my agape mouth. I screamed, which of course helped (hah). I managed to regain composure and get the rest of the video.

We took pictures of (and then, with) the helicopter. Later, we found out that it was St. Barbara's day today, and she's the patron of the firemen. So they brought her all their transportation means to show.

Extraordinary. It made the day for most of us.

As an added bonus, after a tiring day walking around in "unsafe shoes" (we are always warned to wear safe shoes on field trips by our weekly schedule) I went to "Fitbox" with Biz, Jackie, Meggers, and Carla. It was exhilarating. The instructor doesn't speak English, but she is able to lead us anyway (along with her normal Italian students). It was hardcore, too. I was so beat, but really thrilled at the end. It reminded me a bit of a lady in a yellow leotard, and working out with Katelyn. I'll be sore tomorrow. But hell, hooray for endorphins. We had a fabulous dinner of burgers and fries (after the first course of spaghetti of course) and chocolate mousse panna cotta whatever it was amazingness for dessert for Carla's birthday. I ate so much I felt a little sick. But, in a good way I guess.

Today was a triumph of elegance, just as my prom invitation said.