It is hot and dusty in the Forum, but not unpleasant in the few shady spots we find. The audio guides we buy the kids are not popular. I'm not sure why. Maybe they are audio-guided out?
In the photo above, Mari and the boys are standing at the northwest end of the Via Sacra, the site of many great triumphal Roman marches. The belltower further in the distance is the Santa Francesca Romana, which was built in the 13th century. The pillared building in the distance directly above Pablo is the Tempio di Antonino e Faustina, which the Emperor Antonino (Antoninus the Pious) ordered to be built on the occasion of his wife's death in 141 AD.
In this illustration, Mari, Emilio, and Pablo would be standing in the bottom right hand corner of the image at right, at the northwest corner of the forum, with their backs to the Colosseum, which is at the top (southeast) of the illustration. The two pillars above Pablo's left shoulder are remnants of the pedestals that lined the southwestern side of the Forum, beside the three-story Basilica Giulia (mentioned below). The roof of the Temple of Saturn (also mentioned below) is just visible in the bottom, right-hand corner.
According to Mary Beard--expert on all-things-Ancient Rome, when the triumphal processions of victorious Roman generals made their way down the Via Sacra, they brought with them "defeated Eastern kings in their 'national dress' and exotic regalia," "such curiosities as the pair of globes made by the Greek scientist Archimedes, who was killed in the Second Punic War," and "exotic animals that sometimes became the stars of the show. The first elephant to tread the streets of Rome appeared in the parade for the victory of Pyrrhus in 275 BCE."
Caesar's victory over Mithradates' son Pharnaces, who had died in the battle near the Black Sea, was commemorated by a single placard on which was written one of the world's most famous slogans ever: 'Veni, vidi, vici' (I came, I saw, I conquered' intended to capture the speed of Caesar's success).
Caesar's "triumph of 46 BCE . . . displayed not only the Gallic rebel Vercingetorix but also Cleopatra's half-sister . . . [who] was put on show next to a working model of the lighthouse of Alexandria." When Cleopatra thought she might be escorted to Rome for a similarly humilitating procession in the year 30 BCE, she chose to kill herself instead.
The Vicus Jugarius, where Nina is standing in the photo above, is one of the oldest roads in Rome. It was used uninterruptedly until the modern period.
In the photo above, Pablo and Emilio are standing in front of the Temple of Saturn. An inscription on the beam above the columns reads: "SENATVS POPVLVSQVE ROMANVS / INCENDIO CONSVMPTVM RESTITVIT (Destroyed by fire, restored by the Senate and People of Rome)." Amanda Claridge, author of Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide, says the restoration took place in about 360-80, which was just before Diocletian divided the Empire into Western and Eastern empires. The first Temple of Saturn was probably built here in 497 BCE. Saturn's feast day, December 17th--from which the English word "saturnalia" (occasion of wild revelry) is derived--was a day of merrymaking and gift-giving when slaves were allowed to do what they liked. The holiday eventually merged with the celebration of Christmas.
Above is another angle on the Via Sacra. You can see Pablo's orange shirt in the photo above. He's with Emilio. The field of pillar stumps beside them is the Basilica Giulia, a building for law courts, shops, and government buildings, once nine stories high, that was initially dedicated in the year 46 by Julius Caesar with money won in the Gallic War. It was completed by Augustus, who named the building after his adoptive father. In the distance on the right side of the image is the Palatine Hill. We'll climb it later. The three remaining pillars of the Temple of Castro and Pollux (the twins) are just left of center.
That's the RBs heading southeast from the northwest corner of the Basilica Giulia. On our way down the Via Sacra, we pass by the Temple of Vesta, where virgin priestesses once kept the temple flames burning. If they lost their virginity at any point during their term of service, we learned, they were buried alive.
That's the Arch of Constantine behind Mari and Pablo. Built in 315, it honors the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity--which he put off until he was on his deathbed in 337 BCE. It is one of three surviving ancient Roman triumphal arches.
The Arch served as the finish line for the marathon at the 1960 Summer Olympics, which was won by Ehtiopian Abebe Bikila, the first black African to win an Olympic gold model. Bikila set a world record, running barefoot.
Mary Beard says: "The seating capacity of the Colosseum, vast as it seems, was around 50,000, which in a city of a million probably means that the audience for gladiatorial shows and bloody beast hunts was relatively upmarket."
After taking pictures in front of the Colosseum, we head to the Palatine Hill, which overlooks the Via Sacra that we had walked down earlier. That's the Septimius Severus Arch, built in the year 203, behind Mari in the photo above. Septimius Severus, the first Emperor from Roman Africa, ruled between 193 and 211. All roads lead to Rome; and all Roman roads lead to the "umbilicus urbus Romae" (Rome's bellybutton), which is beside the Arch of Severus.
Augustus built his home on Palatine Hill, which breezes made cooler than the Forum below. Subsequent emperors followed suit. In some respects, the history of Rome is the migration of power from the Republican streets of the Forum to the imperial palaces on the Palatine. The word "palace" is itself derived from "Palatine."
Emperor Domitian (81-96) built an enormous palace on the southern side of the hill that overlooks the Circus Maximum race track, which could hold 250,000 spectators. After taking in that view and others, we are ready to eat.
At 5 pm, we find our way to the most appealing terraza between the Forum and the Coliseum, and for 26€, enjoy a tasty assortment of margherita pizza, bruschetta pomodoro, crostini with pasta de oliva, and cannelloni with spinaci and ricotta. When we are done, we hit up a nearby gelati stand, where I order a citrone (lemon) and ananas (pineapple) mix. Delish!
Next up? The Colosseum. Will we have to endure a long line because of our late start? No! There is no line at all.
After climbing steep steps, we behold the bowels of the best-known entertainment venue in world history. Those walls on the floor in the center of the photo above are known as the "hypogeum," the ancient Greek word for "underground." Caged lions, and leopards and bears were rolled down those corridors before being released onto ramps that led up to the floor of the Colosseum. According to an article on the Smithsonian website, the hypogeum allowed "animals and hunters to enter the arena in countless ways. Eyewitnesses describe how animals appeared suddenly from below, as if by magic, sometimes apparently launched high into the air. 'The hypogeum allowed the organizers of the games to create surprises and build suspense . . . A hunter in the arena wouldn’t know where the next lion would appear, or whether two or three lions might emerge instead of just one.”
Over Pablo's shoulder, you can just make out a section of the eastern end of the Colosseum that was reconstructed in 2011 to demonstrate what the sandy floor of the arena once looked like. Watching bullfights in Spain gives me some sense of how a bloody spectacle like this might have looked and sounded .
The Colosseum offers another prime viewing point of the Arch of Constantine, the largest of the surviving Roman triumphal arches, which provided a model for subsequent triumphal arches throughout Western Europe. As Mary Beard tells me, the Arch is "decorated with an array of scenes that celebrate . . . [the Emperor] doing battle against barbarian enemies, addressing his troops, pardoning captives, sacrificing to the traditional gods, being crowned by Victory and giving handouts to the people. "But impressive as these commemorative exploits are, the Arch of Constantine is itself something of a mongrel, since "apart from a few modest panels, all these sculptures had been prised or hacked off earlier monuments. . . .The faces of the original emperors were roughly recut in the likeness of Constantine, and the pieces were reassembled for display on the new arch." Sounds like the Ancient equivalent of Photoshopping your way to glory?
I read that intellectuals hated Colosseum spectacles, which too often made bad politicians more popular than they deserved to be. According to an article in the Smithsonian, spectators at the Colosseum's inaugural games watched the slaughter of more than 9,000 animals. Pablo's audio guide explains to him that some unarmed Senators were hurled into the arena to face wild animals as punishment for their misdeeds. Or perhaps to amuse the Emperor.
The Smithonian reports that "Emperor Gallienus [253-268] punished a merchant who had swindled the empress, selling her glass jewels instead of authentic ones, by setting him in the arena to face a ferocious lion. When the cage opened, however, a chicken walked out, to the delight of the crowd. Gallienus then told the herald to proclaim: 'He practiced deceit and then had it practiced on him.' The emperor let the jeweler go home."
By the time we leave the Colosseum and start walking back to our hotel, our shadows are long.
Before crossing this street (la via Merulana), we ask a police officer why it is blocked off (it's a short hop from Argentine Spanish to broken Italian). He tells us that the Pope is coming. We decide that might be worth the wait, especially if we can eat gelato while doing so--which we do. We claim our space by the cordoned off street at 7:45 pm.
My good friends on the internet tell me that June 18, 2017 was the occasion of the Corpus Christi Procession, which is usually held 60 days after Easter. In Rome, the "procession traditionally begins after Holy Mass at the basilica of St. John Lateran, travels along Rome’s via Merulana, and ends at the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, just over a mile away." Though the procession is traditionally held on a Thursday, in the spring of 2017, the Pope moved it to Sunday for the first time, so that more people would participate. Thanks, Pope.
In the first year of his pontificate (2013), Pope Francis "surprised everyone by following the Corpus Christi procession on foot . . . instead of kneeling before the Eucharist [i.e. communion bread] on a modified 'pope-mobile,' as his predecessors had done."
At 9 p.m., we decide the Pope is not coming. I later learn that since 2014, the Pope has chosen to travel to the Basilica of St. Mary Major by car because he “wants all the attention of the faithful to be on the Eucharist that was being carried in procession, and not on him.”
