Rome Day 3
Our third day in Rome. It was another late breakfast around 10am, and then out to explore the city. Our agenda for the day was the Coliseum, the Forums, and the Paletine. It was a Day of Ruins :-)
At this point, it is appropriate to talk a little bit about the topography and layout and founding of Rome.
According to one version of the legend, Ancient Rome was founded around 753 B.C. by twin brothers Romulus and Remus, the sons of Mars (God of War) and Rhea Silvia (also known as "Ilia"), who was one of the vestal virgins, and daughter of Numitor, Deposed king of Alba Longa.
The same version says that Numitor had been deposed by his brother Amulius. Numitor wanted to secure his eventual return to the throne, so he made his daughter, Rhea Silvia, into a priestess so that she would bear no successors to challenge his claim. Much to his chagrin, however, she gave birth to twins Romulus and Remus. When the twins were born, Numitor ordered them placed in a basket and thrown into the Tiber River where they were intended to drown. Instead of drowning, however, they were rescued by a she-wolf on the slope of the Palatine Hill who cared for them as if they were her own.
Some time later, they were later discovered by a shepherd, who with his wife, raised them to manhood. Once grown, the brothers deposed Amulius and placed Numitor, their grandfather, back on the throne.
After all this the brothers decided to build a city. They selected the hill from which they had been rescued as the founding spot. From what I have read of Romulus and Remus, they seemed a very quarrelsome pair, who delighted in pushing one another's buttons. Romulus built a wall around the newly founded city to protect it. Remus, wanting to show his brother how woefully inadequate the wall was at keeping unwanted people out, leapt over the wall and was promptly killed at the hands of his brother (if not by his brother, certainly at his orders). Romulus, therefore, became sole ruler of the city, and it is after him that the city supposedly got its name.
Ancient Rome actually encompassed 7 hills: Quirinal, Virninal, Esquiline, Capitoline, Palatine, Aventine, and Caelian. To the west of the chain of hills lies the Tiber River. Most of these hills are still very much in evidence today. Fairly extensive excavations cover the sites today, and are open to tourists.
Our Day of Ruins covered only a small portion of this area, beginning at the Coliseum and ending at the far end of the Palatine Hill.
The Coliseum lies in the center of three of the seven hills. Palatine Hill is to the west, Capitoline Hill is to the northwest, and Esquiline Hill is to the northeast.
Construction of the Coliseum was started under the reign of Roman Emperor Vespasian (AD 69 - 79) and was completed by his younger son, Emperor Domitan, in AD 81. Its original name was the Flavian Amphitheater. Fires and earthquakes were frequent in ancient Rome, and the Coliseum was not impervious to them. Many modifications, repairs, and renovations were performed up through the 6th century. Post 6th century, the coliseum suffered through more earthquakes and much neglect. Over the course of the succeeding centuries the coliseum became a "quarry" - robbed of most of its marble facing, decorations, and metal supports which were used in the construction of monuments and other buildings. Who knows how many of the old buildings and monuments still standing and very much in use today, are built from materials "stolen" from the coliseum? The metal may also have been put to use in weaponry through the course of any number of battles and wars. Despite this neglect, abuse, and "recycling" of materials more than 1/3 of the original structure still stands today. And even in its dilapidated state, it is a magnificent and powerful structure, invoking colourful images of ancient times - gladiators and fierce beasts and slaves and crowds of people there to watch the fantastic spectacles that would always end in both glory and death.
When Tim visited the Coliseum 10 years ago, it was wide open to the wandering public. No fences or blockades or turnstiles or ticket booths. One was free to come and go on the first level and the level below. A ticket was needed to get up to the upper levels, but other than that, you could walk anywhere, on any surface, without waiting in line, without barriers.
In 1995 a major restoration effort was undertaken. The outer walls and foundations were reinforced to prevent further crumbling and deterioration. You can tell which parts have been restored by the different layering technique used for the bricks - which is intentional, so that tourists can tell the real authentic ancient original portions of the coliseum from the reinforcements that were made.
Today when you go to the Coliseum, if it's high tourist season (as it was when we went) you'll be waiting in line for at least 45 minutes to purchase a ticket and enter through the turnstile. Today all except for the main arched entranceway is blocked off with tall, seemingly impenetrable, steel grates. It is no longer possible to wander through the lower levels, and on the first level, you are restricted to one of the two inner circular paths. You can no longer wander out into the middle grounds of the coliseum. However all of this, I think is for the good of the Coliseum and will go a long ways to protecting this precious souvenir of ancient times, so that it can be enjoyed by countless future generations. So while the line was a bit annoying, the rest was very enjoyable, although I know Tim was a bit disappointed at first at how much it had changed, and I can certainly understand that as well.
One thing hadn't changed much in the 10 years that Tim had last visited. And that was the cats. Rome is famous for its feral cat population. And the Coliseum is home to many. We saw numerous kitties during our exploration of the ancient amphitheater. In places that no human could venture for lack of space or just the precariousness of their hideouts, kitties were climbing and frolicking and chasing and stalking. Word of caution from one cat lover to another. It's common sense, but so easy to forget. Don't touch the cats. They are feral. They are no longer domesticated. But they are an awful lot of fun to watch!
Rome, in fact, passed some laws protecting these cats by classifying their territories as habitats, making it illegal to evict (ie remove, displace, relocate) them. It's not clear how that has helped the feral cat population. In searching around the internet for more information on the "Roman Cat Laws" I came across an excellent article describing the cat scene in Rome exactly as we had observed.
As we were waiting in line to by our tickets, we noticed a colourful banner on every other column of the outer ring. On the banner was the word "Nike". It seems logical, right? That an ancient forum that played host to countless displays of athleticism and heroism would be sponsored by a major athletic-wear company? Maybe that's where they were getting the funds for all the restoration taking place, right? Let me reassure you - Ancient Rome has not sold out to the evil corporate empires. "Nike" as it turns out, is the ancient Greek goddess of Victory. The banners were advertising a special exhibit on the upper level, celebrating "Victory" and the tradition of athletic competitions that played a significant role in ancient Greek and Roman cultures.
The exhibit was interesting, educational, and contained many artifacts from the coliseum itself . There were many statues and decorations and slabs of marble that once adorned the walls and seats. The most interesting of these had ancient roman graffiti etched into them, as the translations mounted next to the displays would reveal. The name of a patron's favourite gladiator, a cartoon depicting a slave's demise at the hand of a warrior, a ferocious beast in its final death throes, or the ancient roman equivalant of "I was here" scratched into the stone. It was amusing to stand there and stare at the graffiti and imagine the environment as it must have been when it was being written - What was the author wearing? What was happening around him? (It was likely a him, although I suppose it could have been a her :-)). What were the sounds, the colours, the actions? What was the occasion? Was it the equivalent of a "guys night out"? Was he laughing, and talking with his buddies, cheering and high-five-ing them when something good happened; booing and swearing when something bad happened, drinking the ancient roman equivalent of a beer, eating the ancient roman equivalent of a hot dog, waving the ancient roman equivalent of a foam finger, watching the ancient roman equivalent of football players battling it out on the field, scratching out his picture in the soft marble during the ancient roman equivalent of half-time?
vs
There were numerous ancient statues of athletes - from chariot drivers, to runners, to discus throwers. Some were Greek, but most were Roman copies of Greek originals. The Roman copies were ancient in their own right, most dating back to the first century A.D, and were replicas of even older Greek originals that dated back to 2nd and 3rd centuries B.C. The ancient Romans were enamored with Greek arts and culture. They were, in fact, fascinated by most foreign cultures. Imitation is, they say, the sincerest form of flattery, and the ancient Romans were master flatters with their reproductions of ancient Greek statues, and adoption of ancient Greek customs and practices - such as athletic games and competition.
In all, we spent about 3 or 4 hours at the Coliseum, finally surfacing from our waking and walking dreams of ancient Roman games and competition, to locate ourselves some lunch, and then continue our Day of Ruins by crossing the street and entering the Roman Forum.
The Forum was, in its day, the center of economic, civic, and religious life in Rome. But all that remains now are ruins of the numerous public buildings, temples, and ceremonial arches. When we were there, we watched with some interest some of the excavations that were underway - the painstaking process of dusting and scraping and sifting through pails of dirt.
An aside: For those of you who know me well, you know that my dream education, were I ever to decide to go back to school, would be to study full time the subjects of Ancient and Medieval History, Linguistics, Religion, Archaeology and Astronomy, after which I would be fully qualified to realize my life-long ambition to grow up to be Indiana Jones... In Space. I'd keep my legal name, of course. I've become quite attached to it (even having just changed the last part within the last few weeks) but I would only use it only for school reunions and such. My friends would call me Indi. :-)
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So you can imagine that throughout our entire visit to Rome my imagination was running wild with the people, events, culture, that was happening in the exact places I was walking, standing, sleeping, eating, breathing, over 2000 years ago. Ok - so technically, there were things happening over 2000 years ago everywhere that I've ever walked, stood, slept, ate, and breathed. The difference being that most of my walking, standing, sleeping, eating, breathing has taken place here in North America (with brief interruptions to Europe and one visit to Australia). And 2000 years ago in North America, in the spots I have inhabited, there was a whole lot of wilderness going on, but not much else. Well now, let me double check that. Ok. So I've never been to Louisiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and New York where apparently they have discovered "mounds" that were constructed between 1700 BC and 200 AD. And in Texas they have flint quarries that had been mined for more than 10,000 years. Ok. So in an attempt to demonstrate how much more exciting from a historical perspective it is to be walking the streets of Rome than it is to be walking the streets of North America, I'm actually finding North America is no slouch in the way of ancient action. However isolated it was from the affairs of the rest of the world 2000 years ago, it seems, nonetheless, that history did in fact occur everywhere including North America.
But let's get back to Rome.
Although the forum ruins are vast, in reality only a small portion of the site has been excavated. Much still lies buried underneath the hill, and the modern day streets and buildings. The forums are fascinating, and many structures are surprisingly in tact. As with the Coliseum, you must stay on the paths and most of the excavated ruins are now "protected" by low-slung rope "barriers" that line the path. Everyone is respectful of the ropes though. Some partially excavated ruins are covered by corrugated tin "roofs" to protect them from the rain, wind, and sun as they are being examined.
Even in their ruined state, the Forums are impressive. Some of the buildings still standing are just massive - the Romans built on a grand scale! Of course, it wasn't built in a day :-) One of my favourite sites in the Forum, though, was the Temple of Julius Caesar, which was built by Caesar's nephew Octavianin 42 B.C (2 years after the infamous assassination) on the spot where his body was burned. When we visited, there were fresh flowers on the site. Two thousand and forty five years later, people are still putting flowers on the site where his body was burned. Do you think in the year 4003 people will be putting flowers on my grave? Not likely. But then again, I'm also not likely to become "Dictator for Life" of an empire as vast as powerful as was Rome during the time of his reign. Whatever. :-)
After scouring the Forums for a couple of hours, traipsing through ruins (at least those that the paths would lead us through), we were ready to move on to the Palatine.
Recall that the Palatine was one of the seven hills on which Rome was built. In fact was the hill where legend has Romulus and Remus discovered by their she-wolf. As such, the Palatine was the location choice for the residences of most of the Roman emperors of the period, and this is reflected in the ruins - fountains, mosaics, gardens, and palaces.
At the base of the Palatine is the infamous Circus Maximus, where the chariot races took place. In its time it held 150,000 spectators. Elliptical in shape, all you see currently is a large, open plain. The basin of Circus Maximus still lies buried.
As the afternoon was drawing to a close, we rounded up our tour at the edge of the Palatine and headed back via the street to the Coliseum. It was here that we discovered how the Cats of Rome survived. It wasn't on pure hunting skill alone, we found. As we approached the Coliseum we saw an elderly woman layered in clothing crouching next to one of the steel grated archways. She was pouring water from a water bottle into one of the plastic basins that we had noticed earlier tucked underneath the grates and behind the stones. After cleaning the basin she filled it with new food, as the kitties watched with great interest. She never imposed herself on the cats - she did her thing while they watched and waited, and then they did their thing while she watched and waited. And as the entire scene unfolded before us, we watched and waited. And took pictures. The money for the food that the cat lady provides, we learned as we watched, came from donations from passers-by dropping euros into the cat lady's cup, which she had set by her supplies with a sign that I imagine explained the purpose to which the money would be put. And many people donated as they walked past. Some taking great interest in her activities, stopping to watch and even chat, and others dropping the money in without much of a notice. Finally, when all the food and water was gone, the basins cleaned and put back under the grate, the kitties and the cat lady went their separate ways. Until the next day. And so on.
We finally moved on and hailed ourselves a taxi and headed back to the hotel where we cleaned ourselves up, and headed out to dinner to an absolutely wonderful restaurant (they were ALL wonderful :-) at the recommendation of our concierge, who also arranged the reservations.
After spending an entire day absorbing absorbing 2000+ years of roman history through the soles of our feet, and consuming a sumptuous dinner al fresco in the heart of Rome, there are few ways to end such a grand day that aren't just going to end up feeling very anti-climatic. (ok, true... we WERE on our honeymoon. It wasn't going to be THAT hard to find a way to end our day on the appropriate note!). However I just HAD to indulge myself in one more roman pleasure. Well... I don't know how roman it really is, but it seemed appropriate to me. a heaping bowl of italian gelato, in a steamy hot bubble bath. Mmm mmm mmm. :-)
And... here are the pictures from Day 3. Enjoy!