Ara Pacis: Augustus' Altar of Peace

     Today we visited the Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace) which is a monument commissioned by Augustus to commemorate peace after his wars abroad in Spain and Gaul.  The altar served several important functions for Augustus.  First, its most obvious reason for construction was to celebrate peace and the now stable empire in Augustus’ control.  It also is a long lasting physical reminder of the Julian family’s claim to being descended from Venus because one panel of its west wall contains a scene about Aeneas who was her son.  Aeneas’ offspring became the Julian dynasty so Augustus can claim to be descended from a goddess.  This raises him to a divine status.  Finally, the altar is a form of political propaganda because it asserts Augustus’ power as emperor as a grand monument showing his victories in war and peace as a result.                                           

     I had studied the Ara Pacis in a class a while ago before visiting the actual monument, so I somewhat knew what to expect when we actually saw it.  I expected it to be fairly small because it is not a huge building like the Colosseum and also to be in a fairly bad physical condition.  Upon arriving, I was surprised to see it was larger than I thought.  For the most part, it also is very well preserved apart from some of the friezes adorning one wall.

     Augustus placed the altar in conjunction with his mausoleum and an obelisk.  The obelisk was placed so that on Augustus’ birthday the sun caused a shadow to fall directly in front of the altar.  It was located on the Via Flaminia where Augustus came back from his war in Spain. 

     The altar has friezes on all four sides.  The front side displays the scene with Aeneas and also the image of the she wolf suckling the infants Romulus and Remus.  This establishes the creation myths of Rome.  The back facade portrays the earth goddess suckling two children that shows the importance of the earth sheltering the Roman people.  The sides show processions of people, although one has mostly worn away.  The one that almost fully remains portrays Augustus and the imperial family.  These images are all important to the monument because they portray Augustus as pious and powerful.  The extensive imperial family shown also conveys the future stability and absolute power of the emperor. 

     I also found it very interesting to watch the video that the museum provided.  It detailed the history of the Ara Pacis and its location.  It was commissioned in 13 BCE and finished in 9 BCE.  In the Middle Ages, it was buried by layers of silt.  It was not until 1903 that archeologists began recovering fragments of the altar.  Serious digging around it occurred under Mussolini in the 1930s which was finished in 1938.  Due to it being outside, the weather and climate affected the altar so it was moved and placed inside of its current museum in 2006.  The Museo dell’Ara Pacis now houses this monument and maintains the proper humidity and temperature necessary to preserve the Ara Pacis for future generations to appreciate the legacy of Augustus.

~Trevor Dinsmoor

A Visit to the Pantheon

Because of my background that I have gained as being a Classical Humanities major, I have learned quite a bit regarding the Pantheon. However, I had only known about the history of the building and little about the architectural features it displayed. The high expectations that I had set prior to our visit were beyond surpassed.  Everything that I had previously learned was resurrected when I stepped through the door and gazed out of the oculus window in the ceiling.

                  The Pantheon was built by Marcus Agrippa in 27 BCE as a temple to all of the original pagan gods.  It was then rebuilt by the Emperor Hadrian around 126CE. This temple remained untouched until 609CE when it was turned into a Christian church as requested by Pope Boniface. This conversion was significant because it was the first temple changed into a church. There had previously been a stigma against converting churches because they were thought to be haunted by evil spirits. Christianity seemed to be afraid of associating itself with anything from antiquity and paganism. However, this ideology changed due to St. Gregory warding off the evil spirits. The name of the Pantheon was changed to the Church of Santa Maria Rotunda, for it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and all other martyrs. This was interesting to figure out because it seemed that the main function of the temple remained the same despite becoming a church. It remained as a place worshiping more than one entity even though it was changed from polytheistic to monotheistic. The church even seemed to keep with the theme of celebrating a motherly figure. According to the Mirabilia, it changed from worshiping Cybele, the mother of the gods, to Mary, mother of the son of God.

                  I was amazed at how well preserved the temple was because of the Christian influence. The outside still looked greatly intact. It was cool to see the inscription that accredited Marcus Agrippa with the creation of the building despite being rebuilt by Hadrian. It was interesting to learn that the Pantheon’s architecture seemed to revolve around the number twenty-eight since there were twenty-eight coffers (sunken paneling). I had not previously known that the number twenty-eight was considered a perfect number in antiquity because of its ability to be equal to the sum of its divisors.  Another aspect to note is that the coffers decrease in size in accordance to the distance to the oculus. This helped to alleviate the weight on the top of the structure.  The oculus was also very impressive in size, for it is large enough (27 feet) to even fit a school bus in! Another new fact that I learned about the Pantheon was to find out that it served as the tomb for the famous painter Raphael Sanzio da Urbino. It was cool to see the site that he was buried in.

                  Despite knowing that the Pantheon had been converted to a church, it was still slightly odd to see Christian relics. It was obvious that the interior Christian-influenced design blatantly contrasted with the exterior. This conversion was positive in a sense that it allowed for the preservation of the building, yet it still altered the original appearance.  The Christian decoration in the inside made it difficult for me to fully encapsulate how the original Pantheon must have functioned.  However, its spectacular design did not fail to impress. Overall, the Pantheon has stood as an ancient landmark that has captivated the attention of thousands of its viewers for centuries. It is a must see for tourists and classicists alike for its historical significance and architectural magnificence.


~Kieran McAvoy

 

At the Castel Sant' Angelo

Villa Borghese-It’s like Central Park with Museums!

My expectations of the Villa Borghese were very little. I had never even heard of it before this trip began. I knew only that it was both a park and a museum of art. Fortunately, any expectations I had were met and exceeded.

In the 17^th century, the Borghese family was rising to power when Camilo Borghese was chosen as the pope. He went by Pope Paul V and ended up providing many high ranking positions to his family. One such family member was his nephew, Scipione Borghese. Scipione was actually adopted by Pope Paul V and given the position of cardinal-nephew which meant he was the Pope’s secretary and had a lot of influence on the Vatican.

It was Scipione who built the Villa Borghese for a few reasons including prestige as a new wealthy family, to house diplomatic functions, and to house his art collection. He had at one point in the Villa over 1700 paintings. But, it was his legal immunity as the cardinal-nephew that allowed him to acquire it. He had no problem stealing or blackmailing in order to get the art pieces he wanted. Scipione did have good taste however, as he discovered an artist named Bernini.

Gianlorenzo Bernini was a sculptor who employed a baroque style. This meant he sculpted figures in motion and tried to find the energy of the beings and bring it to life. I think he did an unbelievable job. The Bernini sculptures we saw at the Villa Borghese were remarkable. The depth of emotion and passion was so evident. Two sculptures really stood out to me.

The first is of Apollo and Daphne. This sculpture tells the story of Apollo struck by Cupid’s arrow of love chasing the beautiful Daphne who does not wish for Apollo’s love. She pleads to her father Peneus, the river god, to change her form. Bernini captures the two in the moment of Apollo reaching Daphne and Daphne turning into a tree. Looking at the sculpture you can see them running, and the emotion on Daphne’s face is exquisite. Her fingers are turning to delicate leaves and her toes into roots. It is hard to believe that it was carved out of marble.

My second favorite is The Rape of Proserpine. Proserpine is being kidnapped by the ruler of the underworld Pluto (or Hades) and stolen away. I was truly amazed with this piece. Bernini was able to show her crying as a tear streaks down her cheek and the indentations of Pluto’s fingers in her skin as she struggles to get away from him.

Scipione Borghese can be attributed to ordering the beautiful sculptures, but Bernini gets all the credit. He made these when he was only 19-26 years old! He later suggested that they were some of his very best work.

The park surrounding the Galleria Borghese is actually the second largest park in Rome. It has 226 acres of gardens with statues and busts, fountains, and lakes. It even has two other museums. One of these museums houses Etruscan vases which we have seen early in our adventure through Roman history. It also has a zoo! It is one of the oldest in Europe and was founded in 1911.

So, while I really did not know what to expect going into the Villa Borghese I ended up astounded. To see the Bernini sculptures so lifelike and full of energy was simply marvelous. I would suggest that anyone who comes to Rome spend an afternoon at the Villa Borghese picnicking, viewing some amazing works of art, and seeing a few endangered animals too!

~Paige Pederson

Ostia Antica

Ancient theater, from the Square of the Guilds

Group Photo at Tarquinia

Glorious day among the dead . . . .

Ostia Antica

I was immediately impressed with how well preserved Ostia Antica was. I found it really interesting that most of the important aspects of the city were nearly perfectly preserved after about 2000 years, despite threats ranging from pirate raids to soil erosion. More interestingly, though, Ostia Anitca had enormous economic implications for the city of Rome and the Roman Empire as a whole. Ostia is often called Rome’s first colony, and was conquered by the Romans around 400 BC. Ultimately, the population in Ostia grew to as much as 60,000 inhabitants. However, the most impressive aspect of Ostia was its role in the Roman supply line. In antiquity, Ostia sat at the mouth of the Tiber River (“ostium” means “mouth” in Latin), and also along the coast of the Mediterranean. While Ostia was abandoned in 9^th century AD following the collapse of the Roman Empire, the city undoubtedly had enormous economic implications for the Roman civilization prior to its collapse.

The number of inhabitants in the city of Rome at the height of the Principate was immense; about one million people lived in the city of Rome, which created economic conundrums for the rulers of the Empire. Since the city’s population was so immense, it was necessary to obtain food from areas of the Empire besides Rome and its surrounding land in order to effectively feed the city’s inhabitants. Around 123 BC, Gaius Gracchus, a Tribune of the Plebeians, proposed a number of reforms that included a system of low price fixation for grain in Rome in order to make it easier to feed the masses. This was the beginning of a vital economic system that aimed to provide adequate sustenance for the enormous population found in the city of Rome.

Gaius’s ideas of fixed grain prices were eventually expanded upon, and Rome’s first emperor Augustus transformed the grain price fixation into a system called the “frumentationes” that gave free grain to 200,000 Roman citizens who lived in Rome. Under this system, grain would be imported into the city of Rome from other more fertile areas of the Empire through a supply chain called the “annona”  and distributed for free to 200,000 recipients within the city of Rome; each recipient was given enough grain to feed two people. Grain would arrive in the city of Ostia by boat from far-off areas of the Empire and be stored in warehouses in Ostia (pictured) until it was ready to be transported to the city of Rome in large pots (pictured). While in Ostia, we were actually able to see the warehouses and pots involved in the wheat and grain transportation and storage, and also see the area where private guilds of merchants were located who likely played a part in transporting the grains.

I find this grain distribution system intriguing for a number of reasons. First of all, it appears to me that the grain distribution system amounts to a system of political control for the Roman ruling class of senators; the system is part of the reason behind the phrase “bread and circuses.” By appeasing the lower classes in Rome with free wheat (and competitive games), the Roman ruling class was able to distract the lower classes from their inadequate living conditions. Furthermore, this system demonstrates a degree of economic complexity present in the ancient Roman civilization that some may not initially expect. Their complex system of feeding nearly two-fifths of a huge city population has really impressed me, and it was interesting to see concrete elements of the system in person. Overall, after seeing Ostia and the grain distribution system in person I’m inclined to believe that the ancient Roman system was much more economically advanced than I initially thought.

~Kyle Woolwich