Sunday Ashli, one of the grad students and my Latin seminar teacher, took about seven of us to the Jewish Ghetto (which is a holdover name from the Roman area; it's not much of a ghetto anymore) for the famous fried artichokes. We came, we saw, I paid entirely too much, even for food that good. The artichokes were really good (forgot the camera), and I also ate two other courses of fettucini with porcini mushrooms (excellent) and bone marrow (very excellent). It was an expensive meal, but all in all, I think it was definitely worth the experience. The restaurant sits right outside, and by right outside I mean we sat outside and nearly ten feet away from, the Theater of Marcellus, which is huge and Roman and awesome. Julius Caesar started building it, and Augustus finished it around 11 C.E.. You can't beat 2,000 year old ruins at dusk for atmosphere at a restaurant. Oh, and the food alone is definitely worth the trip.
Monday we ventured again to the Forum, this time focusing on the Arch of Septimius Severus and the Arch of Titus for the grad students doing their site reports (which we will all have to do later this quarter; my site report assignment is the Circus Maximus). The reports were good, although it was the general consensus of the undergrads that Robin and Ashli may have set the bar a little high for the rest of us, but I'm sure we'll deal with it just fine. After the site reports we moved up onto the Palatine, and after our initial introduction to much of the area and visiting the actual house of Augustus, Professor Stroup broke class and the rest of us were left to wander the hills. I took too many pictures, but the following are I hope the most interesting.
The Arch of Titus, commemorating Titus, his father Vespasian, and his brother's conquest in Judea, putting down the Jewish revolt. This is the war when the Temple was finally destroyed, around 70 C.E., and Rome marched home "triumphant" with all the gold from the Temple. It's one of, if not the, oldest triumphal arch in Rome; it's supposed to be bad luck for Jews to walk under the arch (but it's roped off, so it's hard to get close to anyway).
On top of the Palatine, where most of the emperors chose to build their palaces, this is the entrance to I believe the palace that was built by Hadrian. Nero's palace apparently spread all the way from the Palatine past the Colosseum, but was torn down after his rule.
This is a room in the house of Augustus, the successor of Julius Caesar. The paint is entirely original, but we weren't allowed to use flash inside, so the picture is a little fuzzy. The house was built in the late 1st century B.C.E.
The outside of the house.
A different area of the house.
View of the Forum from the Palatine (far left is the Senate house, immediately in front is the Temple of Antoninus and Faustus, and the small white building in the bottom left is the Aedes Vestae).
Cool corridor under the Palatine.
Ceiling art in the cool corridor.
Close-up.
This is video of a waterfall, which possibly used to be a fountain, in one of the later buildings blocked off by an iron gate. I'm not sure how old it is.Archaeological faux pas number one. I don't think it hurt anything but my reputation. P.S., mom, I'm getting another hole in my pants if you didn't notice here...
More of the palace ruins on the Palatine.
Excavation in the ruins of the palace on the Palatine.
View of the city from the Palatine...I think the dome in the distant right is St. Peter's.
Latin Word for the Day: lux, lucis (tr: light)
Vale, amici.
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