Topics

* Roman monuments * ancient roman roads * aqueducts * Aurelian’s Walls * consul roads * Coliseum * Marcus Aurelius’ column * Circus Maximus * Traian Column * Palazzo Colonna * Mausoleum of Augustus * column of Foca * temple of Romolus * Drusus arch *  Circuses * Pantheon * pons Sublicius * Castrensis * pons Fabricius * port of Traian * Appian Way * graveyard of Via Ostiense * Piazza del Campidoglio * Via dei Fori Imperiali * Piazza della Repubblica * Domus Aurea * Curia * Servian walls * Gneus Pompeus' theatre * Meta Sudans * Palatinus * Constantine’s bath * Broken Bridge * Ludus Magnus *Via di Pietra * Palazzo Barberini * Gallienus * Castro Pretorio * Castel Sant’Angelo *

Thanks to a IV century guide (Constantine period) about the Roman monuments and named Curiusum urbis Romae, it is possible to know the numbers of baths on that period (11), of public toilets (965) and fountains in town (1352). Such a wealth was over when, during the Visigots siege in 537 A.D., all the aqueducts were cut to avoid enemies using them as a way of penetration in the walls.

Materials used in the constructions of ancient roman roads (those big smooth stones called "basolato") or those new smaller ones in the city center, have a volcanic origin and leucite made. This material was taken from caves on the Appian way not far from the southeast outskirts where lava arrived from a crater in the Castelli area about 260,000 years ago.

Rome at the time of its Empire was linked to water sources by 13 aqueducts. The oldest one (aqua Claudia) was closed in 312 b.C..Eight out of thirteen aqueducts came to Rome in the spes vetus area by Porta Maggiore (the Major Gate).

The Aurelian’s Walls were the second walls of Rome, built between 271 and 276 A.D., by the emperor Aurelian (first walls, an inner circle, were called after King Servius Tullius). The Walls are 19 km long, 6 Mts high and with a width of 3,5 Mt on average. On V century they had 385 towers and 14 gates but nowadays rose to 18 for traffic purposes.

From the gates of the city began the consul roads: the Aurelian way led to Arelate (Arles in France); Flaminia, Salaria and the Appian way to different ports on the Adriatic sea, Ostiense and Portuense to the Tirrenean ports of Ostia and to what is now called Fiumicino (by the main airport), and others road to the inner territories of Latium called after the place where they led to (Nomentana to Nomentum, Prenestina to Praenestre, Labicana to Labici, Tuscolana to Tusculum and Tiburtina to Tibur).

Coliseum capacity was about 50,000 crowd, 57 Mts. high and the arena is 76 x 56 Mts. On the external the elipse is 188 Mts. on the long axe and 156 on the shortest. How nowadays happens with modern stadiums, it could be covered by a velarium to protect from rain or sun thanks to a system of 180 ropes fixed outside the amphitheater to some merlons (5 are still in place). The name of the Coliseum came from a bronze colossal statue of Nero, 35 Mts. high, standing close to the Amphitheater Flavius. We can imagine it as tall as the bell tower of St. Francesca Romana, the church on the hill before entering the Forum. When Via dei Fori Imperiali was built also the basement was destroyed and now just a little garden reminds us the original size and the position.

Marcus Aurelius’ column is the tallest in Rome being 42 mt high; it was built between 176 and 193 A.D.

Circus Maximus measures were 125 steps on length and the track lane was 240 (16 inches for one foot and 5 feet for one step). The stadium was capable of 400,000 crowd.

The Traian Column (39,83 Mts. high) is totally covered with a bas-relief with the glory of the emperor winner of Dacia (modern Romania); the entire bas-relief is 200 Mts. long with Traian represented 60 times.The Traian column was built in his forum to remember the glorious wars he won. At the same moment it was placed to symbolize the height of part of the Quirinalis hill, dug to make room for his new forum. Open in 113 A.D. and built by Apollodorus of Damascus to contain the ashes of the emperor who could be buried in the city walls (according to an old custom, the privilege was granted only to whom celebrated at least one triumph). It’s still possible to accede to the top of the stairs which are inside the column starting from the little room at the bottom.

One of the biggest Roman building was the temple dedicated to Serapis, built by Caracalla on a 13,000 squared meters area. In the Palazzo Colonna’s gardens is still possible to admire a 100 tons piece of marble (the biggest in Rome) rest of a horizontal piece supported by columns 21 Mts. high with a diameter of 2.

In 28 b.C. Augustus begun the construction of a big tomb in the northern part of Campus Martius (with a diameter of 88 mt and 44 mt high). The Mausoleum of Augustus, still in place, had five concentric walls with a garden on the top and two obelisks (one is now in the Exquilinus square and the other one in the Quirinalis square. In the monument were also buried Octavia and Livia (sister and wife of Augustus), Tiberius and Agrippina.

The "newest" monument in the Forum is the column of Foca, built in 608 A.D. by Pope Bonifacius IV, to thank him for the donation of Pantheon to the Church of Rome. The oldest one is Lapis Niger, a black stone adored in ancient time to be believed as the tomb of the founder Romolus.

In the Forum, on the Sacred Way, is possible to admire the lock of the door of the temple of Romolus, dedicated by Massentius in 307 A.D. to his son. It is still working after more than one thousand and seven hundred years.

On the internal side of the gate of San Sebastian stands the Drusus arch, built to lean the pipeline of the water called Antoniniana and leading to the Caracalla’s bath. In the Domitian period (81-96 A.D.), who was a tyrant and ambitious emperor and who filled Rome with Triumphal arches, a writing appeared on one of it: arci which means "stop it!".

In ancient Rome there were 9 circuses: the most beautiful and huge was the Circus Maximus; its dimensions were 600 x 200 Mts., able to host horses races with a crowd of 250,000. In the central part where chariots spun around there were two obelisks that now are in Piazza del Popolo and in St. John square. Others circuses were: Flaminius in Via Cairoli area, Porta Collina’s circus, the Agonal circus of Piazza Navona, Gaius and Nero’s in the Vatican, another one by Nero just behind Castel S.Angelo, Varianius’ in S.Croce in Gerusalemme area, Flora’s on the Quirinal hill and Caracalla’s on the Appian Way close to S.Sebastian’s church, this last partly preserved.

Pantheon height is exactly the same of the diameter of its dome (43,3 Mts.). Marcus Agrippa built it for the worship of all the Gods in 25 b.C. and later transformed in a Christian church in 609. Is it possible that rain does not get in the hole placed at the very top of the dome? Yes, it’s true because the perfect sphere of the temple allow a huge air ball to be formed so to prevent rain to get in. This effect, avoiding rain but allowing light, happens when 2 conditions are reached:1) the big door should be closed 2) some kind of heat source should be present to allow internal pressure to rise. The knowledge of this phenomenon was lost until when, in the middle age, during a very crowded mass, closing the door for the wind, the rain stopped to get in the temple/church. This is how things were during the imperial period: big fires for sacrifices were lit, the big door was shut during the celebration and then, at the end, open again to allow the rain to get in and wash the floor from the victims' blood. On rainy days a part of the job to clean the temple was offered by the Gods!

The first wooden bridge to be made in Rome was the Sublicius, of the period of King Ancus Marcius. Since then the job to check and repair the bridges was a sacred responsibility of a new a kind of priests so called pontifex (from pont, ‘bridge’ in Latin). A new bridge, with the same name, is now in a new position.

There was another amphitheater in Rome, not the famous Coliseum, the Castrensis, built between 218 and 222 A.D. It was of course smaller than the Flavius (just 89 x 78 Mts.) and for the imperial usage; later it was inserted in the Aurelian’s walls and still visible.

Built in 62 b.C. with two archways, pons Fabricius is the only Roman bridge still conserved from the ancient times.

The ancient port of Traian is still visible by Fiumicino even though it looks like a lake as the river Tiber with its long and slow job of debris transportation covered the channel leading to the sea. It has a perfect octagonal shape that, with a reflection system, allow the waters to be always calm in the basin.

The ancient Appian Way, Regina viarium (queen of roads) had begun its path from "Porta Capena" of the Servian walls. It was built first on 312 b.C. by the consul Appius Claudius. The road goes south through the Aurelian’s walls and St.Sebastian’s gate and reaches its first mile (one mile equals to about 1,4 Km) where a milestone is, just similar to the one situated on the Capitol terrace. Between IV and V mile on the Appian way, there are on the right hand side a continued series of 12 tombs: Pope Saint Urban (II century), Gaius Licinius’, a Doric one of Sulla period, Hilarious Fuscus’ (Antoninian period), Tiberius Claudius Secondinus’, then an unknown tomb, the one of Quintus Apuleius, a grave temple-shaped, Rabiri’s (I century A.D.), a tower grave, the tomb named "dei festoni" and a reconstructed one like a tabernacles.

The graveyard of Via Ostiense, about 350 Mts. long, is famous for the tomb the apostle Paul who has the near basilica dedicated. It was used between II and IV century on three different floors how it’s proved by the older tombs on the northern side.

The Umbelicus Urbi (navel of the city) indicated the symbolic center of the ancient Rome in the Forum and now it looks like a circle of bricks.

In the place where Piazza del Campidoglio is nowadays it once stood the temple of Jove, Juno and Minerva (how Athena was called by the Romans); it was built under the reign of the Tarquini and some ruins are visible in the Capitol Museums.

Where now Via dei Fori Imperiali stretches, between the Basilica of Massentius and the Exquilinus hill, there was the Velia, another hill eliminated in 1931 for the construction of the big road connecting the Coliseum and Piazza Venezia. At the beginning the name of the street was Via dell’Impero (The empire road) by the Fascist propaganda. In that place Mussolini foisted five marble tables picturing the expansion of the Roman Empire, the fifth step representing the conquest of Ethiopia. This last was removed after the WW2.

In the area close to Piazza della Repubblica and the Termini railways station, there was the Diocletian bath, with part of it still in place, visible either from outside or inside the churches of St. Bernardo and S.Maria degli Angeli and the Rome National Museum.

The huge house of Nero, the Domus Aurea (the golden house) on the Oppius hill, was standing on an area from the Palatinus to the Celius. To understand how big the complex was, just imagine that the Coliseum was built afterward on the drained lake of its park.

In the Forum, where the Curia stands, several other buildings were built before: the first Curia Julia, by Caesar, then the Diocletian’s; after the church of St. Hadrian and last Mussolini’s who built a curia again in 1937 similar to the original one.

Of the inner ring, called the Servian walls, there are only a few remains of the gates: Viminalis by the Termini railways station, Sanqualis in Piazza Magnapoli, Quirinalis in Piazza Barberini area, Esquilinis and Porta Celimontana (the arches called Gallienius’ and Dolabella’s) and Quequetulanis, thought to be the remains at the SS. Quattro Coronati church.

In 1553 under a two houses’ basement a statue of Genus Pompeus was found; in that area there was his theatre and the Curia where Julius Caesar was stabbed on the Ides of March 44 b.C.. The theatre had a capacity of 18,000 and behind the scenes 100 columns surrounding a huge square of 180 x 135 Mts. wide called Hecatostylum. This was the first theatre in Rome to be built with bricks between 61 and 65 b.C. and Pompeus thought to build together with a Curia to give it a religious meaning (laws forbade the permanent construction of theatres).

What was called Meta Sudans was a fountain with its name after a ball on a cone with several holes where the water came out as if the fountain sweated. It’s believed that at the fountain, built by Titus, the surviving gladiators went to wash their wounds from blood. It is close to the Coliseum and the Constantine arch where it’s possible to see its shape on the ground.

On the Palatinus, on the side on front of the Circus Maximus, was built a school for the slaves of the Imperial Court, called Paedagogium; on its walls is still possible to see some drawings by the pupils, and among the others, one about a man crucified with a donkey head.

The Constantine’s bath spread from Villa Aldombradini to Piazza del Quirinale: from its ruins were taken the statues of the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux) and placed nowadays on the same square; also the statues of Constantine and Costantius were taken and placed on the Capitolium terrace and another of Constantine, now in the entry of Saint John’s basilica.

The ruins on the Tiber by the Tiberine island, called Ponte Rotto (the Broken Bridge), are the rest of the ancient Pons Aemilius built by the censor Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (where the name is taken), which was destroyed by the biggest flood of the river on Christmas of 1958. The river was crossed in that point by the Aurelian way.

At a few steps from the Coliseum and linked by an underground path, there are the rests of Ludus Magnus, the biggest barracks for the gladiators training.

In Via di Pietra, which is a street crossing Via del Corso, there are the ruins of was believed to be the temple of Neptune, but is actually the temple of Hadrian, built in 145 A.D. and situated in the middle of a big porche square.

In a wing of Palazzo Barberini has been recently discovered where the temple of Quirinus was (Quirinus was Romolus, the founder of the city, became a god at his death). The temple was on basement 100 x 80 Mts., with 8 columns on the front, and a double row of 15 columns on both sides; a picture on a marble which is in the Museo delle Terme let us know this. The presence of the basement explains why Palazzo Barberini building was not aligned with two adjacent streets.

On the place of the Exquilinus gate of the Servian walls was built a three fornix arch (now only one is still there), dedicated to Gallienus, emperor from 253 to 268 A.D., and to his wife Salonina, in 262 A.D.

Castro Pretorio was nowadays a barrack as it was in the ancient days. Tiberius built it in 23 A.D. on a 400 x 380 Mts. area to be the center of Praetorians guards.

Castel Sant’Angelo, the castle by the Vatican on the river, was before a monumental grave, built by Hadrian for him and his descendants. The former basement was 88 Mts. each side and was 21 Mts. high. Septimius Severus, Caracalla, Antoninius Pius and Marcus Aurelius were buried there.
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