Mr. Spearman's summer in Rome: June 18 & 19

On June 18 we had our Latin reading group in the morning, broke for lunch and then went to the Villa Giulia Museum. The Villa Guilia houses an enormous amount of Etruscan artifacts, most of it pottery and all of it recovered from tombs like those we saw the day before. Sort of like going to Pottery Barn, 2,500 years ago. Seen one Grecian urn, seen 'em all, I say, so I will spare you any pictures.

There was one thing we saw that did strike my fancy and that was a terra cotta depiction of the two most dramatic parts of the Greek myth of the Seven Against Thebes. In the top row of figures, Zeus (second from left) has struck Capaneus (far right) who has climbed the gates. Capaneus, shouting in anger, has raised his right hand to strike. The middle figure of the three is a Theban, Polyphontes, who is being held back by Zeus. Below them are the Greek Tydeus and the Theban Melanippus. They had faced off in single combat. Melanippus was killed and Tydeus was wounded mortally. Athena (far left) had promised Tydeus immortality and is carrying a jar containing a healing potion that would have saved him, but then Tydeus started eating the brains of Melanippus. You can see Athena's shocked expression. Tydeus obviously thinks, "mmmmm--brians!" (zombie joke, sorry).

Friday June 19 dawned bright and beautiful and we began taking a look at places that had their origins in early Republican Rome (5th and 6th Century BC). Our first stop was the Circus Maximus, located in the valley between the Palatine and Aventine Hills. According to legend, when Romulus decided to trick his neighbors, the Sabines, into coming to worship at a festival that Romulus invented just for this purpose, the festival was held in this valley. The festival was the Consualia, honoring Consus, the god of stored grain and harvests. In later years, the Ludi Romani, the Roman games, were held here. In the 4th Century BC, permanent wooden stands were erected for regular chariot races and other entertainments, and by the 2nd Century BC, the wooden stands are beginning to be replaced by stone and masonry. Chariot racing was held here until the 5th Century AD, with the last recorded races taking place in 549.

We then went to the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, in hopes of seeing the Ara Maxima, the great altar of Hercules, but were denied entrance to the crypt underneath the church where it is located. We did check out the beautiful mosaic floors, created in the 11th or 12th Century from marble and porphyry scavenged from ancient buildings throughout Rome.

Santa Maria in Cosmedin is also the reputed resting place of the skull of Saint Valentine. Sorry the shot is blurred, but the light was low and using the flash was not allowed.

Then we went across the street to the church of San Nicola in Carcere. This church was built using the remnants of three ancient temples that faced the Forum Holitiorum. This forum was where ancient Romans traded fruits and vegetables.

You can see how columns from the temple on the right (Spes--goddess of Hope) and

the temple on the left (Janus--two headed god of doorways and beginnings) were incorporated into the construction of the church.

Inside the church, the columns from the temple in the middle (Juno Sospita--Juno the Savior, usually depicted with sword and shield) are used in the design of the church itself.

Here is a model of what the ancient temples would have looked like.

And a postcard showing an overlay of the ancient temples with the church.

In the basement you can see the "feet" of the columns that are incorporated into the outside walls.

After our church visits we stopped by to see old Father Tiber. For an ancient god, Tiber looked pretty vigorous today and I immediately recalled a line from Vergil:

iam senior sed cruda deo viridisque senectus

(already very old, but old age is vigorous and youthful in a god)

Although the line is about someone else, I thought it appropriate to describe Father Tiber today.

This bridge is the famous Pons Fabricius, the oldest bridge in Rome still existing in its near-original state. The bridge was built in 62 BC and this inscription tells us: "Lucius Fabricius, son of Gaius, curator of the roads, oversaw the making."

While this inscription tells us: "And the same man sanctioned it."

After our visit with Father Tiber we went to the area of the Forum Boarium. This forum was where cattle were traded in ancient Rome. This is the site of two famous temples, both of which were transformed into Christian churches and thereby saved from destruction. This first temple is circular and was the temple of Hercules Victor (Hercules the Conqueror). Hercules had a long association in this area with cattle, as he apparently stopped in the neighborhood while bringing back the cattle he had been assigned to steal from Geryon. While he stopped, a fire-breathing thief and demigod named Cacus (son of Vulcan) stole half the cattle. Hercules tracked him down and vanquished him.

The second temple in the Forum Boarium is the Temple of Portunus. Portunus was orginally a god associated with keys, doors and livestock. Later he became associated also with the Greek good Palaemon, who is the god of safe harbors.

After the temples we headed to the Capitoline Museum for the first of a couple of visits we will make this summer. Of course we had to pay our respects to Lupa, the she-wolf who nursed Romulus and Remus,

and we had to say hello to this statue of Hercules, which was found in the Forum Boarium and is believed to have been the statue in the round temple shown earlier. This early bronze piece is remarkable in that most of its gilding remains.

While in the Capitoline, I had to go visit some old friends, even though they are specifically in the time period of the early Roman Republic which we were covering today. I visited Bernini's Medusa,

the bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius

and this statue of Marsyas. Marsyas was a skilled musician and played the double flute (aulos). He challenged Apollo to a contest and lost (of course) since Apollo is the god of music. As punishment for his hubris, Marsyas was flayed (had his skin stripped off) and killed and Apollo hung his skin as a trophy, nailing it to a tree in Asia Minor.