Rome- The Eternal City

Foundations of Rome

• 753 B.C. traditional founding date of Rome

• Romulus & Remus- twin brothers- sons of Mars and Rhea Silvia

• Romulus killed Remus in quest for Rome

• Romulus first king of Rome

• Rome founding on the Tiber River

Palatine Hill

• Palatine Hill

– First settlement in Rome

– named for Pales goddess of sheperds

– Became residential district for statesman and wealthy and temple district

– Augustus built his palace on Palatine

Roman Forum

• Forum

– Below Palatine Hill

– Market place, business district, civic center

– Law courts, senate (Curia), public buildings

– Rostra- speaker’s platform

– Many temples, Vesta, Julius Caeasar, Castor & Pollux

Via Sacra, leading from the Arch of Constantine and the Colosseum into the forum

Via Sacra

The Subura or Suburra in Modern times

SUBURA

We live in a city largely held up by thin props, for that is how the real estate agent supports the tottering house. And when he plasters over the gaping cracks on the long-neglected wall, he tells the occupants not to worry and to sleep soundly, though the place is about to crash down.

Juvenal

Wall along today's Via Tor d'Conti

Mercato Rionale closed on Sundays

Santa Maria dei Monti

Capitoline Hill

• Capitoline Hill

– Temple of Jupiter –Capitolium

– Temple of Juno Moneta (mint)

– today – seat of government

– Statue of Marcus Aurelius – last good emperor

Campus Martius

• Campus Martius

– Northwest of Forum

– Temples, theaters, baths,public buildings

– Residential area during Medieval times

– Pantheon – temple to all Olympian gods and is only surviving building today in Campus Martius

Via dei coronari, old roman street

Trevi Fountain,

The Column of Marcus Aurelius in the square,

Colosseum

• Colosseum

– Flavian amphitheater for Flavian emperors

– Built between 72-80 A.D.

– Gladitorial contests held

– Seat up to 50,000

– Today parts are being reconstructed for performances

Circus Maximus

• Circus Maximus

– Valley between Aventine and Palatine hills

– Racecourse for chariots

– Chariot racers were broken into teams – like political parties

Cloaca Maxima

Greatest Sewer•World’s earliest sewage systems•Drain marshes & remove waste• constructed 600 B.C – Tarquinius Priscus•Originally open drain•Aqueducts supplied water to flush out drain

Door leading to the Cloaca Maxima, near the Basilica Julia at the Forum Romanum

The underground structure was much praised. Here are the words of Pliny the Elder:

Hills were tunneled into the course of the construction of the sewers, and Rome was a "city on stilts" beneath which men sailed when Marcus Agrippa was aedile. Seven rivers join together and rush headlong through Rome, and, like torrents, they necessarily sweep away everything in their path. With raging force, owing to the additional amount of rainwater, they shake the bottom and sides of the sewers.Sometimes water from the Tiber flows backwards and makes its way up the sewers. Then the powerful flood-waters clash head-on in the confined space, but the unyielding structure holds firm. Huge blocks of stone are dragged across the surface above the tunnels; buildings collapse of their own accord or come crashing down because of fire; earth tremors shake the ground - but still, for seven hundred years from the time of Tarquinius Priscus, the sewers have survived almost completely intact.

[Pliny the Elder, National History, 36.104-106;tr. J.F. Healy]