Flight Day

We caught the airport bus at the train station in Bologna in the morning.  The bus driver was non-communicative, which, in our limited experience, is rare in Italy.

We are flying in business class because of our frequent flyer reward ticket.  Frankly, this business class thing is a bit ridiculous.  We have access to the ‘business class lounges.’  The lounge at the Bologna airport has an attendant making cappuccino, caffé etc. and as ever, there is a wide variety of pastry items.  The people in the business/first class lounge get their own security line, separated from, and not visible to, the security line for everybody else.  Of course there is no line-up at all so one can breeze right through and the Italians are very casual and nice about it all.

We had e-mailed the people who run the B&B in Bologna and told them not to bother putting out any breakfast for us this morning as it is all sweets and we wanted to leave for the airport before breakfast anyway.  We were the only guests and had the place to ourselves as the owners seem to live elsewhere.  It was a good thing we skipped breakfast, for on the plane to Munich, we got salmon with artichoke and salad, which was very good, which says a lot, as we are not partial to fish.

In Munich, the Lufthansa business lounge is very large and by Italian standards, the coffee is terrible, ha.  They have a large buffet of food and endless bottles of beer, wine, sparkling wine and other drinks.  It is all crazy, really.  We had a 3.5 hour wait in Munich and the lounge was very comfortable with nice seating, newspapers, shower rooms with attendant, etc.

The flight from Munich to Chicago was very good, given that we had all kinds of perks, such as lie-flat seats, French champagne, good food, linen, dishware, a very friendly German flight attendant and on and on.  The 3 hour flight to Regina from Chicago was on the horrible small plane with viciously uncomfortable seats.

The weather at home is a shock to the system, cold and snow.  This was a really fabulous trip, I don’t know how we will surpass this one given all the ancient architecture and ruins we got to see.  The friendly and helpful Italians were wonderful as we gestured and mispronounced everything in our severely limited Italian vocabulary.  We do not take travel for granted and are grateful to have had the opportunity to visit Italy.
We are left with a real affinity for Sicily, beautiful people and a beautiful land with an incredible ancient architectural heritage.

We will finish up with a few kooky photos that John has picked from his file of eight billion Italy photos.

Hooded crow at the Baths of Caracalla, Rome

Sun seeking turtle at Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli

The very top of 115 foot obelisk, Fountain of the Four Rivers, Piazza Navona, Rome

Monumental Seagull, Piazza Navona, Rome

Napping pigeons in Doric column, Temple of Apollo, Siracusa

Arrivederci Italia

It was raining in Rome when we walked to the train station this morning.  We watched the Tuscan countryside whip by from the high speed train, the train got up to a speed of 247 km/hr. There wasn’t much of a view from Florence to Bologna as the route is mainly in tunnels.  It pretty much rained all day.

We are in Bologna, staying in a really cool B&B near the train station in an old building.  There are a lot of covered porticos in Bologna so we walked around town and went for a bit of lunch at a sort of cafeteria that was full of locals.  John and I just did a lot of pointing to communicate our food selections.  Bologna is known for being a food town.  There are bars and food places everywhere, all loaded with decadent looking sweets.  Of course there is a lot of cheese, we bought half a kilo of Reggiano Parmigiano for about a quarter of the price we pay at home.  On the way back to the B&B, we bought some supplies for dinner tonight and then went for tea.

Prices are much higher here and the service is pretty paltry when compared to southern Italy and Sicily.  Bologna is an orderly and tidy place with wide streets and nice buildings but I would take the chaos and the grit of the south over this any day.  It is colder here in the north, only 7C!

The bus to the airport departs from the train station, which is only a couple of minutes on foot so it is very convenient.

That is a wrap for our trip to Italy.  This is an outstanding country to visit, we loved Sicily the most, went crazy for all the ancient ruins and really enjoyed the countryside.

The only photo John took today, the Fountain of Neptune

Baths and Aqueducts

Baths of Caracalla    AD 212 - 217

The Baths of Caracalla are the best preserved Imperial Baths.  It was a huge structure capable of accommodating 10,000 people at once.  The Emperor Caracalla built the central block, the outer structures were built later.

True to the Roman desire for architectural axiality and symmetry; the swimming pool, the cold baths (frigidrium) and hot baths (caldarium) were all aligned on the central axis with other rooms on either side laid out symmetrically.  The frigidarium had triple groin vaults.  The baths were of concrete construction faced with brick.  The walls would have been stuccoed over and painted.

The baths continued to function well into the 6th century.  Recall that the Farnese Bull and Herakles at Rest were situated in the Baths of Caracalla, these are now in the Naples Archaeological Museum.  As was the norm, popes pilfered the statuary, columns and marble.

Great libraries also formed a part of the Imperial Bath complexes.

A rendering of the Baths of Caracalla

The Dressing Room

The height achieved is extraordinary

View from the pool, through to the frigidarium and out to one of the pillars of the caldarium.

All that remains of the caldarium are the two huge pillars.

Rome is a very busy place on the weekends, the Baths of Caracalla were relatively calm after having walked through the throngs of visitors near the Forum and the Colosseum.  After visiting the baths, we walked across Rome, over to St. Peter’s Square to meet our friends from Belgium, who are also visiting Rome.  Our meeting place was beside the obelisk in the square, but we encountered them on the street en route.  They were still on their tour so we decided to hang around and meet them when they were finished.

We met at the obelisk and after catching up, we walked back over to Monti and went for a drink, we shared a bottle of really great Sicilian wine.  Then we went for dinner, where we had more Sicilian wine and some traditional Roman food.  We had such a great time, it was just wonderful to see them.

We had an easy day today, we wanted to visit the Aqueduct park to view another feat of Roman engineering.  It would have taken us a couple of hours to walk to the park so we decided to take the Metro. Riding the Metro was interesting because we got to look at all the locals, the Romans look just like the Emperors, there is a pronounced genetic link going on, they all have the Roman nose.

The aqueduct was started by Caligula in 38 AD, it was completed by Claudius in 58 AD.  The aqueducts at the park are known as the Claudian Aqueducts, they brought water to Rome from their source at the valley of Aniene River, 45 miles away.

The Capitoline Hill

Michelangelo designed the piazza, it was the terminus of the triumphal route of the Roman Emperors.  The top of the ramp is flanked by Castor and Pollux.

Roman in military dress in the piazza.

Copy of the bronze sculpture of Emperor Marcus Aurelius in the piazza.

It seems as though you cannot look anywhere without seeing some portion of the Vittorio Emanuele Monument, it became our joke as we walked around Rome.

Tomorrow is a travel day, our trip is winding down.  We take a fast train to Bologna tomorrow where we will have an afternoon to explore the city.  Then on Tuesday, we fly home.

Hadrian's Architecture

Domition was the last emperor of the Flavian Dynasty.  He was viewed as a tyrant by the Senate and was assassinated in 96 AD.  Nerva was appointed emperor, he was an elderly Senator who was not popular with the army.  Therefore, Nerva adopted the competent and popular military commander Trajan, as his heir.  When Nerva died, Trajan became emperor, he was the first emperor to be born outside of Italy, he was born in Spain.  Trajan extended the Roman Empire to its furthest reaches.

Forum of Trajan - 112 AD

Trajan built a huge Imperial Forum which he paid for with the spoils of his war with Dacia, current day Romania, in 106 AD.  He took down part of the Quirinal Hill, a depth of 125 feet, so he had room for his forum.  Today, there is not much left of Trajan’s Forum, medieval buildings were built over top the forum and excavations have only revealed medieval rooms.  Some columns of his basilica remain.

Column of Trajan

The column is 125 feet high, the same depth that the Quirinal Hill was taken down.  The column is made out of 29 huge blocks of Italian marble.  The continuous frieze which wraps around the column is ~ 656 feet long.  The frieze is a sequence of 155 scenes with over 2600 figures (2/3 life-sized) carved in low relief.  The frieze tells the story of the two wars with Dacia in 102-3 and 105-6 AD.

Trajan’s ashes may have been put inside the base as there is a small chamber there or they may have been placed on the opposite side of the column.  A spiral staircase exists inside the column, which extends all the way to the top.

A 16 foot bronze statue of Trajan in military dress was on the top of the column, but unfortunately, a Saint was put there in 1588.

Okay, we had to talk about Trajan so we can now discuss Hadrian.  Trajan never designated Hadrian as his heir.  When Trajan died, his wife claimed that Trajan named Hadrian the Emperor of Rome, right before he died.

Hadrian was not interested in expanding the empire, he was only interested in maintaining the empire that already existed.  He was a traveller and an amateur architect, these two interests resulted in some fairly dramatic architecture during his reign.  Finally, that brings us to today’s adventure.

We had a fine, fine, day today.  We walked to Termini, the main train station, to catch a train to Tivoli.  Our train was running a bit late, we saw two non-Italian people watching the board like hawks, same as us, so we thought they must be going to Tivoli as well.  Turns out, they were thinking the same thing about us.  They sat across from us on the train, so I asked if they were going to Villa Adriana.  They said yes, they were, but they wanted to go to Villa d’Este first.  We struck up a conversation, they are from Wales, so we asked them about the travelling they have done.

A bit later on they asked how we were getting from Tivoli to Villa Adriana, I said we were going to try and figure out the bus system.  They decided they would go to Villa Adriana first and then visit Villa d’Este, which is right in Tivoli.

I read about walking over a bridge from the train station into the town, so we found the bridge and stopped at the first tabacchi shop that we encountered.  The attendant spoke English, so we got bus tickets to and from Villa Adriana.  John then asked where the bus stop was, a customer in the shop said we could walk with her and she would show us the stop.  People are really great in Italy, very helpful and kind.

We got the bus and it took us right to Villa Adriana, which was Hadrian’s villa.  The Welsh hung around with us for a bit then took off as they wanted to speed through at a faster pace than us so they could also visit Villa d'Este, so we said our goodbyes.  They are really nice people.

Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli - Villa Adriana

It was a gorgeous, sunny day, we walked around without our jackets, it was so warm.  Hadrian’s Villa was built in three phases during his reign.  It was the most extravagant and lavishly decorated Villa built by a Roman Emperor.  He travelled the Roman Empire extensively and re-created architecture from across the Empire.

The plan is a clear departure from the Roman plan of symmetry and axiality.  Buildings are arranged with respect to the landscape and the setting is beautiful.  There was a substantial amount of Greek influence going on at the villa.

Pecile

This large pool was surrounded by a covered colonnade.  The setting is stunning.

Area near the bath complexes.

Large Baths, 125-133 AD

These baths were huge for being private baths.  There is also a smaller bath house nearby.  Note how the vaults are groin vaults which rise up from the brackets.  They achieved a lot of height with this vaulting.

Caponus, 133 - 138 AD

This is a representation of the Egyptian canal on the Nile delta which links the city of Caponus to Alexandria.  There are two statues representing the river gods, the Nile and the Tiber and a crocodile representing Egypt.  The canal-pool is extremely long, the large pavilion at the end had an exedra, which was an open air banqueting hall.  There would have been fountains inside the exedra from which rivulets of water flowed past the diners and out to the canal-pool in front.  Quite an exquisite atmosphere for dining.

This is known as the pumpkin or umbrella dome.  It was a rather daring architectural design at the time with flat and concave segments and deep niches.

The Caryatids sit alongside the canal-pool, they are copies of the Greek Caryatids on the Acropolis in Athens.

View through the ruins to the mountains in the distance.

The Hospitalia was a central hall flanked by cubicula or bedrooms.  It is thought that guests at the Villa stayed in this building.

The Maritime Theatre, 118 - 128

This was a beautiful round structure with a canal around the outside.  It had concrete domes with columns that followed the curve of the walls.  It is thought to have been a retreat for Hadrian.

Golden Plazza

This was likely used as a triclinium or dining hall in the summer.  The vestibule had a pumpkin dome while the walls were made out of columns, so it is a combination of innovative Roman design with traditional Greek architecture.

Temple of Venus, 133 - 138

This temple is an exact replica of the Temple of Venus on the Greek island of Knidos, the statue of Aphrodite (Venus) was a copy as well.  The columns are Doric, along with triglyphs and metopes on the entablature.

We spent about 3.5 hours exploring Villa Adriana, it is a wonderful ruin set in a glorious landscape, it was an absolute joy to visit.  We caught the bus outside the villa to go back to Tivoli which is seriously uphill from the villa.  We watched for the bridge across the river to know when to get off.  The bus stops right at the bridge so that worked out well.

When we got to the train station I glanced up at the board and saw that the 14:55 train was boarding as the lights were flashing, it was 14:54, so we ran out onto the platform, crossed the tracks, then realized we forgot to validate our ticket.  So John ran back across the tracks with the ticket to the validation box.  He figured we were too late but I saw the conductor out on the platform and he was waving at John to carry on, so I waved at John and yelled to validate and run back.  John ran back so we boarded and took off to Rome.

The train did not return to Termini, the main station, it returned to Tiburtina, so we had to go down to the Metro and buy a couple of Metro tickets to take the Metro to our apartment.  The doors on the Metro were closing as we got through the turnstiles so we were prepared to wait for the next train.  The Italians don’t wait for anything, a woman was part way through the doors and strong-armed them open.  Then the doors shut, then opened again, so a group of us got on, the passengers on board appeared disgusted that somebody else must have opened the doors and prevented the train from leaving.  It was a pretty fast ride to our stop, we got off and proceeded to our apartment on foot, it was time for tea.

The Pantheon, Temple to all the gods  - 125 AD

Since we are talking about Hadrian, it is time to look at the pinnacle of Roman dome architecture.  The first temple built on the site was put up by Marcus Agrippa in 27-25 BC.  It was destroyed by the great fire in 80 AD, Domitian built another temple which was stuck by lightening and burned down.  Hadrian recognized the effort by Agrippa; thus, the inscription reads: ‘Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, thrice consul, made this.’

Once again, the building combines traditional architecture with innovative design.  The temple porch is classical with columns in light grey granite with very fine Corinthian capitols in Greek pentelic marble, there is a single staircase, frontal facade and a high podium.  The dome was hidden on approach and the porch was once clad in marble.

The rotunda is concrete construction faced with brick, it was coated in white stucco to mimic marble.  The exterior is rather displeasing, the gable of the portico is too steep, the portico is awkwardly associated with the round building, they were trying to marry two incompatible geometric shapes and used a large block of concrete to tie them together.  The bronze doors are ancient but not likely original.

The interior of the temple is extraordinary, the internal diameter of 142 feet is the same as the height from the floor to the circular oculus in the roof, the dome is a perfect hemisphere.  The oculus which allows light, air, rain, birds etc. to enter, is ~ 30 feet in diameter.

There are 7 alcoves, they would have had niches for statuary on the back wall.  The beautiful marble floor is supposedly original, 140 coffers in the dome would have been gilded.  The columns and pilasters are original.

The Pantheon demonstrates increasing sophistication in the use of concrete, walls decrease in thickness from bottom to top, heavy stone is used at the bottom and a lighter porous pumice at the top.  The arches are self-stabilizing and the dome has compressive rings to stabilize it as well.

The coffers in the dome get smaller as the height increases, this makes the dome look larger than it really is, this also reduced the weight.

The Pantheon is an incredible building, especially if you focus on the dome and the oculus.  It functions as a church right now so one has to block out all of that decoration to gain an appreciation for what the Romans achieved architecturally.

Roman Forum, Flavian Amphitheatre, Imperial Forums

Oh my, we have a lot of ground to cover, here we go.  In 8th century BC, a village of huts was established on the Palatine Hill, this was the beginning of Rome.  Archaeologists have excavated the huts, you can look at the excavated huts today.

In 509 BC, an Etruscan king built the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus Capitolinus (Jupiter OMC), dedicated to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, the Capitaline Triad.  This was the most important temple of ancient Rome and was re-built several times.  All that remains today is about 13 feet of the platform.  It had a triple cella, one for each god/goddess.

The architecture of the Republic was Etruscan until nearly 100 BC.  The Etruscans were skilled in construction but their architecture lacked refinement, the barrel vault in stone was of Etruscan origin.  The Romans used the vault and when they started to use and improve concrete, Roman architecture really came into its own.

The Roman forum was situated where the two main roads met.  It was a meeting and marketplace, an open space surrounded by a colonnade.  Several buildings would be situated near or in the forum, such as a temple, a basilica and a portico with shops.  The importance of the Roman forum declined after the end of the Republic, as the emperors built their own forums, known as the Imperial forums.

We were very prepared for our visit of the forum.  I had printed out maps of all the buildings, forums, temples etc. and had notes on my kindle reader.  If you are not prepared, it looks like one giant field of rubble with columns here and there.  We were quite methodical during our visit and spent a lot of time there.

Senate House (Curia)

Re-constructed after a fire in 283 AD, it could hold 300 senators who sat on steps along the edge.  It used to have bronze doors but a Pope took the doors in 1660 for a church.

Temple of Saturn - 497 BC, destroyed by fire and restored in 360-80 AD

This was an old cult, it was dedicated near the beginning of the Republic.  On Saturn’s feast day, slaves could do as they pleased for the day.  This was one of the last great temples funded by private citizens before the Imperial era, when the emperors decided what to build.  Most of the material used to build the temple was used previously.

Temple of Castor - 484 BC

This temple has been recognized for centuries by three standing columns, only the concrete core of the podium remains.  Castor and his twin bother Pollux were sons of Jupiter, they were semi-mythical cavalry heroes, Pollux immortal and Castor mortal.  The myth tells us that two young men on white horses were seen in the Roman ranks during the Battle of Lake Regillus in 499 or 496 BC.  They were later seen watering their horses and telling of a Roman victory over the Latins.  The temple was dedicated in 484 BC by the victorious general, Aulus Postumius.

Arch of Titus - 81 AD

The arch was built by his brother Domitian, it stands on the spur hill (Velia) between the Palatine and Esquiline Hills.  The arch sits next to the Sacred Way, which was the route of the triumph which Titus celebrated with his father Vespasian in 7 AD, after winning the Jewish War.  The side facing the forum is restored.  On the side facing the Colosseum, the spandrels, central section, columns, keystone, frieze and inscription are all ancient.

The frieze on the outside of the arch shows the whole procession in miniature, spandrels (triangular shape) below, on either side of the keystone are flying Victories carrying Roman banners, trophies, laurel wreaths and palm branches.

Originally, the arch was pentelic marble to the attic and then carrara marble, which is Roman.  The arch was restored in travertine when the arch was dismantled and reassembled in the 19th century.

The inscription reads: The Senate and People of Rome, the SPQR, who put this up to the Divine Titus, (Divo Tito) who was the son of the Divine Vespasian.

On the north side, Titus is riding in his chariot drawn by four horses with a winged female figure, who is a personification of victory, she is holding a laurel wreath over Titus’ head.  Behind the chariot, the figure with the nude torso represents the People of Rome, the figure wearing a toga represents the Senate.  In front of the chariot, the Goddess Roma is holding the bridle and welcoming Titus back to Rome.

The scene on the south side shows the procession as it approached the Triumphal gate at the beginning of the route.  There would have been two chariot groups in bronze on the roof symbolizing Titus and Vespasian.  The booty from the Great Temple of Jerusalem which was sacked in the Jewish War, is displayed on wooden stretchers, first is the golden table and silver trumpets, second is the menorah.

Note the capital is a combination of Ionic with the volute and Corinthian with the acanthus leaves.

The Triumphal Route

When a Roman general or emperor was victorious in war they came back to Rome and held a triumph.  In a triumph they paraded the Roman army, the prisoners and the booty they took from the people they conquered.  It would have been a huge spectacle, imagine the procession of Roman legions, generals, emperors in chariots, prisoners and all the loot they brought back to Rome.  The booty paid for arches, temples and forums.

Temple of Divus Antonius Pius and Diva Faustina - 140 AD

This temple was built by Antoninus Pius for his wife Faustina.  The podium and cella are of peperino tufa stone, the columns are of green marble.  The podium was faced with white marble and marble mouldings at the top and bottom, but the marble was pilfered.  The front steps are partially reconstructed in brick but would have been in marble.  The temple was converted into a church and had the Baroque pediment added in 1602.  Notice the ancient temple door is below, while the 17th century door is a lot higher.

Arch of Septimius Severus - 203 AD

The arch is located on the triumphal route just before it turned left in front of Temple of Concordia to climb the hill to the Temple of Jupiter.  The arch was awarded to Severus and his sons Caracalla and Geta in 203, for their military conquest of Parthia (Iran).  The figures on the tiers tell the story of the Pathian war; however, large chunks of figured reliefs have fallen away.

The Colosseum or Flavian Amphitheatre, 70 - 80 AD

We need to discuss a few emperors before we look at the architecture of the Colosseum.  The Julio-Claudian dynasty was founded by Augustus, Caesar’s great nephew and adopted son.  Julio from the Julian side - Julius Caesar and the Claudian side - Augustus’s wife Livia.  The dynasty consisted of Tiberius (ruled AD 14 - 37), Caligula (ruled AD 37 - 41), Claudius (ruled AD 41 - 54), and Nero (ruled AD 64 - 68).

Tiberius was the eldest son of Augustus’s wife Livia, from a former marriage.  Tiberius was primarily interested in private architecture for himself, building villas on Capri and a palace on the Palatine Hill.

Caligula was very young when he became emperor, he became a despot and suffered from mental illness; he believed he was a god and it is said that he tried to get his horse a position in the senate, Canadians take note...  During his reign, the mixture for concrete was altered, they dispensed with the rubble and replaced it with yellow tufa rock and pumice which resulted in a much lighter mixture.  The lighter mixture would later result in lighter dome architecture which could span greater distances.  Caligula only reigned for 3 years as he and his family were murdered, leaving no heir.

After Caligula was assassinated, the Senate hesitated in choosing a successor so the praetorian guard did it for them.  Caligula’s uncle Claudius was the first emperor to be appointed by the army.  The praetorian guard thought that Claudius would be no trouble and would bend to their will.  Claudius had a stammer, so his family thought him an imbecile; however, he was a highly intelligent person.  He was an intellectual, historian, antiquarian and a linguist who could read and write Etruscan.  He became emperor at the age of 50, Claudius followed the example of Augustus and returned to architecture for the people of Rome.  He looked to the past for architectural detail, contrasting finished columns with rough stone construction, a rather unique style.

Nero was the adopted son of Claudius by the last of his four wives, Agrippina the Younger.  Nero was brutal, completely unbalanced, despised by the patricians but adored by the people.  After the great fire in Rome in 64 AD, Nero expropriated 300 - 350 acres of land in Rome to build his palace, the Domus Aurea or Golden House, because of its gilded facade.  The palace was extraordinary, it also had an artificial lake on the grounds.

Nero’s golden house marked a major shift in Roman architecture, they began to construct octagonal domes with concrete, which broke away from the usual rectangular shape.  Also, the emphasis moved from solids to voids, from walls and roofs to the space beneath.  Natural light began to play a major role by illuminating and adding drama to the space.

Nero’s palace included a colossal statue of himself in bronze, reaching 125 feet in height.  The statue was referred to as ‘The Colossus,’ you know where this is leading, Colossus - Colosseum.

Nero had his mother murdered in 59 AD, his first wife executed in 62 AD and his second wife murdered as well.  Nero’s relations with the Senate deteriorated, there were plots against him, he was eventually discredited and condemned by the Senate.  Nero chose to commit suicide in 68 AD rather than be flogged to death.  The Roman Senate enacted a damnation of his memory, where Nero’s portraits and buildings were to be destroyed.

After Nero’s death with no heir, civil war broke out, four emperors ruled in 68 - 69 AD.  Vespasian emerged as the only ruler capable of holding onto power, thus began the Flavian dynasty.  Vespasian was politically motivated to return to public architecture, so he begins building the Flavian Amphitheatre or Colosseum.

Vespasian destroyed Nero’s Domus Aurea and filled in the artificial lake.  He built the Colosseum on the site of the former lake to gain favour with the Roman people.  The colossal statue of Nero was  re-made to depict the sun god Sol.

The Colosseum is an imposing structure, it could seat 50,000.  Constructed of concrete, the first tier annular vaults sit on stone piers made of travertine.  The second tier is where things get interesting; the angle created where the vaults intersect, is known as the groin vault or ribbed vault.  This was innovative architecture at this time, the Romans were demonstrating their expertise in the use of concrete.  The concrete would have been faced with stucco and painted.

It has a rather monotonous exterior due to the repetition of columns and arches on four tiers.  The columns that are in between the arches on the first three tiers are not structural, the building is supported by the barrel and annular concrete vaults.

The Colosseum is an oval, the interior is not so well preserved as the exterior.  The seating was made of stone, some was replaced with marble in late antiquity, the marble we see today is a reconstruction from the 1930's.  As was typical of Roman society, the seating was based on one’s social status, the Emperor and the Vestal Virgins sat in special boxed seating, on the same level sat the senatorial class.  Above them sat the patricians and further up, sat the plebs.  At the very top, the poor, the slaves and any women who dared attend the events stood or sat on wooden benches.

Underneath the floor were gladiator barracks and cages for the animals, which were released into the arena through trap doors.  There is evidence of ramps and some type of pulley system to raise the animals.  The animals and gladiators gained access to the lower level via tunnels under the main entrances.

The shows at the Colosseum were in three parts: wild animal hunts, public executions and gladiatorial contests.  The fights took place in elaborate sets with movable trees and buildings.  The animals subjected to the slaughter were usually from Africa.  I did not research why the Romans went for such a gruesome form of entertainment.

The Colosseum is a very popular place to visit, there was a huge line of people waiting to purchase tickets, we were a bit shocked at this.  The ticket is combined with the Forum and the Palatine Hill, where there is no line up, so I don’t know why people wait at the Colosseum.  Because we already had our ticket, we walked past the long line with nobody in front of us.  There are people there who try to get visitors to go on a paid tour.  The guy told us we would not understand anything about the Colosseum if we didn’t go on a tour, we laughed.

Look at those innovative groin vaults.

Annular Vault.

The Flavian Dynasty

Vespasian had two sons, Titus and Domitian.  After Vespasian died, Titus succeeded him.  Titus was a kind emperor but had a rough go of it, he had to deal with a fire in Rome and the eruption of Mt Vesuvius.  He died at a young age and was succeeded by his brother, Domitian.  Domitian had been jealous of his popular brother and was a bitter man.  He was another megalomaniac and returned to building palatial architecture for himself.

Palace of Domitian on Palatine Hill - AD 92

Domitian built a huge and extravagant palace.  We are only including a photo of the sunken stadium (hippodrome) which is well preserved.  It is enormous, the walls are concrete faced with brick.

Imperial Forums

There were many Imperial forums, the Forum of Caesar, the Forum of Augustus, the Forum of Nerva and the Forum of Trajan.

The Temple of Mars Ultor, 28 - 2 BC

Augustus built a temple to avenge the death of Julius Caesar.  The Temple to Mars Ultor (Mars the Avenger) was started in 28 BC and was dedicated in 2 BC.

The Forum of Augustus was built right next to the Forum of Caesar, as Augustus wanted to associate himself with Caesar.  A street now splits the Imperial Forums from the Roman and Caesarian Forums.  Rome had a lot of fires, so they built a wall to protect the forum from subra, the wooden tenement houses that often went on fire.  The wall was built of ashlar blocks of peperino stone, a type of tufa.

The temple had cararra marble columns, steps sheathed in cararra marble, the podium was made of tufa, and there were two hemicycles with niches for statuary.  The second story of the colonnade were figures of women, copies of the Caryatids (Maidens) in the Porch of Caryatids on the Acropolis in Athens.  Plaster casts were made of the Caryatids and duplicated for the Forum of Augustus.

Markets of Trajan, 107 - 110 AD

The markets were built into what is left of the Quirinal Hill, they were built out of concrete faced with brick.  The Romans are now experts in building with concrete - accommodating very large windows on the outside wall.  They break the triangular pediment to allow an arcuated pediment to show through, this is the beginning of experimentation that leads to the Baroque element in Roman architecture.  Groin vaults were used in the covered bazaar as they can now lift the vault on piers rather than having to use solid walls.  This opens up the space and allows light to flood in.