MONUMENTS:
Unfortunately, it seems that I have ran out of space to put fotos. Nevertheless I will continue to blog about my adventures in Rome. This past week we spent time inside of Rome following the Triumph Route. We began in Logro Argentina (the place of the silver bankers) which used to be the Campus Martius in ancient times. The Campus Martius was were the soldiers were trained outside the city walls and it was alos believed that the Tarquinians owned the land during regal Rome. It is here that the Triumph Route for Roman generals began. A Triumph was a parade that celebrated a general's prowness over his enemies. Nevertheless, the Senate voted on whether a general received a Triumph or not. There was a smaller victory parade called an Ovans. In modern Rome, Logro Argentina houses a few manubial temples that once decorated the Campus Martius. Manubial temples were temples dedicated by generals to a god or gods after victories over their opponents. Today, there are four temples arranged in a line and called A, B. C, D. Temple C was built first by the 3rd century B.C. and probably dedicated to Feronia a fertility goddess. Following temple C was Temple B built by Quintus Catulus to Fortuna husice dei which was a tholos. Temple A followed closely by Quintus Catulus the younger. He built it close by to Temple B.
Behind these temples lay a few remains of the portico of the Theater of Pompey. The theater of Pompey was built for: an appeal to the people, tribute to the soldiers, a promotion anda culture of Pompey, and one upping Sulla by dedicating the shrine of the theater to Felicitas (since Sulla was called Felix). Today, however, the Theater of Pompey is no more. Yet the buildings were it once stood are arranged in the shape of the theater!!
Leaving the Campus Martius we go to the Circus Flamminius on the via Aemilia.Flamminius was tribune in 232 B.C. and was the first to introduce land reforms (yes even before the Gracchi). Thought the Circus Flamminius did not hold races like the Circus Maximus, the Circus Flamminius was a public area filled with markets, used for festivals, and occasional popular games. Today, the Circus Flamminius holds the Jewish quarter of Rome.
From here, we go to the Forum Holiarum where we find three more manubial temples one alongside another. The middle manubial temple was consecrated in 1129 A.D. into the Church of San Nicola. All the Roman temples were thoroughly hellenized and in a prostyle with the columns going front and the sides. The northern temple is the oldest dedicated after the First Punic War in 260 B.C. It was dedicated to Janus. The middle temple (where the church is) was dedicated to Juno. It was built to celebrate a victory in Transpaltine Gaul. It fell into disrepair in 90 B.C. It was repaired by Caecilia Metella who had a dream of Juno who threatened her if she did not repair it. For the most part, Roman temples were repaired and maintained by the family of those who initially built the temple. South of this temple was a temple built to Spes (Hope) after the Carthaginian War which was Hope for Permanent Victory.
Finally we arrive to the Capitoline Hill named after a mythic story. It was said that while building the foundations to the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus...they found a talking head that prophesized Rome's greatness. The Capitoline was called the caput mundi or the head of the world. On the Capitoline today stands three palaces built and refurnished by Michelangelo. In ancient Rome, there was the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus where the Triumph Route ended. The Temple of Jupiter Maximus had a foundation of 18m high. It was also bragged to be 200ft by 200ft at it searlier stages though this could have been at its height. The triumphant general had a red painted face (simulated Jupiter) and he made sacrifices to honor his victory.
Today the three palaces on the Capitoline house the Capitoline Museums. Inside you can see the Colossus statue of Constantine which was about 30 feet. The statue had the Constantine gaze which has Constantine looking to a distance showing his concern for spiritual matters of Rome (in this case Christianity).
You can also see the Lupercal wolf nursing the Romulus and Remus (though the children were added later) which is now being debated whether it is Etruscan made or made in the Middle Ages. There are arguments on both sides. For example, the art style is definitely archaic but one publication of dating has it to the Middle Ages.
You can also see the sculpture of the dying Gaul which is a Hellenized style. The Gual is highly idealized. In the Hellenic area the Greeks dignified their opponents in order to show that they were even greater by defeating worthy opponents. The Gaul can be scene as resisting his death by trying to get up by his right arm. Furthermore, the Gual has highly stylized hair that is thick as a mane. He wears the Gaulic necklace. He is also naked which represents a Gaulic noble in battle.
In the Forum, the Basilica Giulia was built by Julius Caesar in 54 B.C. It was later completed by Augustus. Built into a hill side the Basilica Julia was 101 x 59 ft with a 3 story nave and a 2 story gallery. There is an inscription showing that Gabinus Vetitius restored the basilica after the sack of Rome in 410 A.D. The Basilica linked the Caesarian Rostra and the Temple of Divine Julius Caesar and the Temple of Castor and Pollux. Thus showing the importance of Caesar. Oppossed to this Basilica was the Basilica Aemilia built by the Aemilia family in which Caesar also aided his opponent in rejuvenating. The Basilica Aemilia, thought smaller than the Basilica Julia, was more lavished in the used of marble (different colors) and decoration (thought it had a tufa foundation). It was first built in 179 B.C. by Marcus Fulvius Nubior and Marcus Lepidus Aemilius. It was restored in 54 B.C by Lucius Aemilius Paulus III. Again, we see that public buildings were largely left to the families of those who initially built them.
The temple of Concordia was consecrated as a templum space in 367 B.C. by Camilus after defeating the Gauls at Veii. In 121 B.C. Lucius Opimius built a the building aedes (what we call the temple) after he killed the younger Gracchi. He dedicated it to Concordia showing a peace that was made by Senatorial and Aristocratic dominance of politics. In 10 A.D., Tiberius returns to Rome and rebuilds the temple of Concordia dedicated as COncordia Augusti which showed the peace between Octavius and he. Octavian in 7 B.C. had claimed Gaius as heir and, furthermore, Tiberius was forced to be remarried to Julia who prostituted herself (after the marriage) in the Forum. In 6 B.C. Tiberius gave up his tribune position and left Rome only to return in A.D 10 when he was made the full heir of Octavian.
The Temple of Divine Julius Caesar was the first instance in which a man, besides Romulus (who probably was not real), was deified as a god. It was prostyle and hexastyle. Like the Rostra Vetera the rostra of the platform also had ship beaks of conquered naval battles. Under the rostra lies the tomb of Caesar's cremation in which, today, people can lay flowers on.
The Curia Giulia was built by Caesar in 46 B.C. and finished by Augustus in 29 B.C. The Curia Hostilia (where the Senate met) was burned down after followers of Clodius decided to cremate him in the Curia. The core was concrete with a brick face. The bottom half of the walls were decorated in Marble and the upper part was stuccoed to simulate marble. There used to be porch halfway up the Curia with the windows. There was a statute to Nike inside. There was a central floor with 3 steps going towards the wall where the senators would have sat in their chairs. Towards the back there would have been the dais that would have held the emperor's chair and the statue of Nike. The floors were polychromatic as well. In the later 3 and 4 century A.D. St. Ambrose had an argument with a pagan aristocrat to remove the statue of Nike form the Curia. St. Ambrose would have his way because by this time the Roman aristocracy and the Roman empire were becoming thoroughly Christianized.
History:
Late Republic (133-27 B.C.)
By this time the status quo between aristocrats and plebs have become thoroughly disrupted. Violence became epedemic in political candidacies. On one side there were the optimates who were the traditional landed aristocracy of Rome. On the other side there were the populares who appealed to the people for their power. These two distinctions are not like modern political parties but rather a collection of ideas in which people would filter in and out of. The plebs had five main issues at the time:
1) redistribution of land
2) rise of latifundia villa estates which displaced the peasant farmer
3) distribution of grain
4) citizenship of Italians
5) composition of juries in standing courts (this way optimates could not get away with whatever they pleased)
The Gracchi came to power through the tribune position in government. Tiberius Sempronius Cracchus was tribune in 133 B.C. He proposed that one person could not hold more than 500 iugera of land. The surplus of government land was redistributed among the peasant farmers. The redistribution of land was to be headed by the tres viri. At this point, Tiberius Gracchus had prposed that he, his father, and his brother should be the tres viri. Tiberius got into trouble with the optimates because he passes these reforsm through the public plebiscites before consulting the Senate. He also asks the people to remove his tribune colleague Marcus Octavius. He then is voted again as tribune (which was illegal at the time). This was so intolerable that Scipio Nasco murdered Tiberius Gracchus in a riot.
Gaius Sempronius Gracchus soon followed in his older brother's footsteps, though more craftily. He won the tribunate in 123 B.C and 122 B.C. He began by forming a coalition between equestrians, patricians, and plebs. He proposed that: no citizen can be condemned on a capital charge without a trial before the people (harkening to his brother's death). He wanted to create colonies so that peasants could have land. He wanted to give those with Latin rites full Roman citizenship and those with nothing full Latin Rites. He wanted to give free clothes and equipment to the soldiers and that minorities could be drafted. He also wanted the state to subsidize the grain dole. Yet, in 121 B.C. Lucius Opimius tries to repeal these acts of Gaius Gracchus. Because of this Gaius Gracchus and his followers kills Opimius's (consul at the time) lictor. In the end, Opimius with senatorial consent goes and kills Gracchus and 3,000 of his supporters.
In 110 B.C. Numidia revolts and is put down in 105 B.C. by Gaius Marius, a new man. He was elected as consul five consecutive times to put down revolts else where in the empire. In 104, he celebrates a triumph. In his war in Numidia, in 107 B.C., Marius reformed the military. He made it that no one needed land in order to serve in the Roman army. Therefore soldiers who were jobless required the army as a means of support. Thus he had created the precedent for armies becoming loyal to their generals. In 91 B.C, the Italians broke out in mutiny because they were not granted citizenship promised by the murdered tribune Drusus. In the end, Sulla (a patrician) put down the rebellion. Nevertheless, Rome gave citizenship to those Italians who did not betray Rome or to those who agree to put down their arms during the rebellion. In 88 B.C., Sulla was sent to deal with the rebellion of Mithidrates VI of Pontus. During this time, Marius and Cinna, and Marian supporters took control of Rome. In 84 B.C., Marius dies and control is left to the Marian regime. Sulla returns to Italy and begins raging a ruthless campaign on Marian supporters. Sulla proscribes many of Marian supporters and undoes the reforms of the populares and curtailing the power of the tribune. After Sulla's era, Pompey takes the power vacuum (for Pompey had raised legions for Sulla in the civil war against Marius). In 67 B.C., Pompey gained unprecedented imperium outside of Rome and he swiftly crushed the pirates. From that point on, he is given imperium to deal with extrordinary circumstances in the Roman world because the Republican government since the 200s B.C. had to formal bureaucratic institutions to deal with a large empire after defeating Carthage. From this point on, the rest is history concerning Caesar, Pomepy, Cicero, Octavian, Anthony, and the creation of the empire.
