Roman Portraits
By the 3rd Century (AD), the were two populations in Rome, the living and the immortalized statue. Glorified bodies were created in advance and heads were added when a patron …
April in Rome
Aprilis (April) was originally the second month. The calendar (from the ancient Latin Kalendae), supposedly introduced by Romulus when he founded Rome in 753 BC, consisted of 10 months in …
Athens in the Roman Empire
The statue of Athena upon the Acropolis suddenly turned to the west and spit blood. – Cassius Dio (AD155-235) In 87 BC, during the 1st of the Mithridatic Wars of Rome vs …
Greece and the Roman Empire
Much has been written about what the Romans took from the Greeks. The Greeks still say they were the originators. The Romans still say they made it better. Greek sculpture …
Ancient water and the Park of the Aqueducts
Rome was founded in 753 BC along the banks of the Tiber River. 400 years later the Tiber was so polluted, the city needed to find a new water supply. …
September in Rome – 2017
In 2017, Rome, and all of Italy, suffered the worst drought in 60 years. Rainfall was close to 80% below normal. The water flow to Rome has been continuous, without …
Ancient Greece in Sicily – Akragas (Agrigento)
Akragas – Agrigento Around 580 BC, the wealthy colony of Gela in the south of the island began trading their crops to the west, to the Sicani, Elymian and the …
Ancient Greece in Sicily – Segesta vs. Selinunte
The colonization of Sicily in the 8th century BC pretty much kept the Greeks to the East and the Carthaginians to the West, but by the 7th century BC the …
Ancient Greece in Sicily – Syracuse
Sicily is the melting pot of Italy, a cultural mélange that has taken over 10,000 years to create. From around the 9th millennium BC till around 1200 BC the island …
Pausylipon: Imperial Villa, ancient tunnels and eels
Once upon a time in the 1st century BC, Publius Vedius Pollio, a freedman of modest origins worked his way up the social ladder to become an Equestrian (Knight), economic …
The most beautiful Piazza in Rome
Architects of the Renaissance created the concept of the Piazza in the 15th century, a redesign of the urban landscape into marketplaces and public spaces surrounded by buildings. Piazze (or …
Vicus Scelerata and the Evil Steps
A foreign visitor stopped me on the via Cavour and with two words he asked one of the most frequent tourist questions in Rome’s Monti District. “Saint Peters?” He phrased …
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