April 26, 2012

• The Forum

   Here’s The Forum. 

  

  (That’s a Penn State joke…)

   

  Before we went to Rome, we borrowed a Rick Steves’ Rome DVD. When they showed pictures of people walking in the Forum, I said, “Oh, WOW.”  

  

   

  I mean, just LOOK at that!! It’s like ten museums’ worth of stuff just lying around! And it’s huge!

      

   

  The Forum, when it was being used and not looked at as ruins, was the main marketplace, meeting place, and as a general hang-out place.  It was also used as a place for triumphs, hence all the triumphal arches. When a general would be victorious, he’d get to ride around the Forum and be hailed by the crowds. Our tour guide told us that when this would happen, the general (or whomever) was required to have a slave ride in the chariot with him the whole time and tell him things like “This fame will never last” or “Remember, you are mortal.” I suppose a lot of us could use a person like that in our lives sometimes!

  This is one of the triumphal arches, the arch of Septimius Severus. It was built in 203 AD to commemorate victories in Parthia (which is the Iran/Iraq area). 

   

       

  Here is another arch, the Arch of Titus. It was built in 81 AD by Domitian to honor his dead brother, Emperor Titus, and to glorify Titus’ defeat of the Jews. 

  

  This next part was….

  

  That’s The Temple of Saturn. It was built around 42 BC.

   

  Here we see what is left of the Temple of Vespasian and Titus.

  

  Titus started building it in the first century AD to honor his father Vespasian. But Titus died. So his brother, Emperor Domitian, finished it and named it after his dad and his brother. 

  These three pillars are all that’s left of the Temple of Castor and Pollux.

        

  The original temple was built in 484 BC, but it was rebuilt in 6 A.D.  Postumius, a Roman dictator, vowed to build the temple if his army defeated the Tarquin Kings who previously ruled Rome. According to the legend, Castor and Pollux, mythological twin brothers, helped the Roman army to victory, so they got the temple.

  This column is a veritable baby! It was built in 608 AD to honor a visit by the Byzantine emperor Phocas. They named it The Column of Phocas. 

   

   

      

   

  This is Michael who is planking. He was constructed in 1996.

   

  

  This was a welcome sight. Otherwise, our day might have been in ruins!

  

  This is the Temple of Romulus. It still has the original bronze door!

  

  And the rest are just pictures for you to enjoy. 

                   

  • 6:28 pm
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