Sightseeing rome tours

This hideous masque of painting, though destructive of all beauty, is, however, favourable to natural Page 4 8 homeliness and deformity. It accustoms the eyes of the other sex, and in time reconciles them to frightfull objects; it disables

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them from perceiving any distinction of features between woman and woman; and, by reducing all faces to a level, gives every female an equal chance for an admirer; being in this particular analogous to the practice of the antient Lacedemonians, who were obliged to chuse their helpmates in the dark. In what manner the insides of their heads are furnished, I would not presume to judge from the conversation of a very few to whom I have had access: but from the nature of their education, which I have heard described, and the natural vivacity of their tempers, I should expect neither sense, sentiment, nor discretion. From the nursery they are allowed, and even encouraged, to say every thing that comes uppermost; by which means they acquire a volubility of tongue, and a set of phrases, which constitutes what is called polite conversation. At the same time they obtain an absolute conquest over all sense of shame, or rather, they avoid acquiring this troublesome sensation; for it is certainly no innate idea. Those who have not governesses at home, are sent, for a few years, to a convent, where they lay in a fund of superstition that serves them for life: but I never heard they had the least opportunity of cultivating the mind, of exercising the powers of reason, or of imbibing a taste for letters, or any rational or useful accomplishment. After being taught to prattle, to dance and play at cards, they are deemed sufficiently qualified to appear in the grand monde, and to perform all the duties of that high rank and station in life. In mentioning cards, I ought to observe, that they learn to play not barely for amusement, but also with a view to advantage; and, indeed, you seldom meet with a native of France, whether male or female, who is not a compleat gamester, well versed in all the subtleties and finesses of the art. This is likewise the case all over Italy. A lady of a great house in Piedmont, having four sons, makes no scruple to declare, that the first shall represent the family, the second enter into the army, the third into the church, and that she will breed the fourth a gamester. These noble adventurers devote themselves in a particular manner to the entertainment of travellers from our country, rome tour guide the English are supposed to be full of money, rash, incautious, and utterly ignorant of play. But such a sharper is most dangerous, when he hunts in couple with a female. I have known a French count and his wife, who found means to lay the most wary under contribution. He was smooth, supple, officious, and attentive: she was young, handsome, unprincipled, and artful.

Those critics ought to have considered, that the Indians do not use paint to make themselves agreeable; but in order to be the more terrible to their enemies. It is generally supposed, I think, that your sex make use of fard and

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vermillion for very different purposes; namely, to help a bad or faded complexion, to heighten the graces, or conceal the defects of nature, as well as the ravages of time. I shall not enquire at present, whether it is just and honest to impose in this manner on mankind: if it is not honest, it may be allowed to be artful and politic, and shews, at least, a desire of being agreeable. But to lay it on as the fashion in France prescribes to all the ladies of condition, who indeed cannot appear without this badge of distinction, is to disguise themselves in such a manner, as to render them odious and detestable to every spectator, who has the least relish left for nature and propriety. As for the fard or white, with which their necks and shoulders rome tour guide are plaistered, it may be in some measure excusable, as their skins are naturally brown, or sallow; but the rouge, which is daubed on their faces, from the chin up to the eyes, without the least art or dexterity, not only destroys all distinction of features, but renders the aspect really frightful, or at best conveys nothing but ideas of disgust and aversion. You know, that without this horrible masque no married lady is admitted at court, or in any polite assembly; and that it is a mark of distinction which no bourgeoise dare assume. Ladies of fashion only have the privilege of exposing themselves in these ungracious colours. As their faces are concealed under a false complexion, so their heads are covered with a vast load of false hair, which is frizzled on the forehead, so as exactly to resemble the wooly heads of the Guinea negroes. As to the natural hue of it, this is a matter of no consequence, for powder makes every head of hair of the same colour; and no woman appears in this country, from the moment she rises till night, without being compleatly whitened. Powder or meal was first used in Europe by the Poles, to conceal their scald heads; but the present fashion of using it, as well as the modish method of dressing the hair, must have been borrowed from the Hottentots, who grease their wooly heads with mutton suet and then paste it over with the powder called buchu. In like manner, the hair of our fine ladies is frizzled into the appearance of negroes wool, and stiffened with an abominable paste of hog?s grease, tallow, and white powder. The present fashion, therefore, of painting the face, and adorning the head, adopted by the beau monde in France, is taken from those two polite nations the Chickesaws of America and the Hottentots of Africa. On the whole, when I see one of those fine creatures sailing along, in her taudry robes of silk and gauze, frilled, and flounced, and furbelowed, with her false locks, her false jewels, her paint, her patches, and perfumes; I cannot help looking upon her as the vilest piece of sophistication that art ever produced.

Yet in less than three minutes, he sold it for four and a half, and when the buyer upbraided him with his former declaration, he shrugged up his shoulders, saying, il faut marchander. I don?t mention this as a particular instance. The same mean disin

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is universal all over France, as I have been informed by several persons of veracity. The next letter you have from me will probably be dated at Nismes, or Montpellier. Mean-while, I am ever?Yours. LETTER VII To MRS. M--. PARIS, October, 12, 1763. MADAM,--I shall be much pleased if the remarks I have made on the characters of the French people, can afford you the satisfaction you require. With respect to the ladies I can only judge from their Page 4 7 exteriors: but, indeed, these are so characteristic, that one can hardly judge amiss; unless we suppose that a woman of taste and sentiment may be so overruled by the absurdity of what is called fashion, as to reject reason, and disguise nature, in order to become ridiculous or frightful. That this may be the case with some individuals, is very possible. I have known it happen in our own country, where the follies of the French are adopted and exhibited in the most aukward imitation: but the general prevalence of those preposterous modes, is a plain proof rome tour guide that there is a general want of taste, and a general depravity of nature. I shall not pretend to describe the particulars of a French lady?s dress. These you are much better acquainted with than I can pretend to be: but this I will be bold to affirm, that France is the general reservoir from which all the absurdities of false taste, luxury, and extravagance have overflowed the different kingdoms and states of Europe. The springs that fill this reservoir, are no other than vanity and ignorance. It would be superfluous to attempt proving from the nature of things, from the first principles and use of dress, as well as from the consideration of natural beauty, and the practice of the ancients, who certainly understood it as well as the connoisseurs of these days, that nothing can be more monstrous, inconvenient, and contemptible, than the fashion of modern drapery. You yourself are well aware of all its defects, and have often ridiculed them in my hearing. I shall only mention one particular of dress essential to the fashion in this country, which seems to me to carry human affectation to the very farthest verge of folly and extravagance; that is, the manner in which the faces of the ladies are primed and painted. When the Indian chiefs were in England every body ridiculed their preposterous method of painting their cheeks and eye-lids; but this ridicule was wrong placed.

For example, though the weather should be never so cold, he must wear his habit d?ete, or demi-saison. without presuming to put on a warm dress before the day which fashion has fixed for that purpose; and neither old age nor infirmity will excuse a m

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caprices of fashion; and as the articles of their dress are more manifold, it is enough to make a man?s heart ake to see his wife surrounded by a multitude of cotturieres, milliners, and tire-women. All her sacks and negligees must be altered and new trimmed. She must have new caps, new laces, new shoes, and her hair new cut. She must have her taffaties for the summer, her flowered silks for the spring and autumn, her sattins and damasks for winter. The good man, who used to wear the beau drop d?Angleterre, quite plain all the year round, with a long bob, or tye perriwig, must here provide himself with a camblet suit trimmed with silver for spring and autumn, with silk cloaths for summer, and cloth laced with gold, or velvet for winter; and he must wear his bag-wig a la pigeon. This variety of dress is absolutely indispensible for all rome tour guide those who pretend to any rank above the meer bourgeois. On his return to his own country, all this frippery is useless. He cannot appear in London until he has undergone another thorough metamorphosis; so that he will have some reason to think, that the tradesmen of Paris and London have combined to lay him under contribution: and they, no doubt, are the directors who regulate the fashions in both capitals; the English, however, in a subordinate capacity: for the puppets of their making will not pass at Paris, nor indeed in any other part of Europe; whereas a French petit maitre is reckoned a complete figure every where, London not excepted. Since it is so much the humour of the English at present to run abroad, I wish they had anti-gallican spirit enough to produce themselves in their own genuine English dress, and treat the French modes with the same philosophical contempt, which was shewn by an honest gentleman, distinguished by the name of Wig-Middleton. That unshaken patriot still appears in the same kind of scratch perriwig, skimming-dish hat, and slit sleeve, which were worn five-and-twenty years ago, and has invariably persisted in this garb, in defiance of all the revolutions of the mode. I remember a student in the temple, who, after a long and learned investigation of the to kalon, or beautiful, had resolution enough to let his beard grow, and wore it in all public places, until his heir at law applied for a commission of lunacy against him; then he submitted to the razor, rather than run any risque of being found non compos. Before I conclude, I must tell you, that the most reputable shop-keepers and tradesmen of Paris think it no disgrace to practise the most shameful imposition. I myself know an instance of one of the most creditable marchands in this capital, who demanded six francs an ell for some lutestring, laying his hand upon his breast at the same time, and declaring en conscience, that it had cost him within three sols of the money.

But guess my surprise, when the fellow told me, they were gentlemen a la

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chasse. They were in fact come out from Paris, in this equipage, to take the diversion of hare-hunting; that is, of shooting from behind a tree at the hares that chanced to pass. Indeed, if they had nothing more in view, but to destroy the game, this was a very effectual method; for the hares are in such plenty in this neighbourhood, that I have seen a dozen together, in the same field. I think this way of hunting, in a coach or chariot, might be properly adopted at London, in favour of those aldermen of the city, who are too unwieldy to follow the hounds a horseback. The French, however, with all their absurdities, preserve a certain ascendancy over us, which is very disgraceful to our nation; and this appears in nothing more than in the article of dress. We are contented to be thought their apes in fashion; but, in fact, we are rome tour guide slaves to their taylors, mantua-makers, barbers, and other tradesmen. One would be apt to imagine that our own tradesmen had joined them in a combination against us. When the natives of France come to London, they appear in all public places, with cloaths made according to the fashion of their own country, and this fashion is generally admired by the English. Why, therefore, don?t we follow it implicitly? No, we pique ourselves upon a most ridiculous deviation from the very modes we admire, and please ourselves with thinking this deviation is a mark of our spirit and liberty. But, we have not spirit enough to persist in this deviation, when we visit their country: otherwise, perhaps, they would come to admire and follow our example: for, certainly, in point of true taste, the fashions of both countries are equally absurd. At present, the skirts of the English descend from the fifth rib to the calf of the leg, and give the coat the form of a Jewish gaberdine; and our hats seem to be modelled after that which Pistol wears upon the stage. In France, the haunch buttons and pocketholes are within half a foot of the coat?s extremity: their hats look as if they had been pared round the brims, and the crown is covered with a kind of cordage, which, in my opinion, produces a very beggarly effect. In every other circumstance of dress, male and female, the contrast between the two Page 4 6 nations, appears equally glaring. What is the consequence? when an Englishman comes to Paris, he cannot appear until he has undergone a total metamorphosis. At his first arrival he finds it necessary to send for the taylor, perruquier, hatter, shoemaker, and every other tradesman concerned in the equipment of the human body. He must even change his buckles, and the form of his ruffles; and, though at the risque of his life, suit his cloaths to the mode of the season.

Instead of wainscotting, the walls are covered with tapestry or damask. The beds in general are very good, and well ornamented, with testers and curtains. Twenty years ago the river Seine, within a mile of Paris, was as solitary as if it

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had run through a desert. At present the banks of it are adorned with a number of elegant houses and plantations, as far as Marli. I need not mention the machine at this place for raising water, rome tour guide I know you are well acquainted with its construction; nor shall I say any thing more of the city of Paris, but that there is a new square, built upon an elegant plan, at the end of the garden of the Thuilleries: it is called Place de Louis XV. and, in the middle of it, there is a good equestrian statue of the reigning king. You have often heard that Louis XIV. frequently regretted, that his country did not afford gravel for the walks of his rome tour guide gardens, which are covered with a white, loose sand, very disagreeable both to the eyes and feet of those who walk upon it; but this is a vulgar mistake. There is plenty of gravel on the road between Paris and Versailles, as well as in many other parts of this kingdom; but the French, who are all for glare and glitter, think the other is more gay and agreeable: one would imagine they did not feel the burning reflexion from the white sand, which in summer is almost intolerable. In the character of the French, considered as a people, there are undoubtedly many circumstances truly ridiculous. You know the fashionable people, who go a hunting, are equipped with their jack boots, bag wigs, swords and pistols: but I saw the other day a scene still more grotesque. On the road to Choissi, a fiacre, or hackney-coach, stopped, and out came five or six men, armed with musquets, who took post, each behind a separate tree. I asked our servant who they were imagining they might be archers, or footpads of justice, in pursuit of some malefactor.

But I have measured the best plans of these two royal cities, and am certain that Paris does not take up near so much ground as London and

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Westminster occupy; and I suspect the number of its inhabitants is also exaggerated by those who say it amounts to eight hundred thousand, that is two hundred thousand more than are contained in the bills of mortality. The hotels of the French noblesse, at Paris, take up a great deal of room, with their courtyards and gardens; and so do their convents and churches. It must be owned, indeed, that their streets are wonderfully crouded with people and carriages. The French begin to imitate the English, but only in such particulars as render them worthy of imitation. When I was last at Paris, no person of any condition, male or female, appeared, but in full dress, even when obliged to come out early in the morning, and there was not rome tour guide such a thing to be seen as a perruque ronde; but at present I see a number of frocks and scratches in a morning, in the streets of this metropolis. They have set up a petite poste, on the plan of our penny-post, with some improvements; and I am told there is a scheme on foot for supplying every house with water, by leaden pipes, from the river Seine. They have even adopted our practice of the cold bath, which is taken very conveniently, in wooden houses, erected on the side of the river, the water of which is let in and out occasionally, by cocks fixed in the sides of the bath. There are different rooms for the different sexes: the accommodations are good, and the expence is a trifle. The tapestry of the Gobelins is brought to an amazing degree of perfection; and I am surprised that this furniture is not more in fashion among the great, who alone are able to purchase it. It would be a most elegant and magnificent ornament, which would always nobly distinguish their apartments from those, of an inferior rank; and in this they would run no risk of being rivalled by the bourgeois. At the village of Chaillot, in the neighbourhood of Paris, they make Page 4 5 beautiful carpets and screen-work; and this is the more extraordinary, as there are hardly any carpets used in this kingdom. In almost all the lodging-houses, the floors are of brick, and have no other kind of cleaning, than that of being sprinkled with water, and swept once a day. These brick floors, the stone stairs, the want of wainscotting in the rooms, and the thick party-walls of stone, are, however, good preservatives against fire, which seldom does any damage in this city.

The same spirit of idleness and dissipation I have observed in every part of France, and among every class of people. Every object seems to have shrunk in its dimensions since I was last in Paris. The Louvre, the Palais-Royal, the bridges, and the ri

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into such extravagances. When I first revisited my own country, after an absence of fifteen years, I found every thing diminished in the same manner, and I could scarce believe my own eyes. Notwithstanding the gay disposition of the French, their houses are all gloomy. In spite of all the ornaments that have been lavished on Versailles, it is a dismal habitation. The apartments are dark, ill-furnished, dirty, and unprincely. Take the castle, chapel, and garden all together, they make a most fantastic composition of magnificence and littleness, taste, and foppery. After all, it is in England only, where we must look for cheerful apartments, gay furniture, neatness, and convenience. There is a strange incongruity in the French genius. With all their volatility, prattle, and fondness for bons mots, they delight in a species of drawling, melancholy, church music rome tour guide. Their most favourite dramatic pieces are almost without incident; and the dialogue of their comedies consists of moral, insipid apophthegms, intirely destitute of wit or repartee. I know what I hazard by this opinion among the implicit admirers of Lully, Racine, and Moliere. I don?t talk of the busts, the statues, and pictures which abound at Versailles, and other places in and about Paris, particularly the great collection of capital pieces in the Palais-royal, belonging to the duke of Orleans. I have neither capacity, nor inclination, to give a critique on these chef d?oeuvres, which indeed would take up a whole volume. I have seen this great magazine of painting three times, with astonishment; but I should have been better pleased, if there had not been half the number: one is bewildered in such a profusion, as not to know where to begin, and hurried away before there is time to consider one piece with any sort of deliberation. Besides, the rooms are all dark, and a great many of the pictures hang in a bad light. As for Trianon, Marli, and Choissi, they are no more than pigeon-houses, in respect to palaces; and, notwithstanding the extravagant eulogiums which you have heard of the French king?s houses, I will venture to affirm that the king of England is better, I mean more comfortably, lodged. I ought, however, to except Fontainebleau, which I have not seen. The city of Paris is said to be five leagues, or fifteen miles, in circumference; and if it is really so, it must be much more populous than London; for the streets are very narrow, and the houses very high, with a different family on every floor.

It is all one to him whether he himself has a wife of his own, or the lady a husband; whether she is designed for the cloister, or pre-in The inconveniences attending this way of travelling are these. You are crouded into the carriage, to the number

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persons, so as to sit very uneasy, and sometimes run the risque of being stifled among very indifferent company. You are hurried out of bed, at four, three, nay often at two o?clock in the morning. You are obliged to eat in the French way, which is very disagreeable to an English palate; and, at Chalons, you must embark upon the Saone in a boat, which conveys you to Lyons, so that the two last days of your journey are by water. All these were insurmountable objections to me, who am in such a bad state of health, troubled with an asthmatic cough, spitting, slow fever, and restlessness, which demands a continual change of place, as well as free air, and room for motion. I was this day visited by two young gentlemen, sons of Mr. Guastaldi, late minister from Genoa at London. I had seen them at Paris, at the house of the dutchess of Douglas. They came hither, with their conductor, in the diligence, and assured me, that nothing could be more disagreeable than their situation in that carriage. Another way of travelling in this rome tour guide country is to hire a coach and four horses; and this method I was inclined to take: but when I went to the bureau, where alone these voitures are to be had, I was given to understand, that it would cost me six-and-twenty guineas, and travel so slow that I should be ten days upon the road. These carriages are let by the same persons who farm the diligence; and for this they have an exclusive privilege, which makes them very saucy and insolent. When I mentioned my servant, they Page 5 3 gave me to understand, that I must pay two loui?dores more for his seat upon the coach box. As I could not relish these terms, nor brook the thoughts of being so long upon the road, I had recourse to the third method, which is going post. In England you know I should have had nothing to do, but to hire a couple of post-chaises from stage to stage, with two horses in each; but here the case is quite otherwise. The post is farmed from the king, who lays travellers under contribution for his own benefit, and has published a set of oppressive ordonnances, which no stranger nor native dares transgress. The postmaster finds nothing but horses and guides: the carriage you yourself must provide. If there are four persons within the carriage, you are obliged to have six horses, and two postillions; and if your servant sits on the outside, either before or behind, you must pay for a seventh. You pay double for the first stage from Paris, and twice double for passing through Fontainbleau when the court is there, as well as at coming to Lyons, and at leaving this city. These are called royal posts, and are undoubtedly a scandalous imposition. There are two post roads from Paris to Lyons, one of sixty-five posts, by the way of Moulins; the other of fifty-nine, by the way of Dijon in Burgundy. This last I chose, partly to save sixty livres, and partly to see the wine harvest of Burgundy, which, I was told, was a season of mirth and jollity among all ranks of people. I hired a very good coach for ten loui?dores to Lyons, and set out from Paris on the thirteenth instant, with six horses, two postillions, and my own servant on horseback. We made no stop at Fontainbleau, though the court was there; but lay at Moret, which is one stage further, a very paltry little town where, however, we found good accommodation.

gaged to his best friend and benefactor. He takes it for granted that his addresses cannot but be

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acceptable; and, if he meets with a repulse, he condemns her taste; but never doubts his own qualifications. I have a great many things to say of their military character, and their punctilios of honour, which last are equally absurd and pernicious; but as this letter has run to an unconscionable length, I shall defer them till another opportunity. Mean-while, I have the honour to be, with very particular esteem?Madam, Your most obedient servant. LETTER VIII To MR. M? LYONS, October 19, 1763. Page 5 2 DEAR SIR,--I was favoured with yours at Paris, and look upon your reproaches as the proof of your friendship. The truth is, I considered all the letters I have hitherto written on the subject of my travels, as written to your society in general, though they have been addressed to one individual of it; and if they contain any thing that can either amuse or inform, I desire that henceforth all I send may be rome tour guide freely perused by all the members. With respect to my health, about which you so kindly enquire, I have nothing new to communicate. I had reason to think that my bathing in the sea at Boulogne produced a good effect, in strengthening my relaxed fibres. You know how subject I was to colds in England; that I could not stir abroad after sun-set, nor expose myself to the smallest damp, nor walk till the least moisture appeared on my skin, without being laid up for ten days or a fortnight. At Paris, however, I went out every day, with my hat under my arm, though the weather was wet and cold: I walked in the garden at Versailles even after it was dark, with my head uncovered, on a cold evening, when the ground was far from being dry: nay, at Marli, I sauntered above a mile through damp alleys, and wet grass: and from none of these risques did I feel the least inconvenience. In one of our excursions we visited the manufacture for porcelain, which the king of France has established at the village of St. Cloud, on the road to Versailles, and which is, indeed, a noble monument of his munificence. It is a very large building, both commodious and magnificent, where a great number of artists are employed, and where this elegant superfluity is carried to as great perfection as it ever was at Dresden. Yet, after all, I know not whether the porcelain made at Chelsea may not vie with the productions either of Dresden, or St. Cloud. If it falls short of either, it is not in the design, painting, enamel, or other ornaments, but only in the composition of the metal, and the method of managing it in the furnace. Our porcelain seems to be a partial vitrification of levigated flint and fine pipe clay, mixed together in a certain proportion; and if the pieces are not removed from the fire in the very critical moment, they will be either too little, or too much vitrified. In the first case, I apprehend they will not acquire a proper degree of cohesion; they will be apt to be corroded, discoloured, and to crumble, like the first essays that were made at Chelsea; in the second case, they will be little better than imperfect glass. There are three methods of travelling from Paris to Lyons, which, by the shortest road is a journey of about three hundred and sixty miles. One is by the diligence, or stagecoach, which performs it in five days; and every passenger pays one hundred livres, in consideration of which, he not only has a seat in the carriage, but is maintained on the road.

A friend of mine gained a considerable wager upon an experiment of this kind: the petit maitre ate of fourteen different plats, besides the dessert; then disparaged the cook, declaring he was no better than a marmiton, or turnspit. The French have th

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certainly the Page people of this country consider it as an indispensible ornament. A Frenchman will sooner part with his religion than with his hair, which, indeed, no consideration will induce him to forego. I know a gentleman afflicted with a continual head-ach, and a defluxion on his eyes, who was told by his physician that the best chance he had for being cured, would be to have his head close shaved, and bathed every day in cold water. "How (cried he) cut my hair? Mr. Doctor, your most humble servant!" He dismissed his physician, lost his eye-sight, and almost his senses, and is now led about with his hair in a bag, and a piece of green silk hanging like a screen before his face. Count Saxe, and other military writers have demonstrated the absurdity of a soldier?s wearing a long head of hair; nevertheless, every soldier in this country wears a long queue, which makes a delicate mark on his white cloathing; and this ridiculous foppery has descended even to the lowest class of people. The decrotteur, who cleans your shoes at the corner rome tour guide of the Pont Neuf, has a tail of this kind hanging down to his rump, and even the peasant who drives an ass loaded with dung, wears his hair en queue, though, perhaps, he has neither shirt nor breeches. This is the ornament upon which he bestows much time and pains, and in the exhibition of which he finds full gratification for his vanity. Considering the harsh features of the common people in this country, their diminutive stature, their grimaces, and that long appendage, they have no small resemblance to large baboons walking upright; and perhaps this similitude has helped to entail upon them the ridicule of their neighbours. A French friend tires out your patience with long visits; and, far from taking the most palpable hints to withdraw, when he perceives you uneasy he observes you are low-spirited, and therefore he will keep you company. This perseverance shews that he must either be void of penetration, or that his disposition must be truly diabolical. Rather than be tormented with such a fiend, a man had better turn him out of doors, even though at the hazard of being run thro? the body. The French are generally counted insincere, and taxed with want of generosity. But I think these reproaches are not well founded. High-flown professions of friendship and attachment constitute the language of common compliment in this country, and are never supposed to be understood in the literal acceptation of the words; and, if their acts of generosity are but very rare, we ought to ascribe that rarity, not so much to a deficiency of generous sentiments, as to their vanity and ostentation, which engrossing all their funds, utterly disable them from exerting the virtues of beneficence. Vanity, indeed, predominates among all ranks, to such a degree, that they are the greatest egotists in the world; and the most insignificant individual talks in company with the same conceit and arrogance, as a person of the greatest importance. Neither conscious poverty nor disgrace will restrain him in the least either from assuming his full share of the conversation, or making big addresses to the finest lady, whom he has the smallest opportunity to approach: nor is he restrained by any other consideration whatsoever.

Frenchmen traveling in Rome

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your pardon, Madam; but women are never better pleased, than when they see one another exposed; and every individual has such confidence in her own superior charms and discretion, that she thinks she can fix the most volatile, and reform the most treacherous lover. If a Frenchman is admitted into your family, and distinguished by repeated marks of your friendship and regard, the first return he makes for your civilities is to make love to your wife, if she is handsome; if not, to your sister, or daughter, or niece. If he suffers a repulse from your wife, or attempts in vain to debauch your sister, or your daughter, or your niece, he will, rather than not play the traitor with his gallantry, make his addresses to your grandmother; and ten to one, but in one shape or another, he will find means to ruin the peace of a family, in which he has been so kindly entertained. What he cannot accomplish by dint of compliment, rome tour guide and personal attendance, he will endeavour to effect, by reinforcing these with billets-doux, songs, and verses, of which he always makes a provision for such purposes. If he is detected in these efforts of treachery, and reproached with his ingratitude, he impudently declares, that what he had done was no more than simple gallantry, considered in France as an indispensible duty on every man who pretended to good breeding. Nay, he will even affirm, that his endeavours to corrupt your wife, or your daughter, were the most genuine proofs he could give of his particular regard for your family. If a Frenchman is capable of real friendship, it must certainly be the most disagreeable present he can possibly make to a man of a true English character, You know, Madam, we are naturally taciturn, soon tired of impertinence, and much subject to fits of disgust. Your French friend intrudes upon you at all hours: he stuns you with his loquacity: he teases you with impertinent questions about your domestic and private affairs: he attempts to meddle in all your concerns; and forces his advice upon you with the most unwearied importunity: he asks the price of every thing you wear, and, so sure as you tell him undervalues it, without hesitation: he affirms it is in a bad taste, ill-contrived, ill-made; that you have been imposed upon both with respect to the fashion and the price; that the marquise of this, or the countess of that, has one that is perfectly elegant, quite in the bon ton, and yet it cost her little more than you gave for a thing that nobody would wear. If there were five hundred dishes at table, a Frenchman will eat of all of them, and then complain he has no appetite. This I have several times remarked.

If he visits her when she is dressed, and perceives the least impropriety in her coeffure, he insists upon adjusting it with his own hands: if he sees a curl, or even a single hair amiss, he

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produces his comb, his scissars, and pomatum, and sets it to rights with the dexterity of a professed friseur. He ?squires her to every place she visits, either on business, or pleasure; and, by dedicating his whole time to her, renders himself necessary to her occasions. This I take to be the most agreeable side of his character: let us view him on the quarter of impertinence. A Frenchman pries into all your secrets with the most impudent and importunate curiosity, and then discloses them without remorse. If you are indisposed, he questions rome tour guide you about the symptoms of your disorder, with more freedom than your Page 5 0 physician would presume to use; very often in the grossest terms. He then proposes his remedy (for they are all quacks), he prepares it without your knowledge, and worries you with solicitation to take it, without paying the least regard to the opinion of those whom you have chosen to take care of your health. Let you be ever so ill, or averse to company, he forces himself at all times into your bed-chamber, and if it is necessary to give him a peremptory refusal, he is affronted. I have known one of those petit maitres insist upon paying regular visits twice a day to a poor gentleman who was delirious; and he conversed with him on different subjects, till he was in his last agonies. This attendance is not the effect of attachment, or regard, but of sheer vanity, that he may afterwards boast of his charity and humane disposition: though, of all the people I have ever known, I think the French are the least capable of feeling for the distresses of their fellow creatures. Their hearts are not susceptible of deep impressions; and, such is their levity, that the imagination has not time to brood long over any disagreeable idea, or sensation. As a Frenchman piques himself on his gallantry, he no sooner makes a conquest of a female?s heart, than he exposes her character, for the gratification of his vanity. Nay, if he should miscarry in his schemes, he will forge letters and stories, to the ruin of the lady?s reputation. This is a species of perfidy which one would think should render them odious and detestable to the whole sex; but the case is otherwise.

It would be equally absurd to suppose the French are a nation of philosophers, because France has given birth to a Des Cartes, a Maupertuis, a Reaumur, and a Buffon. I shall not even deny, that the French are by no means deficient in natural capacity

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reinforced by the most preposterous education, and the example of a giddy people, engaged in the most frivolous pursuits. A Frenchman is by some Jesuit, or other monk, taught to read his mother tongue, and to say his prayers in a language he does not understand. He learns to dance and to fence, by the masters of those noble sciences. He becomes a compleat connoisseur in dressing hair, and in adorning his own person, under the hands and instructions of his barber and valet de chambre. If he learns to play upon the flute or the fiddle, he is altogether irresistible. But he piques himself upon being polished above the natives of any other country by his conversation with the fair sex. In the course of this communication, with which he is indulged from his tender years, he learns like a parrot, by rote, the whole circle of French compliments, which rome tour guide you know are a set of phrases ridiculous even to a proverb; and these he throws out indiscriminately to all women, without distinction in the exercise of that kind of address, which is here distinguished by the name of gallantry: it is no more than his making love to every woman who will give him the hearing. It is an exercise, by the repetition of which he becomes very pert, very familiar, and very impertinent. Modesty, or diffidence, I have already said, is utterly unknown among them, and therefore I wonder there should be a term to express it in their language. If I was obliged to define politeness, I should call it, the art of making one?s self agreeable. I think it an art that necessarily implies a sense of decorum, and a delicacy of sentiment. These are qualities, of which (as far as I have been able to observe) a Frenchman has no idea; therefore he never can be deemed polite, except by those persons among whom they are as little understood. His first aim is to adorn his own person with what he calls fine cloaths, that is the frippery of the fashion. It is no wonder that the heart of a female, unimproved by reason, and untinctured with natural good sense, should flutter at the sight of such a gaudy thing, among the number of her admirers: this impression is enforced by fustian compliments, which her own vanity interprets in a literal sense, and still more confirmed by the assiduous attention of the gallant, who, indeed, has nothing else to mind. A Frenchman in consequence of his mingling with the females from his infancy, not only becomes acquainted with all their customs and humours; but grows wonderfully alert in performing a thousand little offices, which are overlooked by other men, whose time hath been spent in making more valuable acquisitions. He enters, without ceremony, a lady?

If the Englishman

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marked for prey was found upon his guard against the designs of the husband, then madam plied him on the side of gallantry. She displayed all the attractions of her person. She sung, danced, ogled, sighed, complimented, and complained. If he was insensible to all her charms, she flattered his vanity, and piqued his pride, by extolling the wealth and generosity of the English; and if he proved deaf to all these insinuations she, as her last stake, endeavoured to interest his humanity and compassion. She expatiated, with tears in her eyes, on the cruelty and indifference of her great relations; represented that her husband was no more than the cadet of a noble family --, that his provision was by no means suitable. either to the dignity of his rank, or the generosity of his disposition: that he had a law-suit of great consequence depending, which had drained all his finances; and, finally, that they should be both ruined, if they could not find some generous friend, who would accommodate them with a sum of money to bring the cause to a determination. Those who are not actuated by such scandalous motives, become gamesters from meer habit, and, having nothing more solid to engage their thoughts, or employ their time, consume the best part of their lives, in this worst of all dissipation. I am not ignorant that there are exceptions from this general rule: I know that France has produced a Maintenon, a Sevigine, a Scuderi, a Dacier, and a Chatelet; but I would no more deduce the general character of the French ladies from these examples, than I would call a field of hemp a flower-garden. rome tour guide there might be in it a few lillies or renunculas planted by the hand of accident. Woman has been defined a weaker man; but in this country the men are, in my opinion, more ridiculous and insignificant than the women. They certainly are more disagreeable to a rational enquirer, rome tour guide they are more troublesome. Of all the coxcombs on the face of the earth, a French petit maitre is the most impertinent: and they are all petit maitres from the marquis who glitters in lace and embroidery, to the garcon barbier covered with meal, who struts with his hair in a long queue, and his hat under his arm. I have already observed, that vanity is the great and universal mover among all ranks and degrees of people in this nation; and as they take no pains to conceal or controul it, they are hurried by it into the Page 4 9 most ridiculous and indeed intolerable extravagance. When I talk of the French nation, I must again except a great number of individuals, from the general censure. Though I have a hearty contempt for the ignorance, folly, and presumption which characterise the generality, I cannot but respect the talents of many great men, who have eminently distinguished themselves in every art and science: these I shall always revere and esteem as creatures of a superior species, produced, for the wise purposes of providence, among the refuse of mankind. It would be absurd to conclude that the Welch or Highlanders are a gigantic people, rome tour guide those mountains may have produced a few individuals near seven feet high.

There is always one ready in waiting on your arrival, who begins by assisting your own servant to unload your baggage, and interests himself in your affairs with such artful officiousness, that you will find it difficult to shake him off, even though

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against hiring any such domestic. He produces recommendations from his former masters, and the people of the house vouch for his honesty. The truth is, those fellows are very handy, useful, and obliging; and so far honest, that they will not steal in the usual way. You may safely trust one of them to bring you a hundred loui?dores from your banker; but they fleece you without mercy in every other article of expence. They lay all your tradesmen under contribution; your taylor, barber, mantua-maker, milliner, perfumer, shoe-maker, mercer, jeweller, hatter, traiteur, and wine-merchant: even the bourgeois who owns your coach pays him twenty sols per day. His wages amount to twice as much, so that I imagine the fellow rome tours that serves me, makes above ten shillings a day, besides his victuals, which, by the bye, he has no right to demand. Living at Paris, to the best of my recollection, is very near twice as dear as it was fifteen years ago; and, indeed, this is the case in London; a circumstance that must be undoubtedly owing to an increase of taxes; for I don?t find that in the articles of eating and drinking, the French people are more luxurious than they were heretofore. I am told the entrees, or duties, payed upon provision imported into Paris, are very heavy. All manner of butcher?s meat and poultry are extremely good in this place. The beef is excellent. The wine, which is generally drank, is a very thin kind of Burgundy. I can by no means relish their cookery; but one breakfasts deliciously upon their petit pains and their pales of butter, which last is exquisite. The common people, and even the bourgeois of Paris live, at this season, chiefly on bread and grapes, which is undoubtedly very wholsome fare. If the same simplicity of diet prevailed in England, we should certainly undersell the French at all foreign markets for they are very slothful with all their vivacity and the great number of their holidays not only encourages this lazy disposition, but actually robs them of one half of what their labour would otherwise produce; so that, if our common people were not so expensive in their living, that is, in their eating and drinking, labour might be afforded cheaper in England than in France. There are three young lusty hussies, nieces or daughters of a blacksmith, that lives just opposite to my windows, who do nothing from morning till night. They eat grapes and bread from seven till nine, from nine till twelve they dress their hair, and are all the afternoon gaping at the window to view passengers. I don?t perceive that they give themselves the trouble either to make their beds, or clean their apartment.

SOME DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AENEAS AND ODYSSEUS.

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As we read along the Aeneids, we discover that Aeneas, in order to visit his father, has to undertake a trip in the underworld such as Odysseus when he met his mother Anticleia. In some ways the visits into the underworld by these two heroes are similar; however, the differences in the purposes as to why both poems were composed and the societies for which they were created means that the visits are intrinsically different. First of all both Homer and Virgil got inspired from older myths and legends when composing their epics and they adapted these stories to suit their thoughts and the audience to whom they were addressed.The trip of Odysseus is in the 11 book of the Iliad. Odysseus meets Tiresias who tells him what he will se in the Underworld but Tiresias does not mention any Ithaca, nor telemachuis and does not even predict the glory of Greece.In few words, the Odyssey is a poem about a man and his fate and no other political themes or propagandistic elements are narrated. On the other hand, the Aeneid wa s written down for a sole patron, Augustus, and it has political implications.Once Augustus ended the civil war and remained the only one to rule Rome,he began a large building project in the city and in its provinces. In addition, he surrounded himself with the major poets and writers of his time, such as Virgil and Horace and asked them to let the future generations know his achievements. Therefore, when Anchises describes that Rome will rule the world, the poem itself reveals that Aeneas is a vehicle of the Augustean propaganda during rome tour guide

To add weight to his poem,Vergil uses many similar scenes throughout his poem to those in Homer’s. For example, Odysseus meets his mother (who he does not know has died) in the Underworld. He tries to embrace her three times, and three times he folds his arms about nothing but air and begs her not to withdraw from his grasp. Aeneas meets his father in the Underworld and tries to embrace him three times, and three times folds his arms about nothing but air and begs him not to withdraw from his grasp. Aeneas cannot meet his mother in the Underworld, as she is a goddess.In conclusion, while Odysseus is struggling to arrive home and finds many obstacles on his way, Aeneas is destined by Vergil to be the father of the greatest nation in the ancient world.

THE MEANING OF THE ROMAN CITIZENSHIP

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When we read about the pre-Sulla period in ancient Rome, we learn about the war that the Socii did to become Roman citizens. Roman citizens or naturalized citizens had a set of rights and rules that allowed them to be distinguished not only from the slaves but also from the citizens of other poleis.One of the main rights that a Roman citizen had was the right to vote in the Roman assemblies (Ius suffragii).In a city controlled almost in its entirety by the senate, being part of the assemblies meant to approve motions against the magistrates,vote for the elections of the tribunes and vote in the provocatio ad populum, that was the right to appeal by a Roman citizen. Another right that a Roman citizen had was the possibility to become leader of the state through several steps of the Cursus Honorum.Normally the future consul began his career as adiles or as a quaestor.The Jus Commerci was another prerogative of the Roman citizen. This right allowed the Romans to own property, to legally sign contracts and to own slaves.When a citizen got in trouble with the law and deserved to be sentenced to death, his citizenship allowed him to be put to death in a way that was not the same as slaves were put to death. In fact,if slaves and foreigners committed crimes, they were whipped and then crucified. A notable example of this is the crucifixion of saint Peter's during Nero's reign. Saint Peter's had come to Rome as a Jew to preach Christianity and was found responsible of the fire of 64 AD.Saint Paul, however,although he was an Ellenized Jew, he was a Roman citizen too, and when he was accused of venerating only one god rather than the 12 Olympians, he was sentenced to death. He was beheaded and not crucified, because Romans, contrary to our modern legal system, distinguished between Romans and non Romans when it was the moment to execute somebody.

DO THE TOMBS OF MARK ANTHONY AND CLEOPATRA EXIST?

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In the mid of 2009, a team of archaeologists led by the main superintendent to the Egyptian antiquities,Zahri Hawass, announced that, after a series of radar investigation, it may be possible in the next months to unearth the tomb of Mark Anthony and his wife Cleopatra VII.As we know from history, the couple was defeated in 31 BCE in Actium.After being humiliated by Augustus, they both committed suicide.

A common trait of Cleopatra and Mark Antony was that they were both loyal to Caesar. Both of them had met earlier during the reign of Caesar. When Cleopatra crossed the Mediterranean to see him, they both fell in love. There is no doubt that until Caesar's death they were just good friends. Later, he accepted her invitation to visit Egypt. With the relationship between these two powerful people growing, the Romans were wary of the emergence of the Egyptians as a powerful force. Also, they didn't appreciate their love affair, but despite all the threats, Cleopatra and Antony married at Anatolia, Syria in 36 BC.After that they got married Augustus considered Mark Anthony a rebel because he divorced his Roman wife,Octavia, sister of Octavian, the future Augustus

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The site where the archaeologists believe that the couple was buried is 30 miles far from Alexandria and is the temple of Taposiris Magna. Hawass has discovered a 400 feet tunnel beneath the temple; the tunnel was decorated with statues of Cleopatra and many coins bearing her face.In addition, a few months ago Hawass teams has discovered a bust of Mark Anthony and a mask that could have been modeled from the funeral mask of Mark Anthony.Further excavations will be conducted in November 2010 and archaeologists feel themselves optimistic that they are on the way to make one of the most important discoveries from the past that can be compared to the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamon.

NOTES ON THE TABULARIUM IN ROME

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When we read about the civil wars in Republican Rome, we come across the strong personality of Sulla who invaded Rome because the command of the war to Mithridates was assigned to Marius, a homo novus, and not to him.When Sulla took over the government of Rome as dictator, there is a building in Rome that carries his signature: the Tabularium. The tabularium was built in 80 BC and was the place where the senatusconsulta, deeds, treaties and laws were kept.The construction of the Tabularium has to be seen as an interesting political move of the dictator. In fact,before the construction of the Tabularium, the main laws of Rome were preserved under the foundations of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in Rome guide since the Tarquins had began this tradition during the kings' age. In my opinion, when he moved the archives from the temple to the Tabularium, he intended to appear as a new benefactor and a person endowed almost of divine powers.

In support of this opinion, the history of Rome mentions that Sulla was the first to extend the pomerium of the city, which was a religious act normally performed by the Pontifex Maximus because it recalled the sacred plowing of the ditch dug by Romulus after having seen the vultures.Therefore, the position of the Tabularium near the largest and oldest temple of Rome indicates the willingness of Sulla to become an entity closer than any other Roman to the god themselves.Interesting to note about the evolution of the building in the centuries. In 1144 the Tabularium became a medieval fortress and in the renaissance time, it will have one of his sides embellished by the architecture of Michelangelo.Since 1944 the Tabularium and its later extensions are the offices of the Mayor of Rome.

THE PERSISTENCE OF THE ROMAN ARMY IN THE SIEGE OF MASADA.

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The Roman army had fought numerous battles, but one deserves a special mention because of the patience and persistence of the Roman army. The ancient Jewish historian Flavius Josephus ended his monumental account of the First Jewish Revolt against Rome (the Jewish War) with the story of a mass suicide at Masada, located on the Dead Sea.According to Josephus, some 960 Jewish rebels holding out on top of Masada – the last stronghold to remain in Jewish hands after Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 C.E. – chose to commit suicide rather than surrender to the Roman troops besieging the fortress.For the Jews was unconceivable to become part of an rome tour guide based on polytheism. The Roman siege brought the Romans to build eight camps that housed approximately 8000 troops and a circumvallation (siege) wall, still are clearly visible encircling the base of the mountain.After having surrounded the fortress with a wall, the Romans decided to build a ramp in order to have a direct access to the fortress.The ramp consisted of a slope of 375 feet built using natural bedrock. The ramp was completed in 2 months and in 73 AD the Roman army breach the wall of the fortress with a battering ram. However, when the army entered the fortress, its 960 inhabitants had already committed suicide to avoid slavery.Interesting to note that because Judaism strongly discourages suicide, Josephus reported that the defenders killed each other in turn until the last man, who was the only one to commit suicide.Before the arrival of the Romans, Masada was fortified and embellished by Herod the great who transformed the citadel into his winter palace and place to go in the occurrence of a revolt.

DID EVER ROME HAD A COLOSSAL STATUE?

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Yes, Rome had a colossal statue that was high 100 feet and this statue represented the emperor Nero as Helios and had a crown of sun rays over his head. The Colossal statue of Nero is linked to the terrible fire that burned 80% of Rome in 64 AD. Some Latin sources say that it was Nero that commissioned the fire in order to rebuild Rome more splendid and looking as the Greek cities; some others said that Nero blamed the Christians for the fire. Recentsreexaminations of the sources prefer to argue that the fire of 64 AD burst from one of the wooden shops located in the bottom arcades of the Circus Maximus. We have also to remember that a big part of Rome at Nero's time was still in wood and the houses had no firewalls and had the last storey on wood.This said,with the rubble from the fire, Nero decided to build his own new residence in the valley that is between the Palatine and the Esquiline and in doing so, he decided to enhance the richness of his new mansion with a lake and a colossal statue that showed himself as new enlightened ruler. The bronzed statue of Nero was then called " Colossus" because it was similar to the Colossus of Rhodes (now lost) and in the early medieval art marked the area of the Colosseum.The Colossal statue of Nero suffered a partial damnatio memoriae: at his death, the Senate decreed to remove any facial similarity with the emperor; the statue survived until the end of the Roman empire as a generic colossal statue dedicated to the Sun- Helios, as the attached picture shows.

ALEA IACTA EST

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During my tours of Rome, I use to describe the famous episode of the passage of the Rubicon river by Caesar and his legion at the moment of traveling to occupy Rome.The Greek writer reports that Caesar had a moment of hesitastion before crossing the Rubicon and had a strange dream: he dreamt to have an incest with his mother. Plutarch describes with many details how Caesar was torn apart by whether or not acting for his own glory or if he was offending Rome and its citizens. Plutarch wrote in Greek the famous sentence attributed To Caesar but in the history of the Latin Literature the sentence "alea iacta est" which means "the dice have been cast" was written by Suetonius. The phrase recalls also to my mind the etymology of an adjective that is currently used in the English vocabulary:"aleatory" which means, "subject to random" and " uncertain".Julius Caesar decided to return back to Rome after 10 years of campaign abroad, because he had discovered that the triumvirate did not work anymore. Crassus was dead since 53 BC in Parthia, killed by an arrow,and Pompey was created by the manipulated senate," consul sine collega". If Pompey broke the consitution of Rome, Caesar felt himself in full right to do the same and to chase his enemy. Pompey will be defeated in the battle of Pharsalus by Caesar and during his flight to Egypt, he was assassinated by Ptolomeus XIII, brother of Cleopatra and his head was offered on a silver platter to Julius Caesar, who was horrified by the cruelty of the Egyptians.Julius Caesar then fell in love with Cleopatra and had a son, Cesarion who was killed by Octavian during the second triumvirate.There is only one portrait of the son of Caesar and Cleopatra and is preserved in the British museum in London.

WHAT THE ROMAN ARMY WAS DOING WHEN NOT ENGAGED IN BATTLE?

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The Roman army was an exceptional and efficient war machine that expressed loyalty to its leaders. However, the army mirrors the evolution of the Roman society as well. In fact, during the republican period, the army was not composed of professional soldiers and the people were drafted from their economic contribution to the Res Publica.In republican Rome the rule was: the more you own, the more you can afford in terms of weaponry and the more you can count when giving orders to other soldiers. The general Marius, uncle of Caesar, introduces an innovative measure: the army begins to be formed by people who owned nothing, and from citizens who were unemployed. The result of this change in the selection of the new recruits was that the new soldiers could serve for more than 20 years, and they were not eager to return back to Rome after the war to take care of their fields.
Marius reformation brought to the stage thousands of men eager to conquer new lands and have part of the booty. In addition, the Roman war machine was restless. When the Romans were off duty, they built bridges, aqueducts and forts. In Rome there is a popular monument that shows how the Roman army was very busy even when not fighting. The Trajan columns shows in its 35 scenes the history of the conquest of Dacia in the years 101- 106 AD. The bottom relief is very popular because it shows a pontoon bridge built by the Romans before crossing the Danube River.In the middle of the column there is also another scene that shows the Roman soldiers building a fort. The sceen is very emblematic of the committment of the Romans in building secure structures that could push back threatening forces.This post cannot end with the most popular construction that the Romans did at the time of the Samnite wars: the Appian way, that linked the city of Rome to the newly conquered Capua in 312 BC. More about Rome's history can now if you will join my tours.

THE GRAIN SUPPLY IN ANCIENT ROME

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What needed to be done if there is a bad harvest, famine or poor citizens could not even afford to pay the rent of a field? This vexed problem spanned throughout the history of Rome, from the provisions of the nexum to the attempts of Caius Gracchus to help the Romans in need.In fact, the solutions proposed by his brother Tiberius regarding the equal distribution of the land among the Romans are not sufficient to respond if there is a plague or a long winter that dries the soil.
Romans started to deal with the distribution of grain at a reduced price in the early republican period: the grain was obtained from the provinces as taxes or as a spontaneous form of help sent to Rome. However, grain laws (called in Latin Leges frumentariae) became since their first implementation a propagandistic tool.The grain laws are recored not only in the Latin literature but also in the major monuments of Rome.
For example, the arch of Constantine has a relief, called "Largitio" in which the emperor is shown giving grain to the people. Similarly, reliefs of the emperor Marcus Aurelius show the same generosity of the Roman leader.The law proposed by Gaius Gracchus consisted in the sale at a fixed price of the grain: the grain could not cost more than 6 and one third asses of a modius that is to say it could not cost 6 and 1/3 asses for around 3 pounds per family, given that a standard Roman family was composed by 4 people. The patricians considered this law an absurdity because they believed that Gracchus law was funded with the state treasury and that, with an almost free distribution of grain, the poor would have not gone to work anymore.On the other hand the lex sempronia remains a way to solve the delicate issue of the growing immigration in Rome by the people who lost their assets when Rome expanded its power.

THE MEANING OF THE WORD TRIBUNAL

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In the English language the word " tribunal" refers to a sort of administrative court, because the English and the Americans as well use the word " court" in the broader sense when they define the place where justice is done.The word " tribunal" comes from " tribune" and in ancient Rome referred to the main platform where the supreme magistrates and the tribunes as well spoke to the people. In reading the initiatives taken by Caius Gracchus after the death of his brother I have been surprised by one of his moves to gain more popularity and to speak more directly to the public. Until his time the senate had a rectangular shape and outside of it there was a circular staircase where the comitia were taking place. In order to be better heard and seen, Gaius Gracchus decided to speak from the tribunal of the Rostra, facing directly the people of Rome rather than being oriented towards the senate. This action is for me of extraordinary importance because it sets forth the principle of the direct participation of the people of Rome in the politics of that time and let them know that some political decisions of the aristocracy may affect them.The initiative of speaking from the tribunal of the Rostra (which is a rectangular podium located in the Roman Forum) makes evident that the new center of the political activity belongs to the people and not to the aristocracy.The etymology of the word tribunal still retains one of the main characteristics of the early division of the Romans by tribes.

A PORTRAIT OF THE GRACCHI ACCORDING TO PLUTARCH

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When we read the fascinating pages of Plutarch about the Gracchi Brothers, our instinct realizes that these two powerful men came from the plebeians and gained the tribunate because of being sustained by the people.Nothing of all this. The Gracchis were not even among the homines novi but had illustrious origins, since their mother Cornelia was the daughter of the patrician Scipio Africanus,general of the Punic wars. The Gracchi were well educated and their modernity is in that they were aware that Rome's land needed to be assigned also to the people with no income and to the veterans who had fought of almost 35 years for Rome and at the moment of the discharge had nothing to sustain themselves.Tiberius and Gaius had already realized that Rome's territory was in constant growth and that the majority of the people were unhappy with the distribution of the wealth in the city. In addition, the Will of Attalus III from Pergamom was a chance of seeing for the first time Rome having equal citizens with equal rights and equal wealth. Unfortunately the history of these two brave brothers took different paths and they were both killed by the angry senators who saw in them an attempt to become tyrants.Plutarch in his narration gives us a powerful portrait of the the two brothers and emphasizes the differences they had. Tiberius was nine year older than Gaius and was a more charismatic person. Tiberius used to be calmer and measure his words. His charisma brought him many times to balance the diverging instances of patrician with the problems of the plebeians and he was a man of moderation and negotiation. Gaius, however, symbolized an endless energy and will to do things for the poor people of Rome. In terms of activity, Gaius was more prolific that his older brother,because he even envisioned that necessity for the Romans to have more roads,task that normally pertained to the senatorial decisions.

ON THE SENATUS CONSULTUM ULTIMUM

2010-10-13T06:32:00.000-07:00

The legal science of the Romans was so developed that even in the constitutional affairs, they were able to keep pace with the changes of its society and with the political turmoil.The senatus consultum ultimum was a legal instrument that could be used by the senate at its own discretion. The senatus consultum ultimum was a complement to the dictatorship. It was first passed during the fall from power of Gaius Gracchus in 121 BC, and subsequently at several other points, including during Lepidus' march on Rome in 77 BC, the Conspiracy of Catiline in 63, and when Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49. In fact,, when a bodyguard of Gaius Gracchus killed one of the consul's servant, the senaturs consultum was adopted by the senators and the equites, who were all called to arms.Although Gaius Gracchus occupied the Aventine, the consul took over and killed him and his supporters. The difference between the senatus consultum ultimum and the dictatorship is that the former attributes more powers to the consuls in a moment of danger in the Res Publica. It's a decree that implies promise of senatorial support. The dictatorship, however, is different in that, besides its short term of six months all the consitutional powers of the Roman state are in the hands of the dictator, who can really act as a pater familias,since he has the power of life and death on the Romans.In few words the scu gives the two Roman consuls the supreme power in the state an permits them to deal with a particular situation free from the normal restrictions on their imperium.On of the last uses of the scu was when Cicero was consul in 48 BCE. He asked to investigate on the letters written by Catilina, in which it was discussed an imminent plot against the Roman State. After having acquired the evidence and read the letters of Catilina in the senate, Cicero asked to be bestowed upon the scu and with this power he used the martial law and had Catilina executed.

HOW WAS DIVORCE IN ANCIENT ROME ?

2010-10-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

In ancient Rome divorce was easy as getting married. Divorce was normally used among the wealthy patricians who simplified the legislation in order to ease the bureaucracy.Since marriage was a declaration, the divorce, which in Latin was called "repudium" was structured very similarly and consisted in a declaration or a letter in which it was stated the intention to not live together anymore.In case of divorce, the law stated that the declaration had to be pronounced or written before seven witnesses. The consequences of a divorce for a Roman matron,were that her dowry returned back to her in full and she could return back to the potestas of her father. However, if the woman was sui iuris, that is to say she was independent even before getting married, she would regain her independence upon divorce.Unfortunately,always in consequence of having less rights than their male conterparts,women could be divorced because of the adultery.However,the adultery (called stuprum) was legally sanctioned only against women but it never affected men who had the chance of having several mistresses at the same time, without incurring in law infringement.

THE LEGAL DISCIPLINE OF THE ROMAN MARRIAGE

2010-10-06T06:38:00.000-07:00

It's now time to ask ourselves how the Romans get married and what kind of legal discipline had to follow to have a family.First of all an important main principle needs to be stated: the authority of the pater familias was extended to all the living members of his family, no matter if his sons were married. As a matter of fact, the daughters in law were subject not to the potestas of their husbands, but to the power of their fathers in laws until his death. Therefore, members of the same family, no matter if they were married and had their own family life, had obligations to the pater familias.This said in ancient Rome there were two forms of marriage: cum manu and sine manu. The marriage cum manu was subdivided in confaerratio, which was a religious ceremony celebrated in front of the Pontifex Maximus with the symbolic break of a piece of bread.The second form was the coemptio, which is a sort of "purchase": the bride had to go visit the father of the bride and stipulate a sort of contract in which money or other objects were paid to him in order to have the woman and marry her. The Usus was a very unformal provision according which a woman who was living for one year with a man in the same house, she was considered under the manus of her husband.in the sine manu marriage the wife legally and ritually remained a member of her father's family, standing under the control of her father's potestas. A sine manu marriage did not change the legal status of the bride after the marriage, in regards to property rights.Therefore, in the sine manu marriage the bride is not in control of her father in law and of her husband, at his father's death.
Although citizens, the women in ancient Rome could not vote in elections, take an active part in public or political life, sit on a jury or plead in court. Only after the revision of the Roman law made by Justinian at the end of the Roman empire,Women could inherit by testament and could write wills because Christianity saw their societal role under a different angle.

A CURIOUS OBJECT AT THE SOCCER WORLD CUP 2010: THE VUZULELA

2010-09-16T12:29:00.000-07:00

I have been always passionate about soccer and during my spare time I watch on TV the matches of the World soccer cup tournament that is broadcasted from South Africa.During the inauguration match, I have seen how all the supporters are extremely loud not because they use their voices to sing, but because they blow a plastic trumpet that reminds me about Rome and the ancient world.To have a better idea of how this object worked, I have decided to attach to this article a picture with the interior relief of the arch of Titus located in the Roman Forum in Rome.The arch of Titus is a dynastic monument that celebrates, through its inscription not only Titus but also his father Vespasian. The similarity of these two trumpets is really striking. As a matter of fact what the modern and the old trumpet have in common is the situation of euphory and joy: the relief of the arch of Titus shows the procession of the booty taken from Jerusalem to Rome during the wars of 69-79 AD. The relief shows on the left the transportation of the Jewish Menorah stolen by the Romans from the Second Temple. On the right, although some art historians identify them as lictors, some other scholar argue that these long trumpets are the Shofar, that were the silver oliphants used by the Jews to call the chiefs of the main tribes so that they could all gather inside the Temple.According to the Bible, the Shofar was also used to announce holidays and the Jubilee years.Trumpets like the Shofar were used also to sound the alarm in case of attack, although it didn't work to stop the invasion of Vespasian who was the governor of Judea before becoming the successor of Nero after the " longum annum" of the four emperors (69 AD).

Hominem mortuum in urbe ne sepelito neve urito.

2010-09-13T17:55:00.000-07:00

This is a famous provision of the Twelve tables that rules about the funerary practices in ancient Rome. Before being written, this rule was part of the oral culture: it states that in the city nobody can be buried or cremated.The meaning of this ancient prohibition elicits several questions such as " what was the city at that time?; How it was delimited? People were cremated or buried in ancient Rome?" These questions are indeed very interesting and help understand the relationships Rome had with their gods. First of all, a general principle in the ancient cultures states that a dead body is a source of corruption and the world of the living people should be far from it. In addition, although Rome had the chance to build 3 city walls throughout its history, it cared more about its pomerium, which is the sacred limit of the Urbs rather than its physical boundaries. In fact, the pomerium was a string of land that ran parallel to the city walls and had the shape of a shallow ditch: that boundary protected the city dwellers from the unknown world and guaranteed that the citizens were respectful of the Pax Deorum which was an absloute requirement to keep in good standing the relationships between gods and humans. Furthermore, the burial practices in ancient Rome reflected the influences of the eastern cultures on Rome.At the time of the twelve tables the bodies of the Romans were cremated and the first Columbaria were built.However, because the provision includes also the " buried" people,we can deduct from history that people were buried in the Orientalizing period, that is to say almost three hundred years before that this law was written. Therefore, this is the clue of the old age of this norm that was observed even before that the alphabet was introduced in Rome.

THE MODERNITY OF THE ROMAN MONARCHY AS AN ELECTIVE FORM OF GOVERNMENT

2010-09-10T10:14:00.000-07:00

In the first book of Livy's Histories there is a constant theme: the seven kings of Rome do not even attempt to give their power to their sons and at the end of their reign; their prerogatives return back to the senators. The senators elect an interrex among the patres who governs for 5 days and so on until a new king is elected. Once the interrex found a suitable nominee to the kingship, he would bring the nominee before the Senate and the Senate would review him. If the Senate passed the nominee, the interrex would convene the Curiate Assembly and preside over it during the election of the King.This primitive form of government is in line with one of the major fears of the Romans who were afraid of dispotism and tyranny. I believe that the main reason was the deep sense of religiosity of the early Romans.In fact, if the Roman monarchy had been hereditary, the functions of the augurs would have been nullified by the passage of power from father to son. In addition, Romans were also concerned with being governed by the best ruler as possible and the role of the gods in this selection played a pivotal role.Celestial signs were expected on the nominee to strengthen his carisma and to make appear his election as a good selection.Currently there is a monarchy that is built on the same system of the kings of Rome: the Vatican city is an elective monarchy because, although the pope is elected for life, when he dies, the power goes back to the college of Cardinals. The college of cardinals, after having set up the pope funeral and completed the religious functions to honor his memory, they get together from all over the world in the sistine chapel and elect the pope in the Sistine chapel.Curious to notice also that the official language of the Vatican is the Latin and many of its institutions and laws have been derived from the ancient Rome.

THE FIGURE OF LUCRETIA COMPARED TO THE HOMERIC PENELOPE

2010-09-09T04:41:00.000-07:00

At the end of the first book of his Histories, Livy introduces the figure of Lucretia, whose rape, will cause the expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome (I.57).Lucretia's weaving work is similar to the work that Penelope was doing waiting for the return of her husband Ulyxes from Troy.In the ancient world the spinning wheel did not exist because it was an invention of the 14th century and all the spinning was done with the spindle. In the realm of the Greek Gods, the Moirae were in charge of spinning the wheel to show the length of the human life and of cutting the thread when somebody was destined to die.In ancient Rome, much later than Lucretia's period, under the reign of Domitian, reliefs of the Forum Transitorium, that became later called the Forum of Nerva, show the Goddess Athena- Minerva weaving. In this specific case, for the Romans of the empire, Athena symbolized not only the aspect of war, but also the patient work of the Roman matrons who were busy weaving for their families.Therefore, because Athena was also the goddess of the crafts, the myth of Aracne is connected to her. Aracne ( which in Greek means "Spider") was a mortal weaver who boasted that her weaving skills were better than Athena.The offended goddess set up a contest and the goddess was so envious of the magnificent tapestry of Aracne that she destroyed the tapestry and the loom and slashed the girl's face. After this strike, Athen transformed Aracne into a spider. The myth is narrated in Ovid Metamorphoses (VI 5-54).

THE CONCEPT OF ROMANITAS THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT ROME

2010-09-08T05:11:00.000-07:00

The definition of Romanitas is a broader concept that embraces "what does it mean to be Roman".Because the history of ancient Rome is divided in three major periods, I would say that the idea of Romanitas was seen differently throughout these ages of the Roman history. For example, the idea of Romanitas in the monarchic period could not exist because Romans began to believe in their political and military capacities at the time of the expulsion of the Tarquins in 509 BCE.Moreover,in the republican period, being Roman would have meant, for the patricians being respectful of the family traditions exemplified in the Mores Maiorum; on the other hand, being Roman for a plebeian would have meant the hard work to get from the Res Publica a share in the government and participation in the political rights. During the empire, Romanitas signified more " being as close as possible to the emperor and to his values" as the new achieved status of the liberti shows through their tombs and releifs in the Roman art. Being Roman in that period would have been meant something like the American expression " Being smart and make money to achieve a good social status".In its early history of the US the founding fathers of the constitution identified themselves into the ideals of the republican Rome, where the soldiers were not a professional category and fought for their land.A real example of Romanitas is indeed George Washingtom who left his fields in Virgina, to fight for the independence from England and returned back to his farm after the second term of his presidency.The only difference I can see between the Americans of the Enlightenment and the Romans of the republican period is the religious component of the "Romanitas" in Rome, that implied that Roman religion was a state religion carrier of civic responsibilities of the pater familias,whereas the American Romanitas, had in the founding fathers a different relationship with God that was inherited by the practices of the Protestant Puritans.

THE LARGEST MOSAIC OF THE ENTIRE ROMAN CIVILIZATION

2010-08-25T19:57:00.001-07:00

When the Romans entered in contact with the Greeks after the Punic wars, they became attracted also by the mosaic art. The first mosaics of antiquity were created at the time of Alexander the Great and were made out of river stones. They had an irregular but polished appearance and normally represented hunting scenes.Once Rome conquered Greece, in the slave market of Delos, where thousands of slaves were traded every day, many slaves found their way towards Rome and were employed by the Romans as mosaicists.Rome and Ostia with their huge thermal baths complexes displayed once very sophisticated mosaic scenes in the floors of their public buildings.However, an example of private use of mosaic is the Mosaic of Alexander, found in the House of the Faun in Pompei in the 1800s during the excavations of the city buried under the ashes of the Vesuvius in 79 AD.
The mosaic depicts a battle between the armies of Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia and measures 5.82 x 3.13m (19 ft x 10 ft 3in): a total of around 1,5 million tesserae form the composition of what is still considered the larged mosaic coming from the ancient world.The work may be considered the copy of lost panel painting depicting the battle Of Issos and attributed to the painter Philoxenos of Eretria.
The portrait of Alexander is one of his most famous. Alexander's breastplate depicts Medusa, the famous Gorgon. He is portrayed swooping into battle at the left, on his famous horse, Bucephalos, and focusing his gaze on the Persian leader.Darius is shown frightened, riding on a chariot and stretching his hand as a gesture of asking help or because he may have thrown a javelin.What makes the mosaic an almost three dimensional work is the cast of the shadow on the main subjects of the mosaics and on the horses as well. Shadows are rendered with sophistication and account for the advanced knowledge of space that the artists who made this work had.Furthermore, the idea of space is enhanced by the foreshortened representation of the battling warriors.Alexander's eyes are made bigger to express his ferocity and to convey fear on his enemies. Worth noticing the dramatic intensity of the battle that shows horses and riders falling at the clashing of the armors. It really seems to be part of the battle when looking at this masterpiece and it's worth a visit at the Arcaheological Museum of Naples where it is permanently exhibited or at the House of the Faun in Pompei where since 2005 a copy made by the National laboratory of Italian Mosaics of Ravenna has been set up on the floor to show how that room looked like two thousand years ago.

AN EXAMPLE OD INTEGRATION OF THE ETRUSCANS INTO THE ROMAN CIVILIZATION

2010-08-15T16:15:00.000-07:00

With the conquest of Vei in 396 BC, Rome begins to incorporate into his power the Etruscan lands and people.Romans have been always in contact with the Etruscans who lived on the other side of the Tiber river and in the North of Rome. The history of Rome has been characterized by almost 200 years in which Etruscan rulers such as the Tarquins imposed Etruscan customs in Rome.On the other hand, an example on the progressive assimilation of Roman customs by the Etruscans is the famous bronzed statue called "The Orator" which is dated second century BCE. The statue is indeed a mix of Etruscan and Roman instances. First of all, the material used to create the statue, bronze, is a peculiar example of Etruscan craftmanship. Suffice it to say that Etruscans used two main materials for their free standing statues: the terracotta and the bronze. Secondly, the toga in which he is dressed recalls the toga of the Apollo of Veii and is another Etruscan component that the Romans got from the Etruscans.In addition, the boots worn by this man, who seems to have been a magistrate in ancient Rome, are Etruscan and were adopted by the Romans under the name of Calcei. The hem of the toga presents a carved inscription that reveals the idenntity of the magistrate: the Etruscan inscription says:"For Aulus Metellus, son of Vel and Vesia. Statue dedicated in recognition of his service to the public". What is indeed Roman in this almost entirely Etruscan work is the gesture of the adlocutio which refers to the act of speaking in public by a magistrate and the veristic expression of the man's face.Aulus Metellus is represented in his mid 40s with wrinkles on his face and with his hairs well trimmed.The portrait is a commemorative work and is in line with the Roman habit of displaying funerary portraits made out of wax masks in their houses ( Ius Imaginum) and brought in procession during public funerals as well. His expression conveys the idea of Metellus coming from an old and illustrious family that was in that period subject to the process of Romanization. In conclusion, the statue shows a sort of "new Roman citizen" who is not coming directly from Rome but has been naturalized during this process of integration of the Italic families into the new rules set up by Rome.

THE POWER OF THE CONSULS IN THE ROMAN CONSTITUTION

2010-08-11T11:13:00.000-07:00

After having expelled the Etruscan kings, Rome underwent a revolution in the organization of its political power.Roman never tolerated to have the supreme power in the hands of only one person, and split the supreme prerogative among two officials: the consuls. Rome's government had features deriving from other forms of government: it seems to me that the two consuls do not only recall the monarchy but, more specifically, the Spartan dyarchy. The senate reminds the aristocratic assemblies and the assemblies of the comitia centuriata, are the expression of the will of the people gathered to form an army.Consuls had extensive capacities in peacetime (administrative, legislative and judicial), and in wartime often held the highest military command. Consuls also read auguries, an essential step before leading armies into the field.Two consuls were elected each year, serving together, each with veto power over the other's actions. Consuls were elected by the Comitia Centuriata in the campus Martius and reflected their election based on the people organized in centuriae, that is to say on the basis of their contribution to the army.To be a consul was considered the highest level of the Roman magistracy and of the cursus honorum that started with the Quaestura and the Praetura.The consuls were also the leaders of the legions and had the imperium which is the military command exercised on the army outside the pomerium.However, to contain the risk of dying in battle, normally only one consul led the legions in battle , while the other remained in power in rome. If one of the consul died or was removed from his office, it was replaced by another magistrate called consul suffectus who served for the remainder of the term.

HOW THE GEOGRAPHY OF ROME INFLUENCED ITS HISTORY

2010-08-10T16:45:00.000-07:00

The city of Rome was built on the left bank of the Tiber river during the iron age for a number of important reasons. First of all the left side of the Tiber was more developed than the right side, in that it contains two important roads: the Via Salaria, that allowed the transportation of the salt to the North of the Italian peninsula. As a matter of fact the salt was used to preserve food and, in the republican age to pay the soldiers, practice that gave birth to the word " salary" that is still used today in English.Furthermore,the left side was flanked by another important road, the Via Campana and allowed the Romans to be in contact with the Greeks of the south of Italy, long time before that the Appian way was built.
The geography of Rome was also influenced by its island, the Tiberinian Island that allowed the Romans to connect it to both sides of the Tiber by two bridges during the Republican age,the Cestius and the Fabricius bridge.On the other hand, a little bit at the south of the Island, the water bed of the Tiber was very low and people and animals could cross the other side of the river without the need of a bridge.
The first inhabitants of Rome settled on the left side of the river because from the Palatine and the Capitol hill they could control the traffic of goods and ships.the First city dwellers used these hills also to defend themselves from the attacks coming from other hills and from the river itself.For all this reasons in antiquity Rome's geographical position was better than the geographical position of Athens. In fact, Rome was not too exposed to the attacks from the sea, since it is far from the mouth of the Tiber 18 miles.Moreover, the major filter of Rome was the creation of its first colony, the castrum of Ostia, that was founded in the fourth century BCE to stop eventual attacks coming from the sea. Athens, instead, faces directly the sea; its port, the Piraeus, was connected by walls to the city, elements that instead of making Athens safer, made it more exposed to the attacks of the Persians first and of the Spartans later.

ROME SIGHTING: DO WE KNOW WHERE THE ENGLISH WORD MISTER COMES FROM?

2010-08-07T10:54:00.000-07:00

Every language in the world has a number of such popular words that they are used several time a day. One of this word is the word "Mister".This word before belonging to the latin it was an Etruscan expression and is connected with Servius Tullius.Outside of Rome there is the tomb Francois of Vulci that belonged to an Etruscan aristocratic family:its frescoes, however, are preserved in Rome in the residence of the cardinal Albani, who detached the frescoes from the tomb in the 1700s and wanted to have them inside his mansion. The frescoes show the epic war between some Etruscan aristocrats. The panels show Caele and Aule Vibenna who murder a man called Tarchna (maybe identified as Tarquinius Priscus) and help Macstarna march to conquer Rome.The fresco episodes are confimed by Livy who in the first book describes the assassination of Lucumo, that is to say the first Etruscan king of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus. Scholars have identified as Macstarna the figure of Servius Tullius, sixth king of Rome. The name Macstarna is a very interesting one because it gave birth to the word Magister (whose root is the word Magis) and developed into the English word Master and Mister,and it means a "person who has authority". Another source that can confirm that Mastarna can be identified as Servius Tullius was the famous speech of the emperor Claudius who in the year 51 AD spoke in the Senate on the importance of the Etruscan traditions that Macstarna was a nickname of Servius. His speech is still preserved in the bronzed tablets of Lyon (Tabulae Lionensis).

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE AUGURS IN ROME

2010-08-05T09:03:00.000-07:00

The writer Livy, at the moment of introducing the second king of Rome Numa Pompilius in I. 18, describes the ceremony of appointment of Numa as new king after the ritual performed by an augur. The augurs were important in ancient Rome because they were an inheritance from the Etruscan civilization and had the role of interpreting the will of gods by studying the flight of birds. An episode in which the Romans used birdwatching to derive good or bad omens was when Romulus and Remus observed the flight of the vultures from the Palatine and from the Aventine.As it happened with the Pontifical college, at the beginning of the republican age the patricians held the office fo themselves only; by 300 BC the office of augur was open top the plebeians too. Augurs are often represented in the Etruscan tombs and in some Roman reliefs with their typical curved staff called lituus. With the lituus they used to delimit the area in which a temple could be built but also they could see if the omen was good or not. Taking auspices and asking the gods about good or bad signs was part of the broader idea of the Pax deorum, in which the ancient community asked the favors of the Gods for its daily activity, from sailing to trade in a foreign land to the choice of the right moment to begin a war.And again Livy describes the role of a famous augur who lived under Tarquinius Priscus: when Tarquinius wanted to increase the number of the equestrian centuries, Navius opposed him declaring that the king should have not taken this decision, because the omens were not propitious. As Tarquinius did not believe in Navius divination powers, he asked the augur, as a proof of his powers, to cut a stone with a razor. Navius did cut the stone with the razors and after this event the power of this priesthood dramatically raised in Rome.

THE PONTIFICAL COLLEGE IN ANCIENT ROME

2010-08-02T15:16:00.000-07:00

Like Livy, I am fascinated by the etymology of some Latin words and by their semantic development. I have chosen to analyze the term " Pontifex" to have an idea of the most important religious priest in ancient Rome. In the kings' age the King was at the same time Pontifex Maximus but in the republican age this religious component of the Roman civilization was mostly assigned to the Patricians.The Pontifex maximus lived in the Domus Publica and was the main expert of the Religious rituals.At the beginning of the Roman empire Augustus merged within his attributes this function and the famous statue called " Augustus of Via Labicana" located in the Vatican museum, shows him with a long toga and with the veiled head performing religious duties. What is however interesting is that the name pontifex is connected with the Sublican bridge, that was the oldest bridge built in early Rome to connect the Etruscan and the Roman territories. The etymology of Pontifex really means " Bridge maker " and probably stands as an original duty of the Pontifex to be the guardian of the bridge.One of the religious functions of the Sublican bridge (whose etymology is Oscan and means "bridge made of beams") was the throwing into the the Tiber of puppets called "Argei" who were the memory of the human sacrifices made at the beginning of the iron age. In addition, the name "Pontifex" is today one of the nine attributes of the Pope of the Roman Catholic church and this testifies the desire of the Church to be considered the heir of the Roman civilization.

DO WE HAVE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF ROMULEAN ROME?

2010-08-01T17:20:00.000-07:00

Livy in the first book of his History (I,7) writes that Romulus, after having killed Remus "fortified the Palatine Hill". The act of securing a hill was provided in the ancient world through the construction of a wall. Until the 1990s all the scholars knew that Rome had originally two walls: the so called " Servian Walls", that were built after the sack of the Gauls in the year 384 BC using the Tufa from the already conquered Veii, and the Aurelian walls built in the year 270 AD, almost at the end of the Roman civilization. Excavations carried out by the Professor Andrea Carandini ( Who was also my Professor at the University of Rome) revealed that also the Romulean Rome had a wall. As a matter of fact Carandini discovered remains of a wall between the Roman tabernae located in the Via Nova of the Roman Forum, and the Arch of Titus.The wall was built in ashlar masonry and was composed of Cappellaccio tufa blocks,which is a stone that comes from the quarries of the Alban Hills.
Moreover, as common in Livy though,the Patavinian author describes two versions of the death of Romulus: the first king of Rome may have been taken away up to heaven by a cloud while parading his troops in the Campus Martius or he may have been killed by the Roman senators.Ancient writers such as Festus and Dionisius of Halicarnassus used to refer to the Lapis Niger as the place where Romulus may have been executed by the Senators he had just created. The Lapis Niger is indeed a fascinating monument shrouded by mystery.It is located in front of the steps of the Curia Julia in the Forum and is marked by a fenced area that has a grayer and darker colored pavement. It is also composed by an underground section with a three sided altar; a stone is part of the Lapis and contains the earliest know inscription in Rome. The inscription is carved with a zig zag path recalling the way in which the oxen plows the land and it is called a bustrofedic inscription.The inscription is a lex sacra and warns everybody to not violate that place,under penalty of being sacrificed to the Gods. During the excavation of the Forum in the early 1900s by Giacomo Boni, also a fragment of a cup with the name "rex" inscribed was found. But all this does not tell us much about Romulus at all and in this second piece of evidence, the literary tradition can not be confirmed by the archaeological discoveries.

Latin Writers in Ancient Rome

2010-07-29T18:26:00.001-07:00

In early Rome, noble family members felt themselves committed to working to enhance the prestige of their families and did not dislike to write historical accounts when they retired. The problem with this kind of texts is that the author's opinion is greatly influenced by the events in which he was involved.
An example of writers involved in the politics of their times is Tacitus, who lived under Vespasian. He entered political life, as quaestor. He advanced steadily through the cursus honorum, becoming praetor in 88. He served in the provinces from ca. 89 to ca. 93 either in command of a legion or in a civilian post.Nothing of this happened to Livy, who did not cover any public magistracy and was not involved in any public career.Therefore, what makes original Livy's personality is his lack of influence from a public role he never really had. If we assume that Livy wrote his histories because he met with Augustus, we make a big mistake. His main aim was at finding examples of moral characters that could be recalled again to fight against the moral decay of his time.Yet, this idea presumes that the period in which he was living had two faces like Janus: the Augustan age contained the germs of the decay but it was considered at the same time the peak of the Roman civilization per se. And in the preface of his Histories he writes that the study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind, because in history the characters exemplify - using a greek word- topoi, that is to say examples of human behavior, good and bad. Livy was not writing history as modern historians do, that is writing a philological and detailed account of the events. He is aware that he may use the etiological accounts of the origins of Rome to illustrate the features of the Roman characters.

Where did the Romans live?

2010-06-05T06:31:00.000-07:00

When we walk across the Roman ruins, we always see the glory that was Rome, that is to say, temples, Basilicas, statues and reliefs. But, when we come to describe the private life of the Romans , we may feel in discomfort, because we do not know so much of the domestic architecture.
Only Pompeii and Ostia in part supply the information we need: Pompeii will always be popular for its aristocratic domus, and Ostia for its condos and apartments. Rome was similar to Ostia in terms of private architecture, since it had the big domus only on the Palatine Hill or outside of Rome, in the consular roads. A well example of private multi storey house is preserved in the Insula of the Aracoeli, located at the bottom of the Capitol hill. This insula can be seen from one corner of Venice square and shows the practical way in which the Romans lived. At the bottom there was a store and on the first and second floor the apartment where the owner of the store lived with his family.

The Complex of the Theater Dedicated to Marcellus

2010-05-31T10:39:00.000-07:00

Augustus, even before becoming the first Roman emperor always desired to have male heirs. However, although at the end of the civil war became the richest and most famous Roman, he was unlucky in this regards. He tried to favor his male relatives and he tried to built a theater dedicated to his newphew Marcus Marcellus and a library dedicated to his sister Octavia. Because this theater was so close to the docks of the Tiber River, it needed to be built with a big Scaenae Frons and a higher podium to avoid periodical floods from the main river of Rome. The theater of Marcellus was one of the three main theatrical complexes built in ancient Rome, and it was the second to be built after the theater of Pompey the Great. It could accommodate 20.000 spectators and had three orders of arches like the Colosseum. Without a doubt when the Colosseum was built, Roman engineers studied it thoroughly and took inspiration from this Augustan monument. Still today may people get confused and think that the Theater of Marcellus is indeed the Colosseum. However, at a closer look, as the picture reveals, the last floor of the theater is missing because in the middle ages the wealthy family of the Savelli built its residence on top of it, reusing the same travertine blocks that belonged to the third order of arches.

The Tarpeian Rock

2010-05-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

The tale about Tarpeia is linked to the period of the monarchy in ancient Rome. Tarpeia was a noble lady who betrayed the Romans allowing the Sabins of Titus Tatius to enter and sack Rome. As soon as the lady saw the jewels worn by the Sabins, she was caught by the desire to own them all and asked the Sabins to have them. The Sabins said that it was ok but only if the lady opened the gates of the city. However, as soon as they got close to her, instead of giving her the jewels ,they crushed her with the weight of their weaponry and they killed her. After that the Sabins got rid of her, they had free access to the newborn city and inflicted several casualties to the Roman army. This account, however, tells only about the legend built around Tarpeia. The physical evidence says, however, that a cliff on the Capitol hill was dedicated to the ancient deity called Tarpeia. From this cliff all the criminals sentenced to death as well as the deformed babies were thrown down.

The First Food Markets in Ancient Rome

2010-05-26T09:29:00.000-07:00

Long before that the Roman Forum began its activity, the Etruscans and the Romans used to meet and do business in a small area located between the Circus Maximus and the Tiber River. The reason of this choice was in the common worship of Hercules, who was not only popular for his famous 12 deeds but also because he was the patron of the olive trees. In the mythical accounts of Rome, Hercules killed the giant Cacus, who had previously stolen his cattle. After this event, the Romans built in his honor the Ara Maxima Herculis, that is located where today stands the basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin where the Mouth of Truth is. In addition, other temples were built in the early Rome to honor the harbor of Rome god, whose name was Tiberinus and new markets extended the areas between the Ara of Hercules and the Tiber with a new round temple dedicated to the Greek hero and two new markets dedicated to the purchase of cattle animals (Forum Boarium) and the vegetables (Forum Holitorium).

The Role of the Circus Maximus in Ancient Rome

2010-05-25T13:04:00.000-07:00

From one side of the Palatine hill it is possible to admire the elongated form of the largest stadium built in the ancient world: the Circus Maximus. According to the historian Livy it was wanted by the Etruscan king Tarquinius Priscus to celebrate chariot races competition. The stadium could accommodate around 300 thousand people and had shops at the bottom of its structures. As we have discussed in the previous posts it was from there that the fire of Rome began in the year 62 CE also because at Nero's time the circus had the upper level seats still on wood. It was really a magnificent building that had an internal water channel that allowed the charioteers to better guide their performances and had also obelisks that were brought by the Roman emperors throughout the history as a plunder from Egypt.

The Multiple Layers of the Caelian Hill

2010-05-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

The Caelian Hill is one of the seven historical hills of Rome and is located between the Domus Aurea and the Colosseum. The etymology of the name is straightforward: the name may pertain to one of the Etruscan leaders, whose name was Caele Vibenna, who helped Servius Tullius to get into rhe supreme power in Rome. According to the emperor Claudius, whose dedicatory temple was built on purpose on the Caelian Mount, Caele Vibenna and Mastarna helped a new Etruscan family to get rid of Tarquinius Priscus. The emperor Claudius was the main scholar about the Etruscan world in antiquity but unfortunately we have lost his writings about the predecessors of the Romans. He revered so much the Etruscans and their religious institutions that we have recorded his speech about the importance of the study of the Etruscan in his Lyons tablets.

The Triumphal Processions in Ancient Rome

2010-05-18T12:55:00.000-07:00

What already said about the triumphal arches in the Forum pertains to the general phenomenon of the triumphal processions. When the Romans arrived in Greece in the third century BCE, they began to discover how important was the self representation. Once they became aware of the Greek statues representing the deities in nude poses, they immediately realized that their carved heads can be placed on these marble bodies. Talented slaves working as artists in Rome implemented an enormous amount of imagery that dcorated the Roman houses but also the public squares in the Fora. As soon as the Romans, who were frugal by nature, initiated to collect these works of art, they became so fond of the Greek culture that some of the Roman emperors such as Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius spoke Greek. The Forum was the stage where all the major triumphal processions took place, and writers such as Livy and Plutarch give us many details on the display of the new stautes coming from the Eastern side of the Roman empire.

The Palatine Hill in Ancient Rome

2010-05-16T05:10:00.000-07:00

Coming down from the Forum on the way to reach the Colosseum, on the right side there is a hill that still today is visited not that often. The hill that we can still see from the second floor of the Colosseum is the hill where the first inhabitants of Rome settled and where archaeologists found remains of the thatched huts of the iron age. Indeed the Palatine has many layers. First of all ,20 feet down below there are the remains of the republican houses like the house of the Griffins, which is a good example of second style in Roma paintings. This mansion was then erased by the foundations of the Flavian Palaces built by Vespasian and Domitian in the years 80 - 90 CE. The last who improved the structured of the palatine was Septimius Severus with a monument that does not exist anymore: the Septizodium. If we really want to know how the Septizodium looked like before its demolition in the Renaissance time, we have to go to see the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel because Botticelli painted it when he needed a background for his panel frescoes.

The Arch of Constantine as Mix of Different Arches

2010-05-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

When we look at the arch of Constantine, which is located just outside of the Colosseum, we have an impression of unity and harmony of its sculptural program. However, things are not easy when we deal with this arch. First of all, we have to understand that this arch was first built by Hadrian in 130 AD to glorify his beloved Antinous ,who is represented in the roundels of the monuments. Secondly, if we get closer to the arch, there is a difference in stiye at the moment of analyzing the carved panels. In fact, the roundels of Hadrian are different from the rectangular frieze panels: the panels show Constantine battling in Verona against Licinius and the battle of the Milvian Bridge when he defeated Maxentius and became the only Roman Emperor ruling the empire. Indeed all the arch is a puzzle, because at the moment of adding therectangular panels, Constantine added the attic on top with the famous inscription for which scholars are still debating.Therefore, the arch is from the bottom until the beginning of the attic Hadrianic, but in the attic and in the rectangular panels is Late Antique because of the linearity of its carvings and for the frontal disposition of the figures.

How did the Fire of Nero impacted Rome in 64 AD?

2010-05-12T14:51:00.001-07:00

Many authors wrote in history that Nero had a pivotal role in burning Rome in 64 AD. Somebody says that his love for Greece made him dreaming of having a new marble city, somebody else says that he blamed the Christians for the flames that burned in Rome for one week. It's unknown ,however, if Nero intentionally burned Rome. Recent excavations conducted under the arcades of the Circus Maximus confirm that the fire started from that part of Rome: in fact many shops in ancient Rome had wooden furniture and a torch may have caused the disaster. Nero later on was hated more by the Romans because the residential area occupied today by the Colosseum was expropriated to build his own new house: the Domus Aurea. After having committed suicide, the senate decreed the Damnatio Memoriae and all the portraits of Nero were destroyed or carved again with the traits of his successors.

How did the Senate Work in Ancient Rome?

2010-05-06T15:00:00.000-07:00

One of the most outstanding buildings of the Roman Forum is the Senate. Originally it was called Curia Hostilia since it marked its origins way back to the king Tullus Hostilius (6th century BCE). Julius Caesar, after having celebrated his triumph in Rome in the year 50 BCE, decided to increase the number of the senators from 300 to 900, but the space of the Curia Hostilia wasn't big enough to accommodate the new patricians. This issue gave him the chance to build a new larger Senate House, and at the same time on the back of the new Senate he began the construction of his own forum dedicated to Venus Julia, mother of his dynasty. The building that still today stands in good conditions is the House he created. Another reason why this building remained almost intact until the present times is its transformation into a church in the seventh century BCE.
My tours of ancient Rome tantalize the curiosity of my customers and give an extra edge to the people who love the history of Rome.

The triumphal arches in ancient Rome

2010-05-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

The image of the arches we have today is of buildings that spoke of the glorious past of Rome. However, few people know that these arches were a propaganda medium and were used to glorify the emperors in charge. If you may decide to see the ancient Rome with my excursions, you will be told that many other arches decorated ancient Rome. In fact ,these monuments once stood not only in the Roman Forum but also in in the main consular roads such as the Via Flaminia that today is called Via del Corso.
Nowadays we can see only the arch of Titus and the arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum, together with the arch of Constantine, but it's good to remember that buildings such as the Circus Maximus had triumphal arches as well.

Where did the kins of Rome live?

2010-05-02T14:30:00.000-07:00

In ancient Rome writers argued about the exact position of the kings house. The tradition wants that Romulus, when he plowed the Roma Quadrata at the bottom of the Palatine hill, decided to create his residence on top of the palatine, that was also naturally fortified. His successors, however, including Numa Pompilius and the Etruscan kings, preferred to build their houses in the Roman Forum. Vestiges of what is today the kins residence survive in the regia of the Roman Forum, located in front of the temple of Antoninus and Faustina. Archaeologists use to explain that this type of house had from four to six rooms, some of which were dedicated to worship of the gods and of the Lares. When the kings were expelled in 509 BCE, the house will be inhabited by the Pontifex Maximus who was the main religious priest in ancient Rome. More you may know when you will book my private tours of Rome.

What was the role of the basilicas in the Roman Forum?

2010-04-30T16:20:00.000-07:00

The Roman Forum was not only used by the Romans as a meeting place or to praise their ancestors during funeral speeches. A pivotal function of the Forum was to render justice in civil law.
In fact the main trials of ancient Rome were celebrated in the basilicas, that were large rectangular roofed areas devoted to this legal practice.
If you by chance have taken my tours of Rome, I use to show my clients the remains of the basilica Julia, created by Julius Caesar and located on the longer side of the main market square. basilicas were also used to sign important contracts and to buy real estate.

Where did Romulus the first king of Rome die?

2010-04-27T18:11:00.001-07:00

When walking inside the Roman Forum, there is always chance to see, beyond the arch of Septimius Severus, a paved area that is dark gray color. On the Via Sacra, before the entrance to the Roman senate, a small staircase takes the visitors in a subterranean area. This place is currently called the tomb of Romulus, but indeed it's a sanctuary dedicated to Vulcan, the god of the craftsmen. In the same place, a stone is carved with the oldest inscription in Latin language ,warning the visitors to not violate that sacred place. According to Livy, two are the accounts related to the death of Romulus: he may have been killed by the senators outside of the senate exactly in the place called later on Volcanal, or in the campus Martius when parading his troops. A lightning shrouded him and took him off the ground forever.

The treasures of the Capitol Hill

2010-04-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

A very good visit to the ancient Rome begins with the Capitol Hill for a number of good reasons. First of all, the capitol is the smallest of the seven hills and it was used as the religious hill of the Etruscans and the Romans. In 509 BCE, when the Etruscan king tarquin the Proud was expelled from Rome, the Romans inaugurated the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus that was the largest temple of that time. That temple was used by the Roman generals for the main sacrifices to thank the gods at the end of the triumphal procession that took them safely back to Rome. The Capitol hill today appears in its new architectural setting designed by Michelangelo and it's the seat of the city hall of Rome. The major of Rome has his offices on the Capitol.

The layers of the Roman Forum

2010-04-23T14:49:00.000-07:00

Few people know today that, if you join my tours of ancient Rome, you will be able to see some of the layers of the early Rome. Archaeologists are still today digging to understand if the Rome of Romulus existed and if it has been an intentional foundation. For example, last year a sensational discovery of the Lupercal may shed new light on the cult of the she wolf in ancient Rome.

The archaeological area adjacent the Colosseum

2010-03-29T19:05:00.000-07:00

Few people know that before the construction of the Colosseum, the area where now is located the Flavian Amphiteatre housed the huge lake of the new House of Nero called the Domus Aurea. Recent archaeological excavations unveiled the preexisting evidence of the house of Nero and the remains of his house on the Palatine called Domus Transitoria. If you want to know more about the monuments to see in the Roman Forum, I will be glad to answer all your questions via email or by phone.

Understanding where the fire of 68 AD took place

2010-03-24T03:04:00.001-07:00

Scholars are still debating on where took place the fire that destroyed Rome under Nero. Having talked recently on my post about the Circus Maximus, the most recent opinion sees that the fire for which Nero blamed the Christian took place in one of the shops under the arcades of the Circus Maximus. From there, thanks also to the wooden structure of part of the Circus itself, the flames propagated and destroyed the 80 % of Rome. In one of my tours of Rome I am always proud to show to my clients the aftermath of that fire: the Domus Aurea.

Tour of the Origins of Rome

2010-03-20T04:47:00.000-07:00

If you have a chance to book an hotel in central Rome you can begin your visit to the layers of the Eternal City with some good places related to the Rome of the Seven Kings. For example a guided tour of the Circus Maximus will help you understand the Roman passion for the games. As a matter of fact the circus had a capacity of 300,000 spectators and was mainly used for chariot races competitions.

Sightseeing Tours of Rome

2010-03-07T16:34:00.000-08:00

Welcome everyone to my tours of Rome !! I am sure that you will find very interesting to learn some useful tips when planning your trip to Italy. So stay tuned and read my posts about the city where I was born and I love most: Roma !!. Greetings from Alessandro and see you soon in Rome.