Italy the final- In which Alie gives a brief history of Rome. And the universe. Maybe.
Once there were two kings.
For the sake of simplicity (and the fact that I can't remember their full names), these kings will be named "A-King" and "M-King".
Now, M-King was in line to inherit the throne and this did not make A-King happy. So A-King overthrew M-King and killed all of M-King's family except for his daughter. A-King made the daughter into a Vestal Virgin (pristesses that watched over a sacred flame and lived in a temple) so that she could never have children.
HOWEVER. Ares, being the kinky god that so many Roman and Greek gods were, fell for the little priestess and swooped down. She got big in the belly. When A-King found out, he was outraged and ordered the two twin sons to be thrown in the Tiber River. HOWEVER. The Tiber is known for flooding and the boys were washed up to the foot of Palatine (or Palatino) Hill, where they were found and raised by a she-wolf (which is also a name for prostitutes during that time) and a shepherd (so the boys were most likely raised by a shepherd and his wife. These boys were named Romulus and Remus.
These boys were bad. They liked to steal and do snarky trickery like that all the time. Now, by this time, M-King had managed to gain power back from A-King and was ruling. One day, R&R finally get caught in their thievery. HOWEVER. When they are brought in for their crimes, M-King immediately sees the family resemblance and declares them princes. The two princes part ways at this time to start their own little cities on the Palatino and Alantino hills. One day, whether over territorial dispute, or what have you, Romulus clobbers Remus over the head with a hoe. Goodbye Remus.
Romulus then continues his city which is named "Rome", who guessed it. However, he makes one little mistake- his city has, like, no women. So, very cordially, he invites a nearby city over for a little fiesta, attacks, and rapes the women. This city was called Sabine (see previous entry for related art stuffs).
So now they gots their city and their womens. They prosper as a farming community on the hills and eventually move down into what would be the Now-Ancient Roman Forum. Grow some more, and there you have it- ROME.
This is, supposedly, Romulus' hut on Palatino Hill. After Romulus was gone, the next kings and some emperors built important temples to gods on the hill only, as it was geographically higher than the rest of Rome, and therefore more important and far away.
Ruins on Palatino. Probably of Hadrien's baths. Would have been covered in white marble.
Now, for a reeaaly long time, the hill was preserved for holy things only. Like temples. However, this all changed with the appearance of emperors- mainly Augustus (or Octavius, if you will) who followed the famous Julius. Now, Augustus was smart. And cute, according to the statues. He decided to *le gasp* build his palace on top of the Palatino. However, he justified this by having the smallest palace of all the kings and Caesars until that time. A fad starts. Thanks, Augustus.
This courtyard was originally completely lined with white marble and a covered walkway and had at least to large fountains in it.
If your wondering where all the marble is....the single most destructive force to the buildings of ancient Rome, after fires, was the Renaissance. The Papacy liked marble. The Roman Forum was like a gold (or marble) mine without the mining.
The Temple of the Vestals, where the vestal virgins kept the fire. At the time it was built, round buildings were a sign of holiness and "don't mess wid this, foo'".
More of the Forum. You can see the remaining part of a theater that stood before the Coloseum.
Temple of....Jupiter? >> Err..
I hope you know what this is. The Coloseum was started by the emperor Vespausian and finished by his son, Domintian, who added on the fourth level. The Coloseum (Roman spelling, sorry) could hold up to 80,000 people and, due to extreme organization and over twenty staircases out, boasted the ability to completely fill or empty within fifteen minutes.
Before the subterrainean level was added, naval reinactments could be performed in it, and during the summer, a huge canopy would be hoisted over the top by 200 sailors. The place itself is multiple football fields large, but doesn't appear so.
The structure is still standing today mainly because it was build using the Roman-specific barrel-vaulting system which is a interweaving of arches.
In the first level, the emperor and senate sat with other random important people. The next two levels were for common men, and the fourth was for women and slaves (most likely to protect the women from the Roman "nose-bleed section".
One of the bazillion arches, this is the Arch of Severus, right outside the Coloseum. There is also the Arch of Titus, the Arapacis, and another one I forget.
The Arapacis or Peace Arch ordered by Augustus before his return from conquering, was very strategic. It was torn apart by Musolini then rebuilt. It is now (in part of it's entirety) inside of a building, far from its original spot.
Moving out of the Roman Forum and Palatino Hill, I'll end the history lesson with the Pantheon.
The Pantheon was built by my overall favorite dude, Hadrien. On the outside, it has the name of a famous architect who was before Hadrien's time. However, the Pantheon was originally a temple for multiple gods, as its name implies "Pan-man, theo-god".
Hadrien was a big fan of geometric architecture, which shows in the Pantheon which exibits the main shapes- circle, square, and trinagle. See it?
The Pantheon was also built using the barrel-vaulting system, but just going by that, should not be able to support its gigantic dome which was the biggest of its time. How did they do it? Cement. Special cement. Three different kinds of cement with three different densities were used, getting lighter as the top of the dome was reached. In the very center, is a hole which would let in fresh air and natural light, while the doorway drew out stale air. There are drains in the floor for the rain.
The Pantheon has two different colors of marble pillars in the front and the dome was originally covered in gold. 80% of the gold and marble in St. Peter's Basillica came from the forum and the Pantheon. HOWEVER. The inside was preserved very well because, before the popes came, the Pantheon had been converted into a church. Now, it houses tombs of quite a few famous people, including Raphael.
I was going to talk about Castel Saint Angelo (a.k.a. Hadrien's Mosoleum and the Popes' residence) but I'm tired. bleh. SO! I give you some last-minute pictures of Rome.
Castel Saint'Angelo
Well, that's it for Rome! I've been in Paris for a while now, so I guess I'll have to get around to that. ^^ Hope everyone's doing well. PEACE!
For the sake of simplicity (and the fact that I can't remember their full names), these kings will be named "A-King" and "M-King".
Now, M-King was in line to inherit the throne and this did not make A-King happy. So A-King overthrew M-King and killed all of M-King's family except for his daughter. A-King made the daughter into a Vestal Virgin (pristesses that watched over a sacred flame and lived in a temple) so that she could never have children.
HOWEVER. Ares, being the kinky god that so many Roman and Greek gods were, fell for the little priestess and swooped down. She got big in the belly. When A-King found out, he was outraged and ordered the two twin sons to be thrown in the Tiber River. HOWEVER. The Tiber is known for flooding and the boys were washed up to the foot of Palatine (or Palatino) Hill, where they were found and raised by a she-wolf (which is also a name for prostitutes during that time) and a shepherd (so the boys were most likely raised by a shepherd and his wife. These boys were named Romulus and Remus.
These boys were bad. They liked to steal and do snarky trickery like that all the time. Now, by this time, M-King had managed to gain power back from A-King and was ruling. One day, R&R finally get caught in their thievery. HOWEVER. When they are brought in for their crimes, M-King immediately sees the family resemblance and declares them princes. The two princes part ways at this time to start their own little cities on the Palatino and Alantino hills. One day, whether over territorial dispute, or what have you, Romulus clobbers Remus over the head with a hoe. Goodbye Remus.
Romulus then continues his city which is named "Rome", who guessed it. However, he makes one little mistake- his city has, like, no women. So, very cordially, he invites a nearby city over for a little fiesta, attacks, and rapes the women. This city was called Sabine (see previous entry for related art stuffs).
So now they gots their city and their womens. They prosper as a farming community on the hills and eventually move down into what would be the Now-Ancient Roman Forum. Grow some more, and there you have it- ROME.
This is, supposedly, Romulus' hut on Palatino Hill. After Romulus was gone, the next kings and some emperors built important temples to gods on the hill only, as it was geographically higher than the rest of Rome, and therefore more important and far away.
Ruins on Palatino. Probably of Hadrien's baths. Would have been covered in white marble.
Now, for a reeaaly long time, the hill was preserved for holy things only. Like temples. However, this all changed with the appearance of emperors- mainly Augustus (or Octavius, if you will) who followed the famous Julius. Now, Augustus was smart. And cute, according to the statues. He decided to *le gasp* build his palace on top of the Palatino. However, he justified this by having the smallest palace of all the kings and Caesars until that time. A fad starts. Thanks, Augustus.
This courtyard was originally completely lined with white marble and a covered walkway and had at least to large fountains in it.
If your wondering where all the marble is....the single most destructive force to the buildings of ancient Rome, after fires, was the Renaissance. The Papacy liked marble. The Roman Forum was like a gold (or marble) mine without the mining.
The Temple of the Vestals, where the vestal virgins kept the fire. At the time it was built, round buildings were a sign of holiness and "don't mess wid this, foo'".
More of the Forum. You can see the remaining part of a theater that stood before the Coloseum.
Temple of....Jupiter? >> Err..
I hope you know what this is. The Coloseum was started by the emperor Vespausian and finished by his son, Domintian, who added on the fourth level. The Coloseum (Roman spelling, sorry) could hold up to 80,000 people and, due to extreme organization and over twenty staircases out, boasted the ability to completely fill or empty within fifteen minutes.
Before the subterrainean level was added, naval reinactments could be performed in it, and during the summer, a huge canopy would be hoisted over the top by 200 sailors. The place itself is multiple football fields large, but doesn't appear so.
The structure is still standing today mainly because it was build using the Roman-specific barrel-vaulting system which is a interweaving of arches.
In the first level, the emperor and senate sat with other random important people. The next two levels were for common men, and the fourth was for women and slaves (most likely to protect the women from the Roman "nose-bleed section".
One of the bazillion arches, this is the Arch of Severus, right outside the Coloseum. There is also the Arch of Titus, the Arapacis, and another one I forget.
The Arapacis or Peace Arch ordered by Augustus before his return from conquering, was very strategic. It was torn apart by Musolini then rebuilt. It is now (in part of it's entirety) inside of a building, far from its original spot.
Moving out of the Roman Forum and Palatino Hill, I'll end the history lesson with the Pantheon.
The Pantheon was built by my overall favorite dude, Hadrien. On the outside, it has the name of a famous architect who was before Hadrien's time. However, the Pantheon was originally a temple for multiple gods, as its name implies "Pan-man, theo-god".
Hadrien was a big fan of geometric architecture, which shows in the Pantheon which exibits the main shapes- circle, square, and trinagle. See it?
The Pantheon was also built using the barrel-vaulting system, but just going by that, should not be able to support its gigantic dome which was the biggest of its time. How did they do it? Cement. Special cement. Three different kinds of cement with three different densities were used, getting lighter as the top of the dome was reached. In the very center, is a hole which would let in fresh air and natural light, while the doorway drew out stale air. There are drains in the floor for the rain.
The Pantheon has two different colors of marble pillars in the front and the dome was originally covered in gold. 80% of the gold and marble in St. Peter's Basillica came from the forum and the Pantheon. HOWEVER. The inside was preserved very well because, before the popes came, the Pantheon had been converted into a church. Now, it houses tombs of quite a few famous people, including Raphael.
I was going to talk about Castel Saint Angelo (a.k.a. Hadrien's Mosoleum and the Popes' residence) but I'm tired. bleh. SO! I give you some last-minute pictures of Rome.
Castel Saint'Angelo
Well, that's it for Rome! I've been in Paris for a while now, so I guess I'll have to get around to that. ^^ Hope everyone's doing well. PEACE!