Rome, Ancient City

Rome wasn't built in a day, and you won't see any substantial portion of it in 24 hours. Ancient temples and forums, medieval churches, Renaissance basilicas, Baroque fountains, 19th-century museums, and Fascist architecture all cluster together in a city bursting with masterpieces from every era of Western civilization. Rome is possibly the greatest exposition of human endeavor on the planet.

In the midst of the countless, scattered stones of the Roman Forum and the Palatine stands a small, truncated column. This spot was the Umbilicus Urbis, the "navel of the city," marking the geographical center of the ancient city. More than any other monument in Rome, it symbolizes the Roman Forum and the larger city of Rome's past status as a veritable ombelico del mondo - the navel of the world, the center of all the ancient West's political, economic, social, and religious life. Despite the ravages of time, the glory of Rome's early history is still palpable. In a relatively small area, one can see the venues of Roman government, religion, entertainment, privilege, and even sanitation, although the volume of camera-and-bottled-water-toting tourists confounds attempts to recreate ancient Rome in your mind.

Roman Forum

The Forum, once marshland prone to flooding and eschewed by Rome's Iron Age (1000-900 BC) inhabitants, spreads from the Colosseum west toward the Capitoline Hill. Today, many of the Forum's structures are reduced to piles of jagged rocks, and the locations of many sites are just hypotheses.

In the 7th and 8th centuries BC, Etruscans and Greeks used the Tiber Island as a crossing point for trade and the Forum as a market. Rome was founded as a market town for sober farmers who came to trade and perform religious rites; the Romans were peacefully dominated by the more advanced Etruscans until 510 BC, when the Republic was established. The Curia, the meeting place of the Senate; the Comitium Well, or assembly place; the three sacred trees of Rome; and the Rostra, the speaker's platform, were built here to serve the young government. The earliest temples (to Saturn and to Castor and Pollux) were dedicated in honor of the revolution. The Via Sacra, Rome's oldest street, became the main thoroughfare of the young city. The conquest of Greece in the 2nd century BC brought new architectural forms to the city, including the lofty Basilica Aemilia, used as a center for business and judicial work before Christians transformed many of the existing structures in the Forum into churches. The Forum was never reserved for a single activity. Senators debated the fates of far-flung nations over the din of haggling traders. The Vestal Virgins kept the city's eternal flame burning in their house on a street full of prostitutes (who kept flames of a different sort burning). Elsewhere, priests offered sacrifices in the temples, generals led triumphal processions up to the Capitoline, and pickpockets relieved tourists of their possessions. Some things never change.

The Forum witnessed political turbulence in the Republic in the first century BC. Cicero's orations against the antics of corrupt young aristocrats echoed off the temple walls and Julius Caesar's dead body was cremated, amid rioting crowds, in the small temple that bears his name. Augustus, Caesar's great-nephew and adopted son, exploited the Forum to support his new government, closing off the old town square with a temple to the newly deified Caesar and building a triumphal arch honoring himself. His successors followed suit, clotting the old markets with successively grander tokens of their majesty (often looted from the monuments of their predecessors). The construction of the imperial palace on the Palatine in the first century AD, and of new fora on higher ground to the north, cleared out the old neighborhoods around the square. By the 2nd century, the Forum, though packed with gleaming white monuments, had become a deserted ceremonial space. Barbarian invaders of the 5th century burned and looted the Forum, and Constantine's Christian city government had the pagan temples closed.

In the Middle Ages, many buildings were converted to churches and alms houses; marble was stolen and the Forum gradually became Campo Vaccino, a cow pasture, with only the tallest columns peeking through the tall grass. The last bits of the Forum's accessible marble were quarried by Renaissance popes for their own monumental constructions. Excavations since 1803 have uncovered a vast array of remnants, but also rendered the site extremely confusing - the ruins of structures built over and on top of each other for more than a thousand years are now exposed to a single view.

The Colosseum

The Colosseum is the enduring symbol of the Eternal City - a hollowed-out ghost of travertine marble that dwarfs every other antiquity in Rome by reputation, if not by sheer size alone. The term "Colosseum" is actually a nickname for the Amphitheatrum Flavium, which Vespatian began building in AD 72 to block out the private lake that Nero had installed for his own seedy purposes. The nickname derives from the colossal bronze statue of Nero as sun-god that used to grace the area next to the amphitheater. The Colosseum was completed in 80 by Titus, with spoils from the emperors' campaigns in Judaea. Titus allegedly threw a monster bash for its inauguration: a 100-day fête that saw 5000 wild beasts perish in the bloody arena (from the Latin for sand, harena, which was put on the floor to absorb blood). Though the maximum capacity is still debatable, feuding archaeologists have placed the number at least 50,000. Because the Colosseum events took place for the "public good," tickets to see the slaughter were always free.

Chances are that the house was packed for Trajan's celebration of his Dacian victories, when 10,000 gladiators and 11,000 beasts duked it out for a month. Over the centuries, it wasn't only gladiator fights that filled the arena: in the mornings, as a warm-up for the evening's battles, exotic animal hunts were a huge draw - the idea of two Romans stalking a hippopotamus was enough to get bloodthirsty teens out of bed and over to the Colosseum. It's also said that the elliptical interior was flooded for sea battles, although some archaeologists and native Romans insist that it wouldn't have been possible, citing the Circus Maximus as the more probable locale. Gladiatorial games were suspended in 438 by a Christian-dominated empry and Senate, and animal hunts soon bit the dust as well. The Colosseum was used briefly as a fortress in the Middle Ages and as a quarry in the Renaissance, when popes, beginning with Urban VIII, pillaged marble for use in their own grandiose enterprises, including St. Peter's Basilica and Palazzo Barberini. The former pagan symbol became the site of Christian liturgical rites in the 17th and 18th centuries, and a chapel and rows of crosses were eventually built on the north end of the hollowed-out amphitheater. The crosses were removed in the 19th century when excavations started on the Colosseum, leaving the structure, with the exception of the ongoing exterior renovations, as it is today.

The outside of the arena, with the layers of Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns, was considered the ideal orchestration of the classical architectural orders, from the most staid to the most ornamental. On the outer side opposite the entrance, look for five marble posts on the edge of the pavement. These posts are remnants of anchors for a giant velarium, the retractable shade that once covered the amphitheater. During each game, 1000 naval troops operated the velarium. Inside, the tremendous wooden floor is gone, revealing brick cells, corridors, ramps, and elevators that were used to transport wild animals from their cages up to the arena level.

Note the large cross across from the side entrance. It symbolizes the Colosseum's escape from total destruction at the hands of pillagers by a lucky mistake. The Pope, in order to commemorate the martyrdom of the thousands of Christians supposedly killed in the amphitheater, declared the monument a sacred place and forbade any more demolition. It was discovered that no Christians had been ever killed in the Colosseum. These days, in fact, the Pope holds occasional masses there. Additionally, in the summer of 2000, the Colosseum was used as a stage for several Italian TV variety show extravaganzas as well as Greek drama and classical music performances. Organizers bragged that it was the first time in 15 centuries that it had been used as an entertainment venue, though the maximum audience of 700 for these events paled by comparison to the arena's former glory.

Piazza del Campidoglio

The Capitoline was the smallest of ancient Rome's seven hills, but also the most important and sacred. The highlight of the modern hill is the spectacular P. del Campidoglio, designed by Michelangelo in 1536 in honor of the visit of Emperor Charles V and in celebration of the hill's ancient glory. In ancient times, the hill was the site of a gilded temple to Jupiter (dedicated in 509 BC); also on the hill were the state mint, senatorial archives, and the Department of Throwing People off the Capitoline Hill. The northern peak of the hill was home to Juno's sacred geese, which saved the city from ambush by the Gauls in 390 BC by honking so loudly that they woke the populace. To get to the piazza from P. Venezia, take La Cordonata, the 2nd staircase down V.d. Teatro di Marcello. In keeping with the hill's ancient significance, Michelangelo set up the statues of the twin warriors Castor and Pollux that flank the wide and gently sloping staircase, as well as the two reclining river gods and the statue of the goddess Roma. To the right and left of P. del Campidoglio stand Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo, home to the Capitoline Museums. At the far end, opposite the stairs, is the turreted Palazzo dei Senatori (Rome's city hall).

In the center of the piazza stands the famous equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, brought here from the Lateran Palace. The gilded bronze was one of a handful of ancient bronzes to escape medieval meltdown, and then only because it was thought to be a portrait of Constantine, the first Christian emperor. Unfortunately, both man and steed succumbed to the assault of modern pollution and were removed for restoration in 1981, leaving behind only their pedestal. The emperor now resides in climate-controlled comfort in the courtyard of the Palazzo Nuovo, and the statue you see now is a weatherproof copy. Across the way, in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, lie the gargantuan foot, head, arm, and kneecap of the statue of Constantine that once graced the Basilica of Maxentius.

On the open side of the piazza, rejoin La Cordonata to make the descent to P. Venezia. The staircase was designed so that Charles V, apparently penitent over his sack of the city a decade before, could ride his horse up the hill to meet Paul III during his triumphal visit. On the right-hand side of La Cordonata stands a dark statue of a hooded man, Cola di Rienzo, the leader of a popular revolt in 1347 that attempted to reestablish a Roman Republic. The statuem marks the spot where the disgruntled populace tore him limb from limb shortly after electing him first consul.