Discover the Gladiator Mvsevm in Rome

 

  Trip date: 2023.05.11  

In the city center of Rome near the Pantheon, there is a small shop with a variety of relics.
The more observant can notice the basement, where you can take part in a real historical tour - mostly armours, shields, weapons, tools and smaller exhibitions.

You can find the Museum here: Piazza Navona, 90, 00186 Roma RM, Italy.

I have made several pictures and decided to make a small historical information about the exhibited pieces.

        Villanoviano Warrior

Before the rise of Rome, among the many cultures was one of the most decisive the Etruscan.
The Villanovian culture (around 900-700 BC) regarded the earliest phase of the Etruscan civilization, the earliest Iron Age culture of Italy.

The name derives from the locality of Villanova, a fraction of the municipality of Castenaso in the metropolitan city of Bologna.

The Villanovians introduced iron-working to the Italian Peninsula, they practiced cremation and buried the ashes of their dead in pottery urns of distinctive double-cone shape.

The people of the Villanovan period were a society of warrior-farmers living in small hut-villages.
That's why they weren't very trained and their weaponry wasn't high quality.

Discover the Roman Forum

  Trip date: 2023.05.11  

The Roman Forum (latin: Forum Romanum) is located near the most iconic tourist site, the Colosseum.
The rectangular plaza is surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings, where the citizens of the ancient Rome were referred.

            Historical information

For centuries the Forum was the center of day-to-day life in Rome: the site of triumphial processors and elections; the venue of public speeches, criminal trials, gladiatorial matches and commercial affairs.
It was the teeming heart of ancient Rome, it has been called the most celebrated meeting place in the world, and in all history.
Located in a small valley between the Palatine and Capitoline Hills, today it's a spawling ruin of architectural fragments and intermittent archaelogical excavations.

Many of the oldest and most important structures of the ancient city were located on or near the Forum.
The Roman Kingdom's earliest shrines and temples were located on the southeast edge. These included the ancient former royal residence, the Regia (8th century BC) and the Temple of Vesta (7th century BC), the surrounding complex of the Vestal Virgins, all of which were rebuilt after the rise of the Imperial Rome.

Over time, the archaic Comitium was replaced by the Forum, and the judical activity moved to the new Basilica Aemilia (179 BC). Later Julius Caesar built the Basilica Julia, along with the new Curia Julia, refocusing both the judical offices and the Senate itself.
This new final Forum served as a revitalized city square where the people of Rome could gather for commercial, political, judical and religious pursuits in ever greater numbers.

Discover the Colosseum

  Trip date: 2023.05.11  

Rome's most breathtaking monumental and iconic building is the Colosseum, unquestionable.
It is dream of every tourist who goes to Rome to enter and visit the Flavian Amphitheatre, as it was originally called.

            Historical information

The amphitheatre was built under the Flavian emperors (Vespasian, Titus, Domitian), begun between AD 70 and 72 during the reign of Vespasian. It is located just east of the Palatine Hill, on the ground what was Nero's Golden House.
The artificial lake that was a centerpiece of that palace complex was drained, and the Colosseum was sited there, a decision that was as symbolic as it was pratical.
The decision was Vespasian's, whose path to the throne had relatively humble begginings, chose to replace the tyrannical emperor's private lake with a public amphitheatre that could host a tens of thousands of Romans.

The structure officially dedicated in AD 80 by Emperor Titus in a ceremony that included 100 days of games.
Later, in AD 82, Domitian completed the work by adding the uppermost story. Unlike earlier amphitheatres, which were nearly all dug into convenient hillsides for extra support, the Colosseum is a freestanding structure of stone and concrete, using a complex system of barrel vaults and groin vaults.

It seated some 50.000 spectators, who were shielded from the Sun by a massive retractable verarium (awning).
Supporting masts extended from corbels built into the Colossuem's top, or attic, story; hundreds of Roman sailors were required to manipulate the rigging that extended and retracted the velarium.

The Colosseum was the scene of thousands of hand-to-hand combats between gladiators, of contests between men and animals, and of many larger combats, including mock naval engagements.

Discover Rome's ancient ruins

 Trip date: 2023.05.10 - 12 

 As we knew, Rome is built on seven hills, it's best known is Palatine Hill. Even in its present state, the city contains many ancient ruins.

            "Rome, the eternal city"

The was not given this name by chance, as the capital evokes the past, even with a short walk we can travel through centirues and feel the harmony of eternity.

Behind the monstrous name lies the Roman self-awareness of millennia-old traditions.

The term comes from a pen of Albius Tibullus, a roman poet who called Rome the "eternal city".

In his book, his hymn to the sun god Apollo, he described the characteristics of Rome and predicted the prosperity of the empire.

He said that if Rome falls, the whole world will fall.

The poet lived during the reign of Emperor Augustus, during which time the Roman Empire developed a lot.

At that time, the old buildings of Rome were reconstructed, new institutions were built, and trade also developed with the construction of new roads.