Get Ready for Rome

Where did the Flavian Dynasty get the resources needed to build the Colosseum? The sorry condition in which Nero had left Rome and epigraphical evidence suggests it had to have come from the looting of Jerusalem and its Jewish Temple. This event is celebrated on the Arch of Titus, just uphill from the Colosseum. The crucial but difficult question is how to judge the Romans for their imperialistic actions. Considering their possible motives takes a small first step toward the beginning of an answer.

This first of four pods on the Colosseum offers a general overview of the structure, including its architecture and the materials used to build it. We also consider why the Flavian Dynasty of Emperors chose to build it where they did, right where there had been a beautiful water feature of Nero's sprawling "Golden House." We raise but do not yet address the question of what to think about those who took such delight in the cruel events staged in the Colosseum.

The art in Rome's churches and museums includes many characters with halos and many without clothes, but these two groups rarely overlap. This pod first encourages visitors to Rome to observe when and where we see halos on the one hand and nudes on the other. It then draws on examples from the Galleria Borghese and Sistine Chapel to suggest that in the Renaissance, we see many fewer halos and many more nudes. This raises a difficult and interesting question: "Why?"

Italy was not unified until 1860, and even then it lacked Rome, which remained under papal rule until 20 September 1870. Why did the supporters of the Risorgimento want to change Rome, and how did they do so? We here prepare to visit the monuments of Modern Italy by learning a little more about the main failures and success of the Risorgimento and the contributions of Garibaldi and Cavour.

We here observe several places in Rome that offer dramatic evidence of how much ground level has changed over Rome's long history. Doing so deepens our understanding of how much time has passed since antiquity, of how transient some human achievements are, of how depopulated Rome became during the Middle Ages, and of how much we need to use our mind's eye if we are to going to see Ancient Rome well. The effect is especially noticeable at lower elevations and near the Tiber, whose flooding was an important contributor to the rising level of debris that filled the city. The Pantheon, Piazza Navona, the Roman and Imperial Forums, and San Clemente offer clear evidence of these changes. Markers on the sides of buildings indicate the levels reached by the Tiber during memorable floods. My main goal is to help you imagine a once-great imperial capital becoming so neglected that it fills up with mud.

This pod presents a quick overview of how Rome changed after it became Christian, both in its prevailing art and architecture and in its soul. It notes that at the same time as official Christianity took over Rome in the fourth century, there was a precipitous decline in Rome's prominence, wealth, population, security, and political order. Rome then became a city of churches and of fortifications within the city walls. The tough question concerns the relationship between these developments.

Rome is home to Pasquino and five other "Talking Statues," which are exceeding popular with tour guides. For the last three centuries of Papal Rule in Rome, the statues were used like social media bulletin boards, but with anonymous postings pinned up at night. They were often witty and irreverent toward the established authorities, and what is more delightful than irreverence toward authorities we don't revere!

We identify these statues and give samples of their messages, but I conclude by suggesting that all Roman statues have much to say, even if they are more difficult to interpret.

This pod introduces the features that most identify Ancient Rome, especially in her differences from Christian and Modern Rome. These include the extent of her empire, her long-lasting rule, her ability to turn human beings into citizens, her reception and imitation of Greek culture, and her pagan intermixing of politics and religion.

When you feel like a break from the hubbub of Rome, the Castelli Romani offer several good options. Today we make our first visit to Castelgandolfo, which is one of the dozen hill towns known collectively as the Castelli. Among its claims our attention are these: It sits on rim above a beautiful crater lake. It is the site of Alba Longa, and this is the very ancient town from which Rome descended, at least according to the legend of Romulus and Remus. Later, it was the site of summer villas enjoyed by the wealthy Romans of the Republican Period, and later still the Emperor Domitian built a villa here that included the entire volcanic lake and surrounding area. Meanwhile, the Romans had built a tunnel over a mile long that penetrated the crater and enabled them to limit the rise of the level of the lake.

So different from the pagan Romans in other respects, the popes followed their example when it came to choosing locations for summer residences outside of Rome. We thus can visit a papal palace, papal gardens that—though narrow—are over a mile long, and a beautiful church built by Gianlorenzo Bernini, thanks to the patronage of Pope Alexander VII.

This charming little town is also a good place to discuss World War II in Italy, since it was caught in the crossfire for four long months between Germans in the hills and Allies down on the beaches near Anzio and Nettuno. The summit of Monte Cavo was also occupied by the Germans for its advantages as an observation and communication post.

The town also invites a discussion of the relationship between science and religion, since it turns out that it is the home of the Specola Vaticana, the astronomical observatory run by the papacy, and one of the most striking features of the Papal Palace is that it has two beautiful telescopes on its roof. Perhaps surprisingly, even before the condemnation of Giordano Bruno, scientists had figured out how to move away from the lunar calendar, according to which Christmas could turn up in the summer.

Cities are distinguished by their geographical location, but I here use historical and cultural differences to divide Rome into three radically different cities. Doing so helps to organize Rome's many sites and the art we see at them and makes them participants in fascinating theological and ideological quarrels. This episode explains this approach and begins to identify the differences of opinion that divide Christian Romans from the ancient pagans, and modern Romans from the the popes who ruled Rome for centuries.