Blog 4:

Forum of Augustus- with temple of mars

Forum of Nerva

Yesterday we had a half day and had taken a visit to the Forum of Augustus, Forum of Nerva, and the Forum of Vespasian. I had to give my presentation on the Forum of Vespasian (I briefly mentioned it in my blog 3 post). While I'd love (not really) to talk about it and probably could talk about it forever, I am going to post a page on it late tomorrow. The forum of Augustus however, was a temple built by Augustus. It is one of the Imperial forums here in Rome. We also got the privilege of seeing the forum of Nerva. The forum of Nerva is, I believe, the smallest Forum to be built. It was started by Domitian (I mentioned him briefly in Blog 3) but was finished by Nerva, henceforth the name "Forum of Nerva". It was completed and opened in 97 AD. I didn't get any pictures of the Forum of Nerva, nor did I get pictures for the Forum of Augustus. But I uploaded pictures (right) of each to show you what they might have looked like back in their prime time.

Today was a really interesting day. We went to a place called Ostia Antica. It's about a half an hour train ride from Rome. I found that this place was really cool and well preserved. It is a large archeological site close to the town of Ostia. The town itself used to be a seaport that brought in goods. What we saw while we were there was a lot different from what it had looked like in the past, obviously, but it was nice to be able to go through and see apartments, firefighter's headquarters, public restrooms, and also the usual houses of the common, lower/middle class people. There was also a really cool theater there (shown below). What I loved most about this was that it gave me a wider peek at how romans really lived. I hadn't really resurrected the the Imperial Forums in my mind like I had with the buildings at Ostia Antica. Overall it was a nice trip out of Rome for a little while. I love that we learn new things everyday while also getting to explore and have a little fun. If we aren't learning about ancient roman history, we are learning new things about the culture of the Italians in Rome. The knowledge is never ending.

Theater at Ostia Antica

Picture taken at Ostia Antica

Blog 3

Palatine Museum entrance

The Palace of Augustus

 So within the last couple of days we have seen quite a bit more of Rome! A couple places we had went to were Palatine Hill, the Palatine Museum, the Arch of Titus, and lastly the Colosseum. The Palatine Hill and Palatine Museum were actually really amazing (I got some beautiful pictures).  For those of you who do not know, Palatine hill is basically where Romulus wanted the city of Rome to be built and where most of the emperors had lived back in ancient roman times. On or around Palatine Hill there are a bunch of main attractions so to speak. We have visited most of them, for example, a few around there were the Circus Maximus, the Colosseum, and the Roman Forum. All of which I was lucky enough to have saw during my stay here.

The Arch of Titus

We also visited the Arch of Titus- that is located inside the Roman Forum. Titus is the son of Vespasian who ruled around AD 79-81. He only ruled for two years but was considered a good emperor. He was apart of the Flavian Dynasty and helped rebuild and make rome better, or helped Vespasian fix the aftermath of the reign of Nero (Nero- in my opinion- is the worst emperor of all time). Titus was also known for helping with natural disasters that were happening during that time, like the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Titus died of a fever in AD 81 and had started the Arch of Titus and the forum of Vespasian but didn't get the chance to finish them. His brother Domitian had finished them during his reign after Titus.

The Colosseum

The Last thing we did for that day was walked around the Colosseum. It was my favorite part of the day mostly because I learned that it's uses were similar to the hunger games. I guess in that way it just helped me make sense and relate to the people of that time a little better. I also think that if I lived back in that time period I would NOT be able to sit and watch people get killed. I barely like tackling people in rugby, i just couldn't do it, those romans were hard core. It's also cool to think that the colosseum was big enough to fit 50,000 people in it. It was almost like Vespasian (who had started building it) was showing the romans that everyone was a part of the community. It was a good tactic to get people to think he was a good ruler- very smart Vespasian, good job. I found it similar to a football arena today, I could almost picture it with screaming fans and everything. Overall I think anyone in Rome shouldn't miss the Colosseum, even if you don't know much history its definitely a place anyone can like and relate to from all ages and time periods.