Archive for the 'Sights & activities' Category

Are you one of those people who strongly feel that you were born in the wrong time period? Are you totally fascinated by the Roman period and do you have a serious desire to become a gladiator, even if only for a day? Rome would not be Rome if it could not address your wish to experience life as a Roman gladiator.

What do we actually know about gladiators, besides the monumental visuals of ancient Rome in Ridley Scott’s film Gladiator’s movie? If you have not seen the movie yet, you may want to do so. I am sure you will be impressed by the enormous amount of historical research undertaken to give the movie an authentic, historical feel, although much of the plot is fiction.

Gladiatorial games (Munera) probably originated in Etruscan times. Traditionally, munera were part of funeral offerings. They were seen at the time as a more humane way to grant prisoners the right to fight their way to freedom and not to become part of the blood offer needed to fulfill the rites of sacrifice for the dead. We know through works of the Roman writer Pliny that in 65 BC, Julius Caesar commemorated his father (who had died twenty years before) with gladiatorial games featuring 320 pairs of gladiators in shiny silver armor.

Rome’s gladiators were known as some of the most fearsome fighters in the empire. When a new recruit entered one of the schools to commence gladiator training he (or sometimes she) was assessed by the lanista, a doctor and the gladiator’s trainers. The training did not initially  involve the use of real weapons; instead wooden training swords called the Rudus were put in practice. A Rudus was also given in the arena to a successful gladiator.

Roman poet Juvenal (circa 60-131 BC) an astute observer of Roman life and also one of the most revered Roman satirists, wrote in his famous Satire X on the vanity of human wishes about the political circus surrounding the games. His famous Latin phrase ‘Panem et Circenses (bread and circuses)’ says it all: to win the votes of the poor shower them with bread and circus games. Juvenal wrote: “… Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.” In reference to this practice the film Gladiator shows a scene where the crowds are showered with loaves of bread at the same moment as the gladiators enter the ring.

It was the popular politician Gaius Sempronius Gracchus in 123 BC who started the practice of providing Roman citizens with free wheat and gladiatorial games as a means to gain political power, though much to the contention of his political adversaries. In spite of the resentment the bread and circus games became a stunning success and represented a very effective method of gaining votes of the general public. 

There are various types and categories of gladiators. There is the heavily armed Samnite, later called a hoplomachus or secutor. A Samnite carried a sword or a lance, a rectangular shield, a metal helmet and protective armor on his right arm and left leg. The Thracian wielded a curved short sword, the sica, and a small round shield, the parma. The Murmillo, or “fishman” (after the fish-shaped crest on his helmet) was less heavily armed. A Murmillo customarily fought another kind of warrior, the Retiarius, or “net-man,” who wore no armor at all. A Retiarius attempted to catch his opponent in his net and then stab him with a long, razor-sharp trident, or three-pronged spear. Furthermore there are the Eques (horses and sword), Essedari (war-chariot fighters) , Laquerarii (lasso fighters) and Velites (fought in groups with spears).

Choose one of the gladiator schools in Rome where a  instructor will teach you the skill of a gladiator. During the half day or full day course (if you have the stamina for it) you will see yourself probably wearing a beaten steel helmet topped with blood-red ostrich feathers, meanwhile carrying a shield, that weighs a ton, in one hand and a wooden practice sword in the other. At the end of the lesson, after all the hard work, you are presented with impressive scroll of your suitability to fight in the Coliseum. The course is suitable for men and women, young and old. Don’t forget your camera to record this fun experience.  Live adventurously; you are not a gladiator every day!

There are several gladiator schools in Rome:

Gruppo Storico Romano
 http://www.scuolagladiatoriroma.it/le_classi_2.html
http://www.gsr-roma.com/htm/attivit%C3%A0scuole.htm

Historical Gladiators School Rome
http://www.gladiatorforaday.com/Index.html
info@ludusmagnus.info

Roman Gladiator School: Learn How to Become a Gladiator
 http://www.explore-italian-culture.com/gladiator-school.html
http://www.viator.com/tours/Rome/Roman-Gladiator-School-Learn-How-to-Become-a-Gladiator/d511-2466GLAD?SSAID=383398&aid=463292960

YouTube – BBC History: Guide to gladiator training.

From the early beginnings Tivoli, in the Tiburtini hills 30 km east of Rome, has always been a favorite of the high and mighty, like the poet Horatio, politicians and emperors including Augustus, Trajan, and Hadrian.

Traces of settlement in the area go as far back as the 13 century BC. In Etruscan times Tivoli was at the heart of the cult of the Tiburtine Sibyl, whom Roman scholar Varro calls ‘Albunea’, the water nymph, dressed in animal skins carrying the fascista bundle of rods. The sibylline oracle prophesied to Emperor Augustus his future and the future of the Roman Empire. It must have been auspicious, because in the years following Augustus erected several temples in the name of the god Apollo and became the care taker of the famous sibylline books. The Temple of the Sibyl, modeled after the ancient Greek temples, can still be visited.

Another place worth visiting is Emperor Hadrian’s villa or Villa Adriana. The villa became Hadrian’s preferred residence when in Rome, probably due to the fact that adopted son of Trajan had poor relations with the senate and the Roman elite after an incident at the beginning of his reign, when four respected Roman Senators were assassinated. Hadrian denied any wrong doing and even swore a public oath that he was not responsible, but his relations with the senate never recovered from the affair.

Construction on Hadrian’s masterpiece began around 117 AD and ended in 138 AD, the year of his death. Hadrian, an avid traveler, recreated in the villa the architectural highlights of his travels to Italy, Greece, Turkey and Egypt. Built as a private summer retreat its vast grounds covered an area of 120 hectares (300 acres). To get an idea about the grandeur of the place go and see the small scale model on the grounds itself about 100 meters from the entrance.

After being sacked by Totila, the villa experienced many centuries of oblivion that lasted till the end of the fifteenth century, when Pope Alexander VI sponsored the first excavations. During the excavations several statues of seated Musae were discovered, now in the Prado Museum in Madrid. From the sixteenth century on Villa Adriana has been continuously excavated in search of treasures of which many ended up in private collections.

All what is left now of the theaters, baths, temples, fountains, gardens, and canals are ruins, but impressive ones nonetheless. So much so that in 1999 UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Monument.
The Maritime Theatre, Court of the Libraries, Latin and Greek Libraries, Golden Square, Canopus and Small and Large Thermae are longtime favorites. Even though sometimes it is very hard to get an idea about the grand appearance of the villa at the time, due to the loss of all the upper parts of the buildings, with a little help of your imagination you will discover that there is so much more to see than meets the eye.

How to arrive:

Underground line B, Ponte Mammolo stop
Bus Cotral direction Via Prenestina, stops at 300 m. from the site
Bus Cotral direction Via Tiburtina, stops at 1 km from the site
Bus Cotral direction Tivoli/highway A24, stops at 1 km from the site
Train FS stop at Tivoli’s station and bus line CAT number 4, stops at 300 m. from the site

Ticket Office, Information and reservations:

Phone: (0039) 0774 530 203
Phone: (0039) 0774 382 733
Phone: (0039) 06 3265 9653

When in Rome (with children) do as the Romans do: when a Roman mother suspects that her child is not (entirely) telling the truth she threatens to take the child to the Bocca della Verità or mouth of truth at the church of Saint Mary in Cosmedin. According to the old Roman legend the Romans had a code of conduct obliging the one who takes an oath to put his hand in the Bocca della Verità. If they were not telling the truth the hand could not withdraw and was removed with a violent bite of the mouth.

The Bocca della Verità is an at least 2200 years old and 1200 kilo heavy round Pavonazzetto marble disk in the shape of a head, where the eyes, nostrils and mouth are carved all the way through the 19 cm thick stone. It probably represents the god Océanus , from him whom all rivers are and the entire sea and all springs and all deep wells have their waters according to Homer (Iliad 21. 194 ff). This is why most scholars presume it to be the original drain cover of the ancient temple of Jupiter Jurarius or the temple of Hercules Invictus. The temple was built using a similar circular domed rotunda or vault roof construction as the Pantheon with an oculus, round open space, in the middle. That would also explain the 2 holes on the side of the stone, which could have been used for the horizontal fixing on a vaulted roof. After the demolition of the temple the Bocca della Verità was placed in the narthex or portico of the Santa Maria in Cosmedin church around 1650 where it stayed ever since and became known as a place to take the test of truth.

Times did not change much, because this cracked marble disk still attracts crowds of curious tourists looking for amusement, or perhaps even jealous or suspicious people who want the Bocca della Verità to test their partner’s fidelity. But does it still work? I have to disappoint you. According to another legend the mouth of truth lost its credibility, when an adulterous Roman noble man’s wife was put to the test by her husband. The woman was forced to put her hand in the mouth, when all of a sudden a man came forward and kissed her. He was actually her lover, although she pretended not to know him and accused him of being a madman and the crowd chased him away. When she put her hand into the mouth of truth, the woman declared that she had never kissed any other man apart from her husband and the crazy man who had just kissed her. Her honor and that of her husband were saved, but from that moment on no more hands were bitten off. The Bocca della Verità apparently did not like the trickery and stopped working.

The mouth of truth was also the location for the for 1953’s film Roman Holiday. American newspaperman Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) teases the Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn) by pulling out his, seemingly, handless arm from the carved stone face. Go and see Roman Holiday before travelling to Rome and you will recognize at least some of the film’s locations while on tour in this ancient city. Just to get you started, Gregory Peck’s character lived at Via Margutta 51.

Bocca della Verità (mouth of truth)
Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin
Piazza Bocca della Verita
Rome 00186