Rome via Brooklyn

467 words, 2 minutes read time.

Today we went to the Roman forum. I was really excited to actually go down there since we saw the view from above when we went to the capitoline museum the other day. I was admiring the overgrown foliage and birds as usual. I think my favorite flowers may be considered weeds.

They ended up opening the forum 30 minutes late so we had time to relax in the shade just like the ancients. The ancient Roman’s valued shade and designed their infrastructure to provide it, as well as understanding the value of shade from nature.

Once we entered we learned about the Arch of Septimius Severus. The romans built very strong foundations so if you take a part from the structure it will not be affected. People would harvest the metal from ancient structures because there was a scarcity in later periods. It was interesting that the symmetrical holes in the sides were made because someone once built their house as a second story. I would like to see a reconstruction of that. “These features made the arch an attractive candidate for a fortress in the Middle Ages, when towers were erected on top, and it bears the scars of other later structures erected around and within its mass(pg.79).”

We learned about the temple of Saturn, the god of time and harvest. It housed the Roman treasury which had all of the wealth of the state. I wondered if it ever got robbed and Arden said probably. We learned about Damnatio memoriae which was memory killing. When the Roman’s didn’t like someone or defeated a people they would completely erase them. This was a way for them to control history. It’s interesting that they were obsessed with writing everything down and memory but also would remove people from existence. There is a difference between creating your history through fabrication and authentically living which results in the creation of history. (A Nietzsche inspired thought)
We imagined that Julius Cesar’s last words was “up yours kid” and it created a satisfying image. Here is a seagull on top of his grave.

Arden gave a great presentation on what board games the ancients played in the forum and it made me miss playing board games.

We then went ahead into where the vestal virgins lived. They tended to the eternal fire because if it burnt out it was said that Rome would fall. They are sacred, you can’t hurt their bodies but that doesn’t mean you can’t kill them. They would be sealed in and starved if they did something wrong. This was a public role that ended at 30 years old. The rich would want their daughters to be vestal virgins.