The Ara Pacis (Latin, "Altar to Peace") or Ara Pacis Augustae ("Altar of Augustus to Peace") is an altar to Peace envisioned as a Roman goddess by the Roman Emperor Augustus Cæsar concecrated on 30 January 9 B.C. It had earlier been dedicated on 4 July 13 B.C. The altar was meant to be a vision of the Roman civil religion. It sought to portray the peace and prosperity enjoyed as a result of the Pax Romana (Latin, "Roman peace") brought about by the military supremacy of the Roman empire.
It was elaborately and finely sculpted, depicting scenes of traditional Roman piety, in which the Emperor and his family were portrayed in the act of offering sacrifices to the gods. Various figures bring forth cattle to be sacrificed. Some have their togas drawn over their heads, like a hood; this signifies that they are representing the role of a priest. Others wear laurel crowns, traditional symbols of victory. Men, women, and children all approach the gods.
The Altar is considered a masterpiece of Roman sculpture; the figures in the procession are not idealised types, as are typically found in Greek sculpture; they are recognizable portraits of individuals.
The Altar was located on the Campus Martius.
The Palatine Hill (Latin Palatium) is the centermost of the seven hills of Rome and is one of the most ancient parts of the city of Rome in Italy.
Legend tells us that Rome has its origins on the Palatine. Indeed, recent excavations show that people lived there since approximately 1000 BC. According to Roman mythology, the Palatine hill was where Romulus and Remus were found by the she-wolf that kept them alive. According to this legend, the shepherd Faustulus found the infants and, with his wife, Acca Larentia, raised the children. When they were older this is where Romulus decided to build Rome. (See Founding of Rome for a more detailed account of the myth.)
The emperors of Rome built their palaces on the Palatine. The ruins of the palaces of Caesar Augustus, Tiberius and Diocletianus are still to be seen. The term 'palace' itself stems from Palatium.
Palatine hill is some 70 meters high and looks down on one side upon the Forum Romanum and on the other side upon the Circus Maximus. The site is now a large open-air museum and can be visited during day time. The entrance can be found near the Arch of Titus on the Forum Romanum.
The Appian Way (Latin: Via Appia) is a famous road built by the Romans. It is the most important among the Roman roads; it was called regina viarum, the queen of the roads.
Its construction was started in 312 BC by the consul Appius Claudius Caecus, restructuring an existing track that connected Rome with the Alban Hills (this road has been supposed to be the one that originally brought Latins from Albalonga to the future capital, at the time of its founding).
The original track of the Appian Way connected Rome (from Porta San Sebastiano in the Aurelian Walls, near the Baths of Caracalla) with Ariccia, Forum Appii, Terracina, Fondi, Formia, Minturnae (Minturno), Sinuessa (Mondragone) and finally Capua.
The road was later extended (190 BC) to Benevento (Beneventum) and Venosa which was founded at that time and populated by 20,000 Roman farmers; in a following epoch it was extended to Taranto (Tarentum) and Brindisi (Brundisium).
The Via Appia Traiana would soon have more linearly connected Benevento with Aecae (Troia), Canusium (Canosa) and Barium (Bari).
In 71 BC six thousand slaves rebelling under Spartacus, having been captured after his final defeat and death, were crucified along this road by Marcus Licinius Crassus.
After the fall of the Roman empire, the road was not as used as before; Pope Pius VI ordered its restoration and brought it into new use.
Wide parts of the original road have been preserved, and some are now used by cars (for example, in the area of Velletri). Along the part of the road closest to Rome, one can see many tombs and catacombs of Roman and early Christian origin. Also the Church of Domine Quo Vadis is in the first mile of the road.
The Via Appia was also the site of the first milestones.
A new Appian Way was built in parallel with the old one in 1784.
The Tiber Island (Italian: Isola Tiberina; Latin: Insula Tiberina) is a boat-shaped island in the southern bend of the Tiber river in Rome. Approximately 270 m in length and 67 m at its widest, the island is well-known for being the site of an ancient temple to Aesculapius, the Greek god of medicine and healing.
Legend has it that after the fall of the hated ruler Tarquinius Superbus, the angry people threw his body into the Tiber. It settled onto the bottom, where dirt and silt accumulated around it.
Another version of the legend is that the people gathered up the wheat and grain of their despised ruler and threw it into the Tiber, where it served as the foundation of the island.
Owing to its dark origins, the Tiber Island was considered a place of ill omen. Until the temple was built, nobody went onto the island, and only the worst criminals were condemned to pass the remainder of their lives on the island.
The island's boat shape is what remains of the great temple which once stood there. Accounts say that in 293 BC, there was a great plague in Rome. Upon consulting the Sibyl, the Roman Senate was instructed to build a temple to Aesculapius, the Greek god of healing, and promptly sent a delegation to obtain a statue of the deity.
Upon its return trip up the Tiber river, a snake (a symbol of Aesculapius) was seen slithering off the ship and swimming onto the island. This was seen as the god's own choice for his temple's location, and the temple was built on the island, thus ending the plague.
The island eventually became so identified with the temple that, as a reminder of the miraculous event, it was modeled to resemble a ship. Travertine facing resembling a ship's prow and stern were added by the banks, and an obelisk was erected in the middle, symbolizing the vessel's mast. Walls were put around it, so that the island actually came to resemble a Roman ship.
Although little of the temple remains, the island is still a place of healing, as a modern-day hospital (Fatebenefratelli Hospital) stands on the western section of the island.
The remains of the travertine are still visible today at the east end of the island. Parts of the obelisk are now in the museum in Naples.
Located at the mouth of the River Tiber, Ostia was said to have been founded by Ancus Marcius, one of the kings of Rome, in the 7th century BC. However the most ancient archaeological remains so far discovered, are no earlier than the 4th century BC, and the most ancient buildings currently visible are from the 3rd century BC, notably the Castrum (military camp) and, of a slightly later date, the Capitolium (temple of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva).
Although Ostia was probably founded for the sole purpose of military defence -- since through the Tiber's mouths armies could eventually reach Rome by water -- in time the port became a commercial harbour, and a very important one too. Many of the goods that Rome received from its colonias and provinces passed through Ostia. In this role, Ostia soon replaced Pozzuoli (Puteoli, near Naples).
In 87 BC, the town was razed by Marius, and again in 67 BC it was sacked by pirates. After this second attack, the town was re-built and provided with protective walls by Cicero. The town was then further developed during the 1st century AD, mainly under the influence of Tiberius, who ordered the building of the first Forum. The town was also soon enriched by the construction of a new harbour on the northern mouths of the Tiber (which reaches the sea with a larger mouth in Ostia, Fiumara Grande, and a narrower one near to the current Fiumicino international airport). The new harbour, not surprisingly called Portus, was excavated from the ground at the orders of the emperor Claudius.
The town was provided with all the services a town of the time could require; in particular, a famous lighthouse. Archaeologists also discovered the public latrinas, organised for collective use as a series of seats that lets us imagine today that the function was also a social moment [1]. In addition, Ostia had a large theatre, public baths and a firefighting service. You can still see the mosiac floors of the baths near today's entrance to the town.
Trajan too, required a widening of the naval areas, and ordered the building of another harbour, again pointing towards the north. It must be remembered that at a relatively short distance, there was also the harbour of Civitavecchia (Centum Cellae), and Rome was starting to have a significant number of harbours, the most important remaining Portus.
Ostia grew to 50,000 inhabitants in the 2nd century AD and in time focused its naval activities on Portus. With the end of the Roman Empire, Ostia fell slowly into decay, and was finally abandoned in the 9th century due to repeated invasions and sackings by Arab pirates; the inhabitants moved to Gregoriopolis.
A "local sacking" was carried out by baroque architects, who used the remains as a sort of marble store for the palazzi they were building in Rome. Soon after, foreign explorers came in search of ancient statues and objects. The Papacy started organising its own investigations with Pope Pius VII and the research still continues today. It has been estimated that two thirds of the ancient town have currently been found.
Ostia lived a new life during fascism, when it was renamed Lido di Ostia, or Ostia Lido, or Lido di Roma (Lido meaning beach): following the general urbanistic re-planning of Rome, a new quartiere was created ex novo in the southern side of the capital city (EUR), and a comfortable road was built to connect it with the seaside (dedicated to Christopher Columbus). Ostia became the beach resort of Rome, and was connected by a railway, while the first projects for the Fiumicino airport were drafted out. The town was re-organised in a pure so-called "fascist architecture" (which recalls some colonial, Mediterranean and rationalist styles) and divided into a coastal side, distributed in small villas used as second houses by Romans, and a rear side for workers (peripheral quartieri and borgate were created all around Rome for the lower classes, and Ostia was one of them).
However the fascist renewal was not long enjoyed by Romans, due to the imminence of World War II which arrived when part of the works were still in progress; it was only in the 1960s that Ostia began to be used as a beach and as a holiday site, effectively becoming a part of the town, and it still is part of the territory of the council of Rome.
Like the tumulus burial structures for heroes in an earlier age, this mausoleum is cyclindrical. It is 87 meters in diameter--with an external wall 8 meters high and an inside wall 35 meters high. The actual burial chamber is inside the second wall. Originally the tufa walls were faced with marble.
Traditionally the church of SS Giovanni e Paolo stands on the site of the dwelling of the two saints, John and Paul, who were Roman military officers put to death for their Christian faith. Later the property is believed to have belonged to a Christian senator called Pammachius, who converted his home into a church.
In the nineteenth century, an enterprising monk excavated underneath the church, and found a series of decorated rooms dating back to the third century. Archaeological investigations have assigned various dates to the remains here; which belong to different stages of the site's development. Once a number of humbler dwellings and shops stood here, before the buildings were incorporated into a more sumptuous villa, whose frescoed walls can still be seen.
Like the more famous Domus Aurea, the rooms here are now underground, and it takes some imagination to imagine the spaces as they were before they were covered by later buildings. The wall-paintings, however, are a vivid reminder of times past. Ranging from fake marble painted on stucco to elaborate arrangements of flowers and garlanded animals, these are the principal attraction of the site and are well-worth the entrance fee.
The Antiquarium houses archaeological finds from the houses and the church, including some of the early Christian art that was later removed to make way for new fashions. There is also a collection of Islamic pottery - interestingly, it was these colourful plates which once decorated the church's medieval belltower (later replaced by copies).
This archeological area was discovered in 1926-1930 during the works for construction of a new building. The name Torre Argenitna (Tower Argentina) derives from a nearby house of a 16th century bishop Hans Burckhardt from Strasburg (in Latin Argentorum), who called his residence Torre Argentina.
Largo Argentina was a kind of ancient Roman square with four temples facing a courtyard to the east paved with travertine, that is why it is also named Area Sacra (Holy area). Its origins come from the Republican epoch starting from the 4th century b.C.. There are four temples marked with the letters A, B, C, D because it is not known to whom they were dedicated.
Temple A is peripteral and hexastyle, and conserved the biggest part of its columns; in the Middle Ages it was incorporated into destroyed now Chiesa di S.Nicola dei Cesarini.
Temple B is round and is a very rare example in Rome; here the colossal statue of female divinity was venerated, its 1,46m head is preserved in Capitol Museums; it still has six columns, original flight of steps and the altar.
Temple C is the most ancient here; in the Imperial era the cella was rebuilt and the columns and podium covered with stucco.
Temple D is the largest and the most recent one.
In the Imperial epoch Area Sacra was placed in the middle of exceptional concentration of monuments: porticoes of Teatro di Pompeo, Curia di Pompeo (where Caesar was murdered), Baths of Agrippa, Pantheon and etc.
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