Augustan Building Program & Other Musings.

So today (Monday July 9th) we visited many of the things that Augustus built and some of the important things around those areas. We started with the Ara Pacis.

Museum that houses the Ara Pacis

The Ara Pacis was built by Augustus in 13AD. Right before he was declared Pontifex Maximus. It's an interesting piece that I really love. It has so many interesting references and details.

My favorite panel from the Ara Pacis itself.

It was used for sacrifices to secure the Pax Romana that began under Augustus' reign. This was a relative peace as it was enforced quite brutally. But this didn't really bother the Roman people.

Picture from the internet.

The scene pictured represents either Tellus (Earth) or Pax (Peace) as a woman with two children on her lap and agricultural abundance around her. She is accompanied by a water nymph and an air nymph.

Mausoleum of Augustus

 Where Augustus, his whole family and all the emperors that followed him until Hadrian (excluding Nero). It was built to look like the circular tombs at Certeveri. A throwback to the previous civilizations would have been a popular move since it would solidify his identity as a Roman with a legitimate claim to rule.

Res Gestae (copy)

A list of all of the things Augustus claimed to have done for the sake of the Roman Empire. He claimed to have collected up all the silver statues (80) of himself and had them melted down and given over as offerings to Apollo. He restored 82 temples & built many new ones. He also instituted laws that Mussolini and even Berlusconi would later reference.

A Fascist building.

 The Fascist building program and many of it's other ideas took from those of Augustus' time period. Mussolini had a vision of Rome as a great city, and Italy as a great nation. He loved the history of Italy and was still trying to reinforce the idea of National Pride. At the time he was elected Italy had been a unified country for less than 100 years. Which is crazy if you consider how long people have been living there.

Head of Italy's Government

Berlusconi also took from Augustus and had another influence, Mussolini. He gave everyone with two children a 1000Euro bonus. Of course now Italy is paying for its mismanagement, but at the time it was difficult to realize that something was wrong. Especially since Berlusconi had a monopoly on the media in Italy.

Column of Marcus Aurelius

 One of the other girls had to give her presentation on this Column. It's relatively like the Column of Trajan, except for a few differences that are hard to note if you haven't studied the two. This column made greater use of the drilling technique meaning that the figures stood out more. Therefore they're also more damaged because of this. I generally dislike this column more, although I'm not really sure why. I guess it just seems more disorganized.

The Pantheon.

 How many times have you been to the Pantheon? I've been 8 times.. 8 times. That's more than once a week. Why have I been here so many times? I'm not sure. I guess it's a pretty impressive piece of architecture, and an incredible feat of engineering. But that's just too many times to hear, "There's no glass over the opening, so when it rains, it rains inside the Pantheon." Most boring sentence ever. Also I guess it's shocking the first time you hear it, but at this point it's gotten a little old..

Bernini's Chick

This is also known as the Elephant and Obelisk. It's pretty cute and stands outside the Basilica di Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Piazza Minerva, right behind the Pantheon. I actually like this because it's different from many of the other obelisks found in Rome. The elephant is representative of the pope it was commissioned by. 

Pretty Stained Glass

 This is from inside Basilica di Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. The body of Saint Catherine of Siena is housed here. Which is really cool since I had just studied her my last semester at A&M. It's fun being able to relate things to my previous classes. But only fun when new and old information is being combined.

Blurry picture of my new skirt.

 We're going to an Opera tomorrow (Tuesday July 10th)! And since it is summer and an outdoor opera, the dress-code is somewhere between semi-formal and casual. So maxi dresses, or skirts are apparently the best. I failed to bring a skirt with me so I had to go shopping today. Thankfully by procrastinating I managed to catch them at a time when everything was on sale! Best time ever. I also almost bought a pair of heels. Because what girl doesn't need more heels? But I decided to wait and see if I really loved them or if I could find the same pair for a cheaper price.

Ticket!

I'm surprisingly excited to see the Opera they're taking us to. It should be interesting to see how much of it I can understand. And it will just be a fun night. I just wish it wasn't so close to  midterms (which are Thursday). But oh, well I'll just have to study before hand. Speaking of which I should start doing that now.