La Dolce Vita

Buona sera ragazzi!

So I've just been hanging around Rome the last couple of weekends, and Valentine's Day was coming up, so Genevieve and I decided to treat ourselves to a day trip to Siena. Siena is a cute little hill town in Tuscany. It's one of Rick Steves' favorite Italian destinations, and also has been very popular so far among our friends, so we decided to go check it out!

We took the Metro to the Termini train station, bought a ticket for 13 €, and were soon on-board ready to start our day's adventure. The train was quite nice, and since it was still early in the morning, Genevieve and I quickly fell asleep for the first 2 hour leg of our trip. Luckily, we woke up in time to realize we needed to get off the train and transfer to another. After some confused exchanges in broken Italian, we figured out where we needed to go, and hopped on a darling little "Minuetto" train to take us up into the hills. I couldn't fall asleep on the last hour leg of our journey because the scenery was so beautiful! Even though it was still winter and all the vineyards were brown, the Tuscan countryside really does look as breathtaking as it seems in the pictures.

Once we arrived at the Siena train station, we knew we had to take a bus up to the city itself, so we got tickets. But when we walked outside the station, we realized we had NO idea which bus to take, which stop we needed, etc... At this point, we realized it might have been a good idea to have actually printed out a map of the city before we came, but we had assumed, a tiny little hill-town, how hard could it be? Well readers, let me tell you, it was pretty darn confusing. I asked a woman standing nearby which bus takes you to Siena, and she told me, "Well all of them do!" (duh.) "But you don't want this line, it goes to the hospital." Great! I thought, they all go to Siena, because we're in Siena, so we decided to just hop on the next bus that came our way, and figured eventually we'd run into something important. The #10 bus was pulling up, so we got on. We figured out that things didn't seem quite right when the bus went down the hill instead of up the hill, and the next thing we knew we arrived at the hospital! We didn't want to get off the bus at some random stop and be even more lost, so we just stayed on board, and passed the university, the best-western, etc... Eventually, the bus came to a stop in the middle of some random residential area, and the bus driver turned the buss off! Other people were still on board, so we assumed it would turn back on eventually. After our driver's smoke break 15 minutes later, she started the bus back up and turned around. At this point, we knew we weren't going to get anywhere on Bus #10, so we got back off at the train station, and hoped to have better luck the second time around! At least we got a wonderful bus tour of the outskirts of Siena, I'm sure most people don't get that opportunity when they visit!

After finding the "urban" bus pick-up spot, we got on the correct bus, and rode up to Piazza del Sale, where we got off and walked the rest of the way into the city. Siena is a really, really old walled city, so only VIPs get special privileges to drive around up there. Siena is the postcard perfect hill-town you expect it to be. As we walked down the narrow cobblestone streets, there were all kinds of specialty shops lining the way. At certain points, the streets would open up to a piazza or church.

The first sight we ran into was the Duomo. It's a huge cathedral known for it's black & white striped marble. We decided to take a look inside and spent lots of time there marveling at all the cool things to see. This is a very unique church!

Of course, just as we were walking up to the Duomo, the hour struck and bells started ringing!

Siena is most famous for the Piazza del Campo. Of course, I didn't know any of this until after I got home and looked it up! There is a nice element of surprise though when you discover things in an unknown city that look big and important! In this Piazza is a HUGE tower. It's so huge it's hard to fit in a picture! The tower is part of the Palazzo Pubblico, which is a gothic town hall that was completed in 1342. The bell tower is called Torre del Mangia. It's the 2nd highest medieval tower ever built in Italy! The Sienese claim that their Piazza is the best piazza in Italy, and it's hard to disagree. It has a very inviting feel and cute little fountain! Everyone was hanging out there on Valentine's Day, and we joined them, sitting in the middle of the square to eat our packed lunches. After lunch, I worked on sketching the Tower, while Genevieve enjoyed people watching. Suddenly, a cloud settled over the square and everyone, including us, emptied out because of the cold! We walked into the Palazzo Pubblico, which has been turned into an impromptu art gallery and museum.

Since it was Valentine's Day, we decided to treat ourselves to a special chocolate treat! As we were walking toward the Piazza del Campo, we spotted a very fancy looking Bar/Bakery that everyone was going to. A bakery in Italy is called a Pasticceria, and this one looked extremely popular. Everyone was there today! I saw this very delicious-looking chocolate thing in the window, and thinking it was a big slice of brownie with nuts, we went in to get ourselves one! We waited in a very long line for this chocolate delicacy, it was 27€ for a kilo! We bought a tiny 3€ slice to split, and realized the pastry wasn't a brownie at all! It seemed to be like a hybrid of chocolate fudge and fruitcake, with nuts. It was rock hard, and while trying to break off a piece, I managed to get powdered sugar ALL OVER my clothes! We also couldn't peel off the white wrapper/paper on the bottom without breaking our nails, so, for all I know I enjoyed eating paper on Valentine's Day! After we got home, we did a little research, and found out that what we ate is actually a Sienese specialty called Panforte. It dates all the way back to the 13th century! Literally, panforte means "strong bread" which refers to the spicy flavor. The original name of panforte was "panpepato" (peppered bread), due to the strong pepper used in the cake. The process of making panforte involves dissolving sugar in honey along with melted chocolate. Various nuts, fruits and spices are mixed together with flour and cocoa, and the entire mixture is baked in a shallow pan. Sources say that the Crusaders carried panforte with them on their quests since it was a durable confection, and they touted the usefulness of panforte in surviving sieges. We also found out later that the Nannini family is one of the oldest in Siena, and are world-renowned for their panforte! So not only did we accidentally eat a Sienese specialty, we were also partaking of a piece of culinary history!

We decided to wander around Siena for a while, and ran into the Casa di Santa Caterina. St. Catherine is not only Siena's patron saint, but was also chosen as the patroness saint of Italy, and of all of Europe! She was the daughter of tradesman, the 24th of 25 children, and when she was only 8 years old she devoted herself to God. She received divine visions and stigmata. St. Catherine's outspokenness helped persuade the Pope to return the seat of the papacy to Rome. She was a very politically involved person. The cloister of her house was probably my most favorite experience of the day. It was beautiful, peaceful, and had stunning views of the hillside.

Her death in Rome is probably one of the most interesting stories I've heard. After her death, the Sienese tried to steal her body and return it to Siena, but only managed to make off with her head. So her head, and one of her fingers, are displayed in the San Domenico church in Siena, while the rest of her body is buried in Rome. The preserved head of St. Catherine is displayed in a gilded tabernacle on the altar of a chapel within this huge church. I had prepared myself to see her head, but what I wasn't prepared to see was her finger, in a gold stand that made it look like a fancy birthday candle or something, which was right in front of my face!

For dinner, we wanted to go to Rick Steves' favorite little restaurant, Trattoria La Torre. Our friends had gone there before us and talked about how reasonable and delicious it was; they have the day's freshly-made pasta presented on a table out front as you walk in! When we walked in, however, they told us that the "cucina è chiusa", (the kitchen was closed!) and wouldn't open back up until 7pm. Darn those Italians and their late eating schedules! Our train was leaving at 6pm, so we had to eat at a touristy place, but while we were there we asked the owner what the best thing on his menu was, and he suggested the pici, a Sienese specialty. We were all for Sienese specialties! I hold the firm conviction that the local choice is always going to be the best tasting thing on the menu. Our pasta came out piping hot and delicious! We tried the pici arrabiata, which was like a thickly-rolled spaghetti noodle bathed in tomato sauce with bacon and ginger. It was a strange, but tasty, combination!

Now that we had finally figured out the bus system, it was easy to find our way back to the train! After our little panforte fiasco, Genevieve and I had a taste for some real Valentine's Day chocolates, so we bought each other Baci Perugina at the train station bar. "Baci" in english, means kisses. These are the Italian version of a Hershey's kiss, with a nice fat hazelnut on top. They come in cute little foil wrappers, with a love quote tucked in. My notes read: "Never close your lips to one to whom you have opened your heart" and "The woman does not exist of whose beauty all men shall agree upon".

After a wonderful day exploring Siena, we wound down on the 3hr train ride back to Rome.

Hope you all had a nice Valentine's Day as well!
<3 Alyssa

I've got my first Sketchbook Critique today...I'm not quite sure what's going to happen, but I thought I'd update you on my progress!

1st Attempt- before any classes...just getting a feel for the paper...

2nd Attempt- during my first sketching class ever

3rd Attempt- the prof made me start over...things are a little better in proportion now

4th Attempt- putting things in a little more perspective!

Ciao ad una altra volta!

So today I tried to balance out my posts into something a little more culturally exciting, like Italian Soccer, for sports enthusiasts out there, and something a little more culturally historical, Ancient Roman Art History (yay!), for the history buffs! Please feel free to pick and choose what to read based on your interests!

Today in Art History we did a LOT of walking (in the COLD, blustery air) around Rome's Centro Storico or historical center as we like to say in English. We met up with our professor in the Campo di Fiori, which is a market by day, and a tourist bar hot-spot by night. In olden times, Campo di Fiori was part of the Campus Martius, which was where military legions assembled and disbanded, and where Triumphal Processions (remember those from last post?) began. Campus Martius means "Field of Mars" and Mars was the God of War, so the name was quite fitting for its purpose. The themes we focused on today were the Roman concepts of competition and individualism. By this time in Rome's history, the empire was quickly expanding, and a permanent army was established for these battles. Part of the incentive for joining up with Rome's army was that you would be granted full Roman citizenship at the end of your service. However, you could be a soldier from one of Rome's many conquered territories, serve for 10 years or more, and in that time never even see Rome. Basically, this meant you had less attachment to Rome itself and your allegiance really depended on the General leading you. (this will come into play later...)

Also, since Rome was expanding, it was flooded with all kinds of new ideas from abroad. One thing that Romans were quite fascinated by was the Hellenistic World. This was the empire created by the powerful Greek guy called Alexander the Great. Romans found it amazing that all the land was held under the power of just one man! He was so great that he was worshipped as a God during his own lifetime.

The first example of the combo meal of military success, individual honor, and public benefaction we studied today was the Theatre of Pompey. These Theatre was built as a victory monument after his triple triumph (!) in 61 BC. The theatre itself is no longer standing today, but you can still get an idea of what is was like from the cityscape that remains today. We started our walk in a semi-circular shaped street that was actually where the theatre seating was located.

You can see from this picture how the building is curved. This would have been where the theatre seating began.

Now, this theatre wasn't a theater as we know it, it was a whole complex. It contained a theater, for religious festival use (of course), a grand garden filled with foreign sculptures and artworks captured from abroad, many other small buildings, including a meeting house for the Roman Senate, four ancient Roman temples, and one brand new temple dedicated to Venus Victrix (Victorious Venus). We walked around the area this theatre would have covered, and I'm telling you it would have covered entire city blocks! The place was so huge it could hold 11,000 people in one part alone!

This theatre is not only important because of its grandeur, it's also really important to Roman history, because on March 15, 44 BC Julius Caesar was stabbed to death here by his follow Senators walking up the steps of the portico on his way to the Senate meeting.

The next place we stopped at was Largo Argentina. Largo Argentina is right by the Notre Dame Architecture building, so I've been here a bunch of times but never knew the history behind it! In the middle of Largo Argentina are four Victory Temples.

These temples were discovered when city workers were digging to put in a street for Mussolini. (p.s. This is why it takes forever for anything to get built in Rome; every time someone starts some construction they have to do an archeological excavation!) These are the temples that were incorporated into Pompey's Theatre. I took pictures of the plaques so you can get an idea of the extent of this complex.

From the picture you can see the curved part where the seating starts and all the way out to the Victory Temples, highlighted in red.

This is a diagram of what the Campus Martius area used to look like, before they put in all the bars!

Nobody really knows who built these temples or what they were dedicated to, save for the fact that each one was built at a different period in Rome's history, and that each one was built by a victorious general after his Triumph. So, the temples are labeled A-D. Pompey's Theatre kind of dwarfs these little monuments in comparison! The only thing art historians do know is that the sculpture Fortuna huiusce diei (remember that huge sculpture from last post?) probably was located in Temple C, the round temple, and so this temple was probably dedicated to the goddess Fortuna.

The Round Temple- Temple C

When Pompey incorporated these temples into his complex, he leveled the area with new paving stones so that the area would be unified. Incorporating the temples was a smart move on his part because he was associating himself with Rome's glorious and militarily successful past. As you entered the Theatre, you began with this vision of Rome's victorious past and work through the complex, passing a huge statue of Pompey as you entered the garden, and ending at the new Temple of Venus Victrix, who was Pompey's patron deity. Pompey wanted to lead you to believe that all of Rome's glorious past was leading up to his own great military triumph!

So then Caesar comes along. Caesar competed with Pompey for political and military influence within the city. At one point, the two men tried to team up, so Pompey married Caesar's daughter to form a familial alliance. With this, they created a triumverate with another unimportant guy, and attempted to carve up the power over Rome amongst themselves. Well, both these men were too ambitious to actually share the power, so the began to battle it out, causing Rome to become entrenched in a Civil War that lasted until the end of the 1st cent. Obviously, Caesar won out, and the first thing he did was march over to the Roman Senate (conveniently forgetting to disband his army) and demand that they appoint him Dictator and give him sole magistracy for life. Well, of course, for the first time ever, the Senate agreed, because there was a large army loyal to Caesar, not Rome, waiting outside just in case they didn't cave. (This is the kind of seedy stuff that ended up getting Caesar killed) After being appointed Dictator, Caesar immediately started building impressive stuff to display his power. The best example of this is Caesar's forum:

The temple is on the right hand side of the photo.

It doesn't look like much today, but back in ancient times it was the talk of the town because it rivaled the old Roman Forum. Caesar built his Forum just on the other side of the Capitoline Hill from the other one. Caesar built a temple to Venus Genetrix (Venus the Ancestress) because he liked to think he was descended from the goddess Venus herself. The diagrams reveal that this temple was eerily similar to the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus in the main Forum. Caesar also took it upon himself to build a new Senate House in his Forum to replace the one that burnt down in the old forum. Overall, Caesar's Forum was intended to become the new Roman headquarters.

The last place we learned about today was the Forum of Augustus. Augustus was the nephew of Caesar, and Caesar had adopted him as his legal son. Unfortunately, in plotting Caesar's death, the Senators forgot to choose an alternative ruler to take over. Eventually two replacement guys were found: Mark Antony, a Roman general and statesman, and Augustus, Caesar's adopted son. Augustus became very powerful and did lots of great things for Rome; so many great things in fact, that we'll be discussing him for the next three classes! He built a Forum too, conveniently located right next to dear old Dad's! I don't have any pictures of this forum because it's under construction right now, but during class we visited the Museo dei Fori Imperiali (Imperial Forum Museum) located in Trajan's Markets. This is probably one of Rome's newest and coolest museums because the museum itself is in the markets, which are themselves an ancient Roman monument. The market was like the 1st indoor shopping mall, ever! In the museum, we looked at the statues of Aeneas and Romulus that were located in Augustus' Temple dedicated to Mars in his Forum.

Okay, that's all for today! Arrivederci e buona notte!

p.s. It's supposed to SNOW here on Friday! ARGH! I think Chicago weather followed me to Italy!

Buona sera miei amici!

I hope everyone is doing well back over in the good ol' USA! I just want to tell you a little bit about our Sundays here in Italia. First of all, thanks to my grandma, who has been making me "french pancakes" since I was a little girl when I go to visit her, I have a great crepe recipe that I brought along with me to Italy. Well, in Italy, crepes are almost as popular as pizza and gelato! Instead of going out to a Caffè Bar (coffee bar) to get them, I make them for everyone on Sunday mornings. I cook the crepes, you provide the toppings. So on Sundays, I usually prepare a quadruple batch and lots of people come for breakfast! I've gotten pretty handy with all this crepe making, I can even flip them in the air! (I'll post a video of that later!) Here's a photo of last Sunday's breakfast.

The Traditional Italian Breakfast: on the back left burner we have our espresso in our Moka pot, on the back right, the crepe batter, and on the front left, prosciutto and provolone filled crepes! Usually we're big fans of Nutella and bananas, but we decided to go fancy this time!

Sunday Night Football exists in Italy as well, it's just European Football, which means soccer to us Americans! I had to check out what this whole Italian Soccer Culture was all about (Italians are waaay more fanatic about soccer teams than we are about football teams in the US, hands down!). We got some cheap seats for 17€ from the Tabbacchi (Cigarette Store-you can buy just about anything there...). The game started at about 9pm, and it was held in the Olympic Stadium. I must say, the Olympic Athletic Complex here is kinda impressive, lots of elaborate Roman sculptures depicting classic Olympic Events from the ancient times and all that jazz! That night, Lazio (a Roman team-blue & white), was playing AC Milan (Milan team-red & black). Italian Soccer is divided up into local soccer "clubs". Rome has two: AS Roma & Lazio (Lazio is the region of Italy Rome is in; kind of like Rome's state if Italy were to have states) Every four years, allegiances are put aside to support the National Italian Soccer Team in the competition for the World Cup. Italy was the most recent winner of the World Cup in 2006, and they aren't likely to let you forget it. You can still buy special commemorative "Azzurri" (nickname of the team b/c of their blue-azzurri- uniforms) soccer jersey Nutella jars at the grocery store!

As I was walking up to that stadium along with crowds of people and listening to the music blasting from the stadium speakers, I started to get that old feeling of pregame excitement running through my veins again! It felt like GAME DAY! I knew my 1st Soccer Game was probably a historic event, so I decided to video tape the experience (I'm such a dork!).

I am HORRIBLE at holding the camera still while walking, sorry!

So the stadium only looks about half full, but you have to realize the magnitude of this Stadium; it was built for the Olympics after all, so it's HUGE! Considering this, and that I'm pretty sure it wasn't a crucial game, I still thought there were quite a few people there! What I found pretty awesome is that EVERYONE in the stadium was singing along to the Lazio fight song. You can hear in the video they are singing "Forza Lazio!"

Everyone in our group was excited because David Beckham, the great pop culture icon of soccer, was playing for the AC Milan team. Although technically he's a member of the Los Angeles soccer team now to supposedly bring more attention to the sport in the US, AC Milan paid a lot of money to get him "on loan" for the season from LA! After all the hype I really expected his performance to be more impressive, but I didn't really think he was so stellar. Then again, I really didn't find soccer itself to be so stellar either. In my opinion, American Football is just more exciting than soccer. It's got great plays, and exciting touchdowns, etc... At the soccer game, they left the jumbo-tron playing ads during the whole game, which I found kind of distracting, and there didn't seem to be much action. Perhaps this is because I didn't go to the most exciting match-up, so maybe I'll give it another chance.

Lazio lost pretty horribly. Before we left for the game we looked over a special Italian phrasebook my friend Andrew gave to me that lists all the Italian profanities used at soccer games, and I'm pretty sure I heard them ALL yelled by the men sitting behind me. They were NOT happy about how their team was performing! At the end of the game I'm pretty sure Lazio basically gave up because AC Milan scored 2 more goals on them in the last 10 minutes. Overall the score was AC Milan-3, Lazio-1. Apparently, this is a high scoring game for Italian soccer. Usually there's only 1 or 2 goals made a whole game!

This Sunday afternoon, I decided to go explore the Gianicolo Hill. This area is right by the Vatican, and known for its "breathtaking panoramas of the city". What I loved about Gianicolo is that it is GREEN! There is so much pavement in Rome, and very very little green space. The poor dogs don't even have anywhere to go potty! I'm kind of a nature girl so it was really nice to explore the parks. What I loved the best was the FRESH AIR. I know the air is pretty polluted here, but I didn't quite realize the difference until I got up onto Gianicolo and could really breathe! The guidebooks are right though: there are awesome views of Rome from the top of the hill.

This area is also famous for the statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi. This guy was responsible for the unification of Italy and its liberation from papal rule, pretty important if you ask me!

While I was exploring Gianicolo, I finally discovered the answer to a very puzzling Italian mystery: the case of the confetti! Since we arrived in Italy, we have noticed a fine dusting of brightly-colored and fun-shaped confetti all over the sidewalks wherever you go in Rome! It always seems to be around! Well, finally I found the source of all this confetti: the children! Apparently, every Sunday is like Halloween for little Italian kids. Their parents let them dress-up in costumes and give them BIG BAGS of confetti and let them run wild in the Piazzas. This happens EVERY Sunday. The Piazza di Garibaldi was swarming with little kids throwing confetti, and spraying silly string all over the place. They don't really have playgrounds here, so maybe this is their replacement? I found it totally charming, so I took a bunch of pictures of the little kids having a blast, while trying not to look like some creepy child-stalker person to their parents!

I actually wore a big-girl sized version of this costume for Halloween! I guess I'll always be a kid at heart!

Another cool thing about Gianicolo is that it's sort of situated to the side of the Vatican, so you can see great views of the other side!

I definitely see myself spending a lot more Sunday afternoons hanging out up on the Gianicolo Hill!

Ciao amici!

First of all, I head there were some of you out there who might be interested in seeing some of my sketches. Well, Wednesday in Rome Sketchbook class we went out to the Santa Maria in Trastevere church, which is right by our school. This church is interesting because it may be the very first official Christian church in Rome. It was first built in the 3rd cent. by a Pope, well before the Emperor Constantine even legalized Christianity. We were supposed to work outside in the piazza on perspective, but it started raining, so we ended up going into the church for refuge. It was pitch black in there!

The light you see illuminating the altar isn't even usually on, you have to deposit coins to see it lit up!

But somehow, I managed, and this is what I had by the end of class. Still needs a lot of work, but I'm making progress since last week!

And now...drum-roll please!

Welcome to Art History Class #2! On Thursday, we met our professor at the Musei Capitolini Centrale Montemartini out by the Pyramid in Rome. "What? Pyramids? In Rome?" I know what you're thinking...there was once this rich Roman guy, Gaius Cestius, who was obsessed with the Egyptians and their pyramids (they became a hit after the Cleopatra/Mark Antony thing), so he built a big one his estate and made it his tomb (kinda creepy...).

One of the coolest aspects of the Montemartini Museum is that it is actually a 1932 electric power plant that was reopened as a museum. All of the machinery was refurbished, and you walk around the museum looking at ancient Roman sculpture with generators and cast-iron machinery in the background.

1st we reviewed some important concepts in Ancient Roman culture: one of these is family, and the other is achievement. While we visited these sculptures, we were told to think about the representation of self through family, and the representation of self through achievement.

Our first stop in the Montemartini Museum was an Esquiline Tomb Painting. I couldn't snap a picture for this one, sorry! It dated back from the 3rd century BC and looked a lot like those Egyptian paintings you would find on the inside of a pyramid tomb. The painting itself was quite damaged from age, but you could still see a couple of figures. The most important thing we wondered about this painting was why someone would go to all the trouble of painting this elaborate story on the inside of a tomb? It showed the heroic deeds of the deceased person, and the tomb would be visited by the family. So it was meant to instill a sense of reverence for one's ancestry, and perhaps serve as a role model, inspiring future generations to be as great and heroic.

The second important item in the museum was the statue you see below.

This statue is known as the Barberini Togatus. The statue is from the 1st cent. BC and is made of marble. Marble is a great material for statues like this one because it has a dense, even surface and allows for variations to be made with the texture. In the statue you can see the roughness of the bark on the tree versus the smoothness and polished sheen of the skin on the face. We can tell that the figure in the statue is a Roman citizen, because he is wearing a toga. (Apparently the official "toga" is Roman, not Greek. Greek togas were actually called something else!) The citizen is holding two busts of other people, and seems in a walking pose. From these clues, we can deduce that this citizen is in the process of a Funeral procession. In Ancient Roman times, when you died, someone would make a statue/bust of you, and when someone further down the line passed away, all the "elders" would be brought along to the funeral. Funeral services for affluent citizens were generally held in the Forum, where a speech about the person's heroic deeds would be given for all to hear.

The next thing we looked at were some Reliefs of Freedmen. A freedman was an ex-slave awarded his freedom. This was a really important achievement because with freedom came identity. A slave was a nobody, a thing, a piece of someone else's property, but a freedman was a Roman citizen! These reliefs were often also displayed on tombs. It was an achievement and a virtue to be freed because it symbolized your ability to behave like a "proper Roman" and not a heathen. These reliefs would have only existed on tombs because freedmen did not have the right to display their ancestors in the homes: partially because they were technically the beginning of the legal ancestry.

We went upstairs, and were confronted by a piece of a monumental statue from Largo Argentina (which we'll visit next week).

Another way of expressing your achievement was to erect a monument to the God that helped you get to where you are. This monument represents the god of Fortune and is called Fortuna Houisce Diei (Fortune on this Day). It's important to realize that most of the monuments and temples in Rome were not erected by the Roman State, but were paid for and constructed by individuals. They celebrate the achievements done by individuals on the behalf of Rome. These people made an investment in the city by putting up something pretty to look at, and in return they got the dividends of eternal fame and glory for everyone in their family. A monument to the Gods is an assertion of self-identity, stating, "I am victorious, pious, and favored by the Gods."

Another important object we looked at was the frieze from the Temple of Apollo Medicus Susianus. This frieze depicts a Triumphal Procession, which makes sense because the Apollo Temple is located at the beginning of the Triumph route in Campus Martius.

If you won a big battle, you could apply to the Senate, and if your victory seemed glorious enough, they would award you a Triumph. This Triumphal Procession is like the ticker-tape parade you get for winning the World-Series. The procession involved a display of everything connected to your success. You, the General, get to ride in front in a very snazzy chariot, while all your spoils of war: gold, jewels, slaves, the captured King, and even livestock, were paraded for everyone to see behind you. The triumphal procession weaved through the ENTIRE city, and ended at the top of the Capitoline Hill at the Temple of Jupiter. Romulus was the 1st triumph-winner and his procession lasted an entire 3 DAYS! The triumph was a celebration of the glory of being a Roman and ended at the Temple of Jupiter because it was also a show of thanks to the gods for their benevolent support through the battle. The friezes from this temple depict not only the Triumph but also show the whole story of the battle in glorious battle scenes and the like. On the whole, it gives an impression of ultra-heroism which the Romans liked to associate with themselves.

The last items we looked at were the statues from the pediment of the Temple of Apollo.

The pediment was the triangular, gabled portion of the Temple. These statues are not from Italy, nor are they made of imported marble, per se. The statues were actually heisted from a Greek Temple of Apollo, making a statement about how powerful the Roman Empire was: that they could just go walk in, and take things from other people. But wait, you say, how is it possible that the Greeks and Romans have a Temple of the same God? Well, never fear, sometimes the Greek Gods came over and helped the Romans out in times of plague, etc... That's why this temple's title is Apollo Medicus (healer): they built temples to thank the guy for lending his healing powers to Rome. The statue in the middle is a statue of Athena/Minerva, who was a goddess and protector of the two famous heroes Hercules and Theseus. In this grouping of statues, Hercules and Theseus are battling against two Amazonian female warriors on horses. Interesting fact: nowhere in the whole temple is there even one figure of Sosius the victor. Our professor told us that this was a way of telling about yourself through association. Through all the heroic images, Sosius is identifying himself with the heroes, saying, "I'm just as fabulous and heroic as Hercules was!"

That's all for Class #2, hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about the art and self-representation in Republican Rome!

Dinner Tonight:

Homemade Eggplant Parmesan, yum!