Apartments in Rome

This starts with tlie three HALLS OF MODERN POMPS with the lists of magistrates of the city from 1640 onwards and a collection of herms and busts.

After these rooms, the Gallery of Orti Lamiani contains the sculptures found in the Lamiani gardens on the Esquiline. Of particular interest are a seated figure of a Girl, an Hellenistic work dating from the second century B. C., and a Centaur’s head, probably an original from the second school of Pergamus. In the centre there is the Venus of the Esquiline, dating from the end of the Republic.

The HALL OF MAGISTRATES takes its name from two statues of Magistrates conducting the opening ceremonies of the Games in the Circus, dating from the beginning of the fourth century. Then there are the two HALLS OF THE ARCHAIC MONUMENTS, with an original Greek lion’s head dating from the first half of the fifth century B.C. and an lonic funeral stele dating from the end of the sixth century B.C., the latter perhaps originating in Southern Italy.

The two HALLS OF CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS contain inscriptions, epigraphs, sarcophagi and sculptures, including the head of a Byzantine empress, believed to be Amalasunta, daughter of Theodoricus, King of the Goths, which probably dates from the end of the fifth or beginning of the sixth century A.C.

The HALL OF THE FIREPLACE, built from ancient remains, contains Greek vases and antefixes tram Capua, dating from the sixth and the third centuries B.C.

The two CASTELLANI HALLS contain the Castellani collection, which was given to the city in 1867. In the centre of the first room there is the Capitoline Tensa (Roman ritual carriage for statues of the Gods). This is a reconstruction of a carriage with reliefs on bronze plaques depicting episodes of the Trojan cycle (third century); drinking bowl of Aristonothos with a representation of Plysses and Poliphemus trom the seventh century B.C.

In the HALL Of THE BRONZES there are the remains of the colossal statue of Costanzo Il: the head, a hand and the orb. There is also a statuette of a Lar dancing with a rhyton (drinking horn) in hand (first century A.C.) and a funeral bed from Amiternum inlaid with silver ornamentation (first century A.C.).

Finally the HALL OF THE ORTI MECENAZIANI contains sculptures from the gardens of Maecenas: a fighting Hercules, from an originai by Lysippus; a hanging Marsia, one of the best copies of the originai from the school of Rhodes (second first century B.C.); a relief with a dancing Maenad, a Roman copy by Callimacus.

The NEW WING contains the sculptures which have been discovered in the most recent excavations and some remains from the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, which, according to tradition, goes back to Tarquinius Priscus; this covered the area of the New Wing, the New Museum and the adjoining garden; it had three cells and had been decorated by Vulca di Veio.

In ROOM Ione should note the fragment of a fresco from a tomb from the Esquiline of the third century B.C., the earliest known Roman painting of a historical subject. ROOMS II and III contain architectural decorations and Roman portraits.

A Greek original from the fifth century B.C. Apollo the archer from the Temple of Apollo Sosianus, is on view in ROOM IV with an excellent copy of the Aristogeiton, a statue belonging to the group of Tyrannicides by Kritios and Nesiotes (fifth century B.C.).

ROOMS V and VI contain reliefs and friezes. Worth mentioning in ROOM VII are the fragments of the frieze which decorated the celi of the Temple of Jupiter Sosianus, figuring a triumphal procession.

Tags: Aristogeiton, Callimacus, Museum of Palazzo dei Conservatori, Tarquinius Priscus

(Via dei Fori Imperiali. open: weekdays and holidays 9-13. from Spring to Autumn 9-19, closed Mondays). Situated in a valley between the Palatine, the Capitoline and the Esquiline hills, the area was originally a mos: inhospitable zone, swampy and unhealthy, until surprisingly modern reclama­tion work was carried out by the king Tarquinius Priscus, who provided the area with a highly developed drainage system (Cloaca Maxima). Once this complex reclamation work was linished, the Roman Forum became a piace lor trade and barter. Numerous shops and a large square known as the marke­square were built and a zone was set apart lor public ceremonies. It was here that the magistrates were elected, the traditional religious holidays were kep: and those charged with various crimes were judged by a real court organiza­tion. After the Punic wars, thanks to the extraordinary development of the city, the urban labric of the Forum took on a new look. As early as the 2nd century B.C., various basilicas - Porcia, Sempronia, and Aemilia - were built the temples of the Castors and of Concordia were rebuilt, and the network of roads connecting the Forum to the quarters of the city continued to grow. Af­ter various transformations under the emperor Augustus, the Roman Forum became so large as to be considered the secular, religious and commercial center of the city. After a period in which secular and political interests cen­tered on other parts of the city, the Roman Forum reacquired its originai pres­tige under Maxentius and Constantine who ordered the construction of the Temple of Romulus and the great Basilica of Constantine. With the decadence of the Roman Empire, the splendid venerable structures of the Forum were se­verely damaged by the Barbarian invasions, especially the Goths (A.D. 410) and the Vandals (A.D. 455). The Roman Forum meanwhile became a place of worship for the early Christians who built the Churches of SS. Sergio e Bacco (on the Via Sacra), of S. Adriano (on the Curia), SS. Cosma e Damiano (Tempie of Peace). As time passed, the Forum was completely abandoned. What was left of the antique monuments was used by the people or demolished. During the Middle Ages the Forum became a pasture for sheep and cattle (hence its name of Campo Vaccino). For many centuries the prestige of the Roman Fo­rum was a thing of the past. Not until the early 20th century was there a sys­tematic re-evaluation of the area with excavation campaigns which lasted for various decades and which brought back to light the splendid evidence of the Rome of the kings as well as that of the republic and the empire.

Tags: Capitoline, Cloaca Maxima, Constantine, Esquiline, Goths, Hills of Rome, Maxentius, Roman Empire, Roman Forum, Tarquinius Priscus, Vandals