Campidoglio - 1 - An Ancient Alarm System

The Campidoglio, despite not being the the place of the most ancient Roman settlements, is the most sacred of the Seven Hills of Rome. Home to the temples dedicated to the most revered among the Gods, and the destination of the Triumphs, which saw here the highest point of the celebration, it is also the setting for one of the most famous legends of ancient Rome, one of those who manage merging history and legend with a blurred border, and which is one of those who contributed the most to the building of the Roman national pride.

The occasion was the Gaul invasion of 390 B.C., when the Roman garrison was defeated, and the few citizens who decided not to flee Rome retired atop the sacred hill as their last stand. 


The Romans were resisting well, despite being outnumbered by the enemies, but help was desperately needed: messengers were sent to recall to Rome the Army commander Marcus Furius Camillus. The general was temporarily exiled in the coast town of Ardea, due to his anti-democratic political positions, but promptly organized forces to go to the rescue of his compatriots. The messenger, however was followed by the Gauls on his was back to the Campidoglio, thus revealing a way to break into the Roman fortifications. Armed with this piece of intelligence, The Gauls made their attempt at night, while the defending Romans were sleeping, feeling safe on top of the hill, catching them unprepared for the defense. 


Here the Romans' devotion to the Gods paid off: the Geese who lived in Juno's temple, and who were spared despite the food shortage as they were sacred to the Goddess, started making so much noise that they woke up the defenders. The Romans, led by the former Consul Marcus Manlius, managed to hold on until the arrive of the Army from Ardea. For his bravery, Marcus Manlius acquired the prestigious "Cognomen" of Capitolinus. Here the legend merges with that of Furius Camillus vs. the Brennus the Gaul, to which I will dedicate a new post soon. Stay tuned! :)

Isola Tiberina - 1 - The Legend of Rome's Island

The Tiber only has one island in the urban section of its course: it's a small accumulation of alluvional sediments, and despite being far smaller than the similar one on the river Seine in Paris, it's still  packed with story, legends, mysteries and interesting aspects. This first post is about its legendary origin.

The legend about the origin of the island, called in Latin Insula Tiberina or Insula Tiberis (Tiber's Island), dates back to the 6th Century B.C.: Historical records of the uprising of the Roman people against the last of the Seven Kings, the Etruscan Tarquinius Superbus (Tarquinius the Proud) have it that the people, angried by the heavy taxes imposed by the King, dumped the wheat havested in the Campus Martius (of Royal property) in the river, and that this impressive mass of grain and hay formed the inital core of the island. 


This event, dating back to the year 510 B.C. is clearly legendary, but it's mostly probable that, in the last year of the Roman Monarchy (the Roman Republic was founded the following year, 509 B.C.) many actions of this kind took place in Rome as sign of rebellion against the King, who symbolized the domination of a foreign population and culture: the Etruscan one, more ancient and with extremely interesting and mysterious aspects, which filled the center of the Italian peninsula with beautiful tombs, marvelous golden artifacts, and refined structures such as temples, aqueducts and sewers. 

The "Magic Gate" - Gold Available to the Skillful Code-breaker

In one of the corners of the park inside the central Roman square of Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II (familiarly called "Piazza Vittorio" by the Romans), amid the mix of market stalls, traffic noise, the international atmosphere of the shops run by Chinese and Indian people, and the old late 19th Century buildings, and people rushing everywhere, standing there quietly there is a riddle made of stone, awaiting a skillful code-breaker to solve it.


The gate is what remains of the former palace of the Marquise Palombara, who built it in the second half of 17 Century, and which has been demolished to build today's Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II. 

The Marquise Palombara, who was interested in Alchemy, and who was one of the alchemists of the Palazzo Riario (currently home to the Accademia dei Lincei, the world's most ancient scientific academy), the most illustrious of which was Queen Christina of Sweden, who moved to Rome and  who studied alchemy, having been influenced by the great mathematician and scientist Cartesius, who was her teacher when she was young. We know from the ancient reports that he had his palace on the Esquilino hill built with symbols related to Alchemy.


The legend has it that the Magic Gate was built after a mysterious pilgrim was hosted in the villa for one night, and that, the following morning, he disappeared leaving behind some gold leaves and a sheet of paper explaining the secret to perform an achemcal transmutation. Bring unable to interpret what was written in symbols on the paper, the Marquise decided to have those symbols engraved on the Gate (according to some historians, on all of the 5 gates of the villa, 4 or which were lost) hoping that someone could decipher it.


So the Porta Magica is still standing there, awaiting the skillful code-breaker who can discover the secret to create gold. 

Ancient Superstitions - The Number 17

Unlike most countries around the world, in Italy the unlucky number is 17, not 13. This superstition has a story that traces back to ancient Rome, and refers to 2 specifical facts:


- The number 17 in Roman numbers is written as XVII (X=10 + V=5 + I=1 + I=1, Total = 17). Mixing up the letters, the only Latin word that can be formed is: VIXI, perfect tense of the verb VIVO (to live), which means "I used to live" and thus "I'm dead". 


- 17th Legion of the Roman Army was totally destroyed during the disastrous defeat suffered by the Romans in 9 AD in the German woods near the town of Teutoburg. The legion, at the command of the Consul Quintilius Varus was ambushed by the local troops, and, overpowered by the enemy, caught by surprise and stuck in the muddy soil, was exterminated to the last man. The defeat had such a great effect on Roman people that Legion no. 17 was never reformed, and number 17 became an infamous number, and it stayed as a symbol of bad omen.


The bad luck reputation of number 17 survived until today, to the point that in many contexts  in Italy  no.17 is skipped (or replaced by 16/B), and even on Alitalia flights, there is no row 17. 

Sol Invictus - The Festivity Before Christmas

December 25th has always been a special day, since the ancient times. Several traditions overlap  on this day: the oldest one started in the year 272 AD, when Emperor Aurelianus imported from Syria, whose legendary Queen Zenobia was defeated during the same year,  the worship of the Sun, which was widely practiced in that area of the world. The Emperor ordered the construction of a new temple on the Quirinal Hill, which was inaugurated on December 25th, 274 AD, giving officiality to this new kind of worship.
From that year on, Dec. 25th was a sacred day, namely "Dies Natalis Solis Invictus" (Day of Birth of the Invincible Sun). 

This celebration also overlaps with another "Sol Invictus" celebration, that was related to the fact that, despite the Solsitce of Winter in on December 21st, only on the 25th the first visible signs of improvement of the daylight length, and of the height of the sun over the horizon start appearing. 


Only at the end of the 4th century AD, when the celebration of Christmas started officially (the Edict of Theodosius of 380 AD banned all worships other than Christianity), the day of December 25th, after several centuries was turned from a late Pagan festivity into one of the most sacred days for Christianity.


Merry Christmas everybody!
  

Santa Maria Maggiore - 2 - The World's Most Ancient Crib

The ancient Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore has more to offer beside the wonderful mosaics, the Cosmatesque floors and a legendary history, it also keeps a little hidden treasure. 

In the underground museum, accessible from the first door on the right hand side of the Basilica, beside a small treasure made of precious objects for the celebrations, like chandeliers, books and gold-embroidered clothes, in a niche in the wall stands a group of small statues, made of white marble, about 50-60 cm (2 ft) tall. The little statues, which resulted from examining by the experts to have been detached former high reliefs (two of the Magi Kings are still attached to a special backdrop made of painted marble), while the rear sides of the figures are made of a much coarser craftsmanship compared the the rest of the works. 

It is also interesting to note how St. Mary's Statue has a very different style from the other characters: at a closer glance, it looks like a Renaissance artwork; this is partially true, because the statue has been modified in the 16th Century, possibly to repair some damage suffered by the artwork, as proved by closer examination of the faces of the 2 characters, whose imperfection shows that is not a brand new sculpture, but a modification of a pre-existent one.

This artwork, made by the famous Florentine sculptor Arnolfo di Cambio in 1291 AD, is considered to be the first "non-live" Crib (Nativity Scene), after that the custom of the Crib was ontroduced by San Francesco from Assisi, earlier in the same 13th Century, using real people and live animals to make the Nativity Scene. 


Related Link: http://viewsofrome.blogspot.com/2011/08/miracle-of-snow-birth-of-basilica.html

Campo de' Fiori - A Marketplace & A Nightlife Venue in the Shade of G. Bruno

Campo de' Fiori is a very unique square in Rome: surrounded by the simple elegance of Piazza Farnese, by the discreet Piazza della Cancelleria, near Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, which is like a bead linking many pearls (from Largo di Torre Argentina to the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, and ending to the Lungotevere) and not far from the majestic Piazza Navona, Campo de' Fiori is a break in the elegance and monumentality of the surroundings, to leave room for a simpler, more lively space for the city, a space made available to the people.  


The square takes its name (which translates as "Field of the Flowers") from the fact that for the whole Middle Age it was an unpaved area, where still grass and flowers grew freely. 

In the 16th-17th Centuries the square, which has the special feature of being the only major square of Rome's center not having any church, was used mainly as a venue for corporal punishments and capital executions. The most famous of these executions took place on February 17th, 1600, when the philosopher and Dominican monk Giordano Bruno, author of many books on philosophy, religion and politics, was burnt at the stake on charge of heresy. The statue, built over 2 centuries later, represents Giordano Bruno, dressed in his monk's robe, holding his most famous works in his hands, and looking with angry eyes in the direction of the Vatican.


Nowadays the square has two different lives: in the morning it's home to one of the liveliest and most traditional Roman markets, which has recently integrated its offer range of traditional local products with spices and other exotic goods, while at night it becomes one of the focal points of Rome's nightlife, given the high concentration of bars, pubs & restaurants, and unfortunately also the stage for some episodes of violence. 


This double nature and the history of this square definitely make it one of the favorites for anyone who loves to have a taste of Rome's everyday (and every night...) life.