Medieval History
Critic at large about new books on Rome. This season brings a number of new works on Roman history that focus not on the glories of Roman culture but on its notorious brutalities. What if the true meaning of Rome is not justice but injustice, not civilization but institutionalized barbarism? What if, when you look back, you find at the bottom of all its archeological strata not a forum or a palace but a corpse? In ?Rome: Day One? (Princeton; $24.95), the Italian archeologist Andrea Carandini finds exactly that. Tradition assigns this to the year 753 B.C., when Romulus erected the first walls of the so-called Roma Quadrata, or ?square Rome.? Carandini provocatively suggests that this might be more or less true. Romulus did not create Rome out of nothing, he grants, but it is possible that there was a single day, around the middle of the eighth century B.C., when sacred ceremonies were held to transform a collection of settlements into the city of Rome. And the culmination of these ceremonies, Carandini writes, was human sacrifice. How would it change our understanding of Rome and the Roman Empire if we could see the corpse?all the corpses?that provided its foundation?
Click here to read this article from the New Yorker Magazine
- Rome's Lost Empire, Bbc One, Review
Iain Hollingshead reviews Rome's Lost Empire, BBC One's one-off documentary in which Dan Snow uses satellite technology to identify the lost cities, amphitheatres and forts of ancient Rome. Just when you thought television had had its fill of...
- $800-million Ancient Rome Theme Park Planned - In Rome
The wonders of the ancient city of Rome will be re-created as a gigantic theme park a few kilometres from the original monuments, if Gianni Alemanno, the mayor, has his way. The grandiose project is being nicknamed the Disneyland of Ancient Rome or Romaland....
- Romulus And Remus Symbol Of Rome Could Be Medieval Replica
The symbol of Rome ? a bronze she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of the city ? may be a medieval replica rather than a 2,500 year-old Etruscan creation, it was claimed yesterday. The bronze statue, which encapsulates the mythical...
- Ny Man's Possible Michelangelo On Display In Rome
A possible 16th-century Michelangelo painting that hung for years in a local family's home is being displayed in Rome as part of an exhibit of Renaissance art, a development its owner calls a major milestone as he works to have it accepted by the...
- Large Ancient Shipyard Discovered Near Rome
University of Southampton and British School at Rome (BSR) archaeologists, leading an international excavation of Portus ? the ancient port of Rome, believe they have discovered a large Roman shipyard. The team, working with the Italian Archaeological...
Medieval History
The Empire Strikes Back: Rome and us
Click here to read this article from the New Yorker Magazine
- Rome's Lost Empire, Bbc One, Review
Iain Hollingshead reviews Rome's Lost Empire, BBC One's one-off documentary in which Dan Snow uses satellite technology to identify the lost cities, amphitheatres and forts of ancient Rome. Just when you thought television had had its fill of...
- $800-million Ancient Rome Theme Park Planned - In Rome
The wonders of the ancient city of Rome will be re-created as a gigantic theme park a few kilometres from the original monuments, if Gianni Alemanno, the mayor, has his way. The grandiose project is being nicknamed the Disneyland of Ancient Rome or Romaland....
- Romulus And Remus Symbol Of Rome Could Be Medieval Replica
The symbol of Rome ? a bronze she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of the city ? may be a medieval replica rather than a 2,500 year-old Etruscan creation, it was claimed yesterday. The bronze statue, which encapsulates the mythical...
- Ny Man's Possible Michelangelo On Display In Rome
A possible 16th-century Michelangelo painting that hung for years in a local family's home is being displayed in Rome as part of an exhibit of Renaissance art, a development its owner calls a major milestone as he works to have it accepted by the...
- Large Ancient Shipyard Discovered Near Rome
University of Southampton and British School at Rome (BSR) archaeologists, leading an international excavation of Portus ? the ancient port of Rome, believe they have discovered a large Roman shipyard. The team, working with the Italian Archaeological...