Pompeii - Basilica

Basilica looking towards tribunal

Pompeii! I have wanted to go to Pompeii since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. I finally got my chance on a rather wet, foggy day in December.

The Basilica in Pompeii was built sometime in the late second early first century BC. From what I have read it started out as a covered market and it was only in the Imperial era (probably under Augustus) that itbecame the city’s law court.

I don’t know whether the center aisle was actually covered or not. There don’t appear to be any windows, but then again not much of the upper wall has remained either. This was really our first stop in Pompeii after the Porta Marina, and the first to really give a glimpse of the really magnificent architecture that existed here before the eruption.

The building is divided into three aisles with the center one being the widest. The columns framing this center aisle were monumental in scale, as were their stumpy ruins. Though like most things in Pompeii they were made out of brick covered with stucco then painted to resemble marble. The truncated columns remaining show that each layer of brickwork was made up of many different brick shapes (diamonds, squares, concave, convex) fitted together to form the fluted columns. Tried to count them all and then realized that each layer also had different sizes as they got taller.

Basilica looking towards forum (the white columns)

The tribunal on the western end of the basilica is a two story affair where the magistrates would mete out justice (or lack of justice). The tribunal was added in the first century AD and the Corinthian columns have a delicate grace that is lacking in the engaged ionic columns on the walls of the structure. Must have been an impressive sight though, especially if you were quaking in your boots waiting to be sentenced, or just told whether you had won your lawsuit.

Directly in front of the tribunal is a rectangular plinth of ruble and brick that still has a few pieces of the marble covering attached. Most of the reconstructions I have seen show this topped off with an equestrian statue of Augustus. Most likely, though it really could have been any one of the Caesars by AD 79.

Up close and personal with the tribunal

Naples - Mount Vesuvius

Not much of a post today, just a super picture of Vesuvius that looks like the mountain is steaming away.

Just the cloud effects though.

This picture was taken from right around the corner from the Palazzo Reale on the Via Console Cesario. Where there is a statue of Julius Caesar or Augustus I can't remember right now. Pretty sure it was Julius Caesar, and smothered in graffiti.

Something that we found odd, everything was smothered in graffiti. 

Rome - December 28, 2011 - Portico of Octavia

Portico of Octavia

Looking back

The Portico of Octavia was just marvelous. It was yet another of those things that I thought I would not see on this trip. This made me very-very happy.

Tucked away just north east of the theatre of Marcellus, and accessed through the same gate off the Via Teatro Marcello. I only walked over there because I saw something shiny. Glad that I did, because I also got a great view of the Synagogue on the river as well.

The Portico of Octavia is mentioned in Pliny’s Natural History. More than just a "portico" in the modern sense; this was actually an arcaded walk built by Augustus in honor of his sister Octavia (yup the poor woman that married Mark Anthony...and we all know how that played out...the Battle of Actium, and the suicide of the last Pharaoh of Egypt (Cleopatra VII) and..well Mark Anthony...). Sort of like a public park or meeting place but not as formal as the basilicas in the forum, the ruins indicate that it was a rather pleasing piece of architecture.

Inside the Portico of Octavia

It has been molested over time but the recent excavations have shown, to the vast quantity of fish bones found, that in the middles ages it was used as a fish market. The walks built over the excavations reminded me of the little neighborhoods in Venice that are always so appealing and picturesque.

The church that one enters right off the portico is actually dedicated to fishmongers.

Just west of here, viewable from the approach to the Theatre of Marcellus and right in the heart of Roman Jewish Ghetto the monumental synagogue on the river. I believe it is nineteenth century? However, I could be wrong.

Synagogue, theatre of Marcellus on the left

Rome - December 28, 2011 - Palatine

Palatine Palace, bit...

The Palatine hill had been the residence of the wealthy and well to do of Rome since the earliest days of the republic (about 500 B.C.E), however it was when Augustus became Romes first emperor that it really came into its own.

The house of Augustus became the Palace of Tiberius, which became the much enlarged Flavian Palace, and then the massive Palace of Septimius Severus. By which time the palace had grown so large that the hill had to be extended on great supporting arches.

Much of the supporting arches are visible and rather well preserved as well as a section of aqueduct that ran across the sidewalk on the Via di San Gregorio. I like arches, and I don't care what Freud had to say about it.

Aqueduct...why was I staring into the sun?

Rome - December 28, 2011 - Ara Pacis

Inside Ara Pacis

Ara Pacis Museum

Ara Pacis from the north

Ara Pacis. One of the things that I did not actually expect to have time to visit, but we did. The altar was commissioned by the senate of Rome and dedicated to the Augustinian peace. It is quite an amazing piece of sculpture and luckily was buried under the silt of the Tiber for centuries. Dug out on Mussolini’s orders in the 1930’s it now has a new museum which I thought was a rather nice airy building. Perfect for seeing the exquisitely worked marble.

The long sides of the altar enclosure have an incomparable array of imperial portraits. While gods and goddesses frolic on the front and back, oh and people sacrifice pigs.

A scale model shows the the altar in its original location near the sundial that had the obelisk nomen that is now in front of the Palazzo Montecitorio. I mentioned that in an earlier post.  

There was also an exhibit on the photography of war, a rather depressing subject at the best of times. Extremely moving, extremely morbid and horrifically striking. Though I suppose that was supposed to be the point.

Some dude outside the Ara Pacis listening to the audio guide

Rome - December 28, 2011 - Tomb of Augustus

Mausoleum of Augustus

Leaving the Piazza del Popolo we headed south along the via del Ripetta with the hopes of catching a glimpse of the Mausoleum of Augustus. Which we did. Not really as impressive as the mausoleum of Hadrian, but still the final resting place of the first emperor of Rome. Eventually the tomb would be ransacked and ashes dumped out. So who knows, might still be there ground into the dirt.

Like it’s later and more inspiring mausoleum of Hadrian the tomb was turned into a fortress in the middle ages. The fortifications were torn down at a later date leaving this sort of stumpy tumulus hidden behind a fence.

In its heyday two granite obelisks flanked the entrance. One is now up behind Santa Maria Maggiore and the other is in front of the Quirinale Palace.