Get Ready for Rome

The famous Roman Historian Tacitus is critical of a Roman emperor and of the Roman people for their enthusiasm for the gladiatorial games held in Roman amphitheaters. We here explore his reasons, which turn out to be very different from those of modern critics of the Romans' cruelty.

We previously looked at the Colosseum as a major and impressive work of ancient architecture, and then reviewed the events the Romans staged in it. Today we raise the difficult but essential question of whether and how we can and should judge the Romans for their bloody games. Can one culture ever judge another, should the Romans be condemned on humanitarian grounds, are the games even more deserv...

Today we return to Garibaldi's statue on the Janiculum Hill and review the events that are summarized in the bronze sculpture group on the front of the statue. They represent Luciano Manara and the battle to save the Roman Republic of 1849. But what was this Republic, and what became of it?

We begin with the total destruction of the Old St. Peter's and then visit the center of the Renaissance and Baroque Basilica that replaced it. We find there the Confessio , the high altar, and Bernini's soaring Baldacchino . Surrounding these central elements Bernini placed four huge statues and four associated relics, and nearby he situated a massive "Chair of St. Peter," so important as a defens...

We've discussed the Colosseum as a building, but we have not yet explored the ways the Romans put it to use. Today look at the three main activities staged in Roman Amphitheaters around the Empire, animal hunts, prisoner executions, and gladiatorial combat. We'll also consider their history and the reasons they were important for the actual and aspiring leaders of Ancient Rome.

Pope Francis recently inaugurated a new statue in Piazza San Pietro, the first new statue there in four centuries. Called Angels Unawares , it calls attention to the plight of refugees and migrants and summons us to the virtue of charity. What, I wonder, is its relation to the piazza in which it has been placed? Does it duplicate the aesthetic judgment of Bernini's baroque piazza? Does it summon u...

Of the Four Founders of Modern Italy, Giuseppe Garibaldi lived the most colorful life and—at least on the field of battle—made the greatest contribution to the new nation. He fought tirelessly for freedom for four decades, not only in Italy but also in South America and France. He was so dynamic a leader as to attract followers ready to fight to the death, the so-called Red Shirts or Garibaldini,...

I here preview four different podcasts I'm working on at the moment. The most pressing is on Garibaldi, and I hope to have it ready to go by December 8, but it is challenging, for his life was so full of action and his political views were so pleasing to the people but so annoying to the New Italian government. A second is simpler and is on the new statue in St. Peter's Square, called Angels Unawa...

After 1200 years , the first Roman basilica dedicated to St. Peter was torn down, and then began the slow process of building a new one on the same location. We discuss why it took so long to build the basilica, what the main features of its beautiful piazza are, and how it differed from that of the old one.

Today we glance at why the Flavian Emperors may have built the Colosseum and how they put themselves in a position to do so. What did such vast public works projects have to do with the rise and fall of Roman Emperors?

This podcast discusses the Colosseum as a building, including its overall shape, the huge awning that protected the spectators from the hot Roman sun, the foundations needed to support it, and its decorative elements. Our next episode will take up the kind of events that were staged in it.

Although its exterior is utterly devoid of Christian symbols, the Monument to King Victor Emmanuel II has a Christian chapel deep within it. Why is it there, and how does its message relate to that of the monument's neoclassical exterior?

Modern Italy's largest, most expensive, and most eye-catching monument goes most often by its nickname, the Wedding Cake. It is huge, bright white, and covered with a wide variety of allegorical statues. This podcast finds in these statues Italy's intention to break away from the long traditions of Christian Rome, while at the same time reviving Italian pride, unity, and dedication by evoking the...

Ancient Rome had, and Christian Rome still has, lots of buildings called "basilicas." But this important word is used in two senses. So just what is a basilica? This pod explains both the architectural and ecclesiastical senses of the term.

We here survey and introduce the main sites of Vatican City and Saint Peter's Basilica. These include the Sistine Chapel, the Raphael Rooms, and other parts of the Vatican Museums; the Vatican Necropolis, an ancient cemetery in which St. Peter may have been buried; the Vatican Gardens; the Apostolic Palace; and the Grottoes, main floor, and dome of St. Peters.

Where did the Flavian Dynasty get the resources needed to build the Colosseum? The sorry condition in which Nero had left Rome and epigraphical evidence suggests it had to have come from the looting of Jerusalem and its Jewish Temple. This event is celebrated on the Arch of Titus, just uphill from the Colosseum. The crucial but difficult question is how to judge the Romans for their imperialistic...

This first of four pods on the Colosseum offers a general overview of the structure, including its architecture and the materials used to build it. We also consider why the Flavian Dynasty of Emperors chose to build it where they did, right where there had been a beautiful water feature of Nero's sprawling "Golden House." We raise but do not yet address the question of what to think about those wh...

The art in Rome's churches and museums includes many characters with halos and many without clothes, but these two groups rarely overlap. This pod first encourages visitors to Rome to observe when and where we see halos on the one hand and nudes on the other. It then draws on examples from the Galleria Borghese and Sistine Chapel to suggest that in the Renaissance, we see many fewer halos and many...

Italy was not unified until 1860, and even then it lacked Rome, which remained under papal rule until 20 September 1870. Why did the supporters of the Risorgimento want to change Rome, and how did they do so? We here prepare to visit the monuments of Modern Italy by learning a little more about the main failures and success of the Risorgimento and the contributions of Garibaldi and Cavour.  

We here observe several places in Rome that offer dramatic evidence of how much ground level has changed over Rome's long history. Doing so deepens our understanding of how much time has passed since antiquity, of how transient some human achievements are, of how depopulated Rome became during the Middle Ages, and of how much we need to use our mind's eye if we are to going to see Ancient Rome wel...

This pod presents a quick overview of how Rome changed after it became Christian, both in its prevailing art and architecture and in its soul. It notes that at the same time as official Christianity took over Rome in the fourth century, there was a precipitous decline in Rome's prominence, wealth, population, security, and political order. Rome then became a city of churches and of fortifications...

Rome is home to Pasquino and five other "Talking Statues," which are exceeding popular with tour guides. For the last three centuries of Papal Rule in Rome, the statues were used like social media bulletin boards, but with anonymous postings pinned up at night. They were often witty and irreverent toward the established authorities, and what is more delightful than irreverence toward authorities w...

This pod introduces the features that most identify Ancient Rome, especially in her differences from Christian and Modern Rome. These include the extent of her empire, her long-lasting rule, her ability to turn human beings into citizens, her reception and imitation of Greek culture, and her pagan intermixing of politics and religion.  

When you feel like a break from the hubbub of Rome, the Castelli Romani offer several good options. Today we make our first visit to Castelgandolfo, which is one of the dozen hill towns known collectively as the Castelli. Among its claims our attention are these: It sits on rim above a beautiful crater lake. It is the site of Alba Longa, and this is the very ancient town from which Rome descended,...

Cities are distinguished by their geographical location, but I here use historical and cultural differences to divide Rome into three radically different cities. Doing so helps to organize Rome's many sites and the art we see at them and makes them participants in fascinating theological and ideological quarrels. This episode explains this approach and begins to identify the differences of opinion...