Lateran district: Close by the aqueduct built by the emperor Nero to supply his Golden House with water is a tomb in the shape of a house. It dates from the 1st Century BCE and bears the images of three freed slaves. Their names, Statilii, indicate that they had been slaves to the family of the notorious wife of the emperor Claudius, Messalina. Servants of families often pooled resources to build a dignified tomb as a common resting place.
Contrast the rough carving with the exquisite work visible at the Ara Pacis (see other images in this set). Even in this work, the individuality of the three former slaves, two men and one woman, is visible.
The preservation of this 2000 year-old monument is less that perfect! I have taken this shot through a chain-link fence and at maximum zoom.
Tags: Rome Roma Leica D-LUX Rome May 2008 May 2008 Italy Statilii tomb freedmen 1st Century BCE PD655#05
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see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Res_Gestae_Divi_Augusti for detail
This version of the Res Gestae Divi Augtusti (the achievements of the divine Augustus) appears as a series of panels on the building housing the Ara Pacis in Rome, itself built in honour of the Emperor Augustus during his lifetime. These panels, however, were put there by Mussolini in the 1930's to emphasize the connection between imperial Rome and his own goals for Fascist Italy.
Interestingly, the original Res Gestae, written by Augustus himself, were inscribed on brass columns in front of his mausoleum (adjacent to the current site of the Ara Pacis) and contain a record of his achievements. He justifies his actions in bringing to an end the civil wars which racked Rome and culminated in the assassination of Julius Caesar and ultimately, Augustus' defeat of Anthony and Cleopatra at the battle of Actium.
The visible text translates as
In my nineteenth year, on my own initiative and at my own expense, I raised an army with which I set free the state, which was oppressed by the domination of a faction. For that reason, the senate enrolled me in its order by laudatory resolutions, when Gaius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius were consuls assigning me the place of a consul in the giving of opinions, and gave me the imperium. With me as propraetor, it ordered me, together with the consuls, to take care lest any detriment befall the state. But the people made me consul in the same year, when the consuls each perished in battle, and they made me a triumvir for the settling of the state.
I drove the men who slaughtered my father into exile with a legal order, punishing their crime, and afterwards, when they waged war on the state, I conquered them in two battles... and so on.
No false modesty then? Spin or what...
The full text can be found here www.romansonline.com/Src_Frame.asp?DocID=aug_Bk01_01
Tags: Rome 2008 Ara Pacis altar of peace Leica D-LUX details Res Gestae Rome Roma Italy Roman Augustus
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see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ara_Pacis
Tags: Rome Roma Leica D-LUX Rome May 2008 May 2008 Italy
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Tags: Rome Roma Leica D-LUX Rome May 2008 May 2008 Italy
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Wet Thursday morning in the Piazza Venezia
Tags: Rome Roma Rome May 2008 rain Leica D-LUX Picnik
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