The Column of Marcus Aurelius

The Column of Marcus Aurelius 

I was tasked with creating a presentation to inform my classmates on the Column of Marcus Aurelius and I dutifully obliged...eventually. Unfortunately I did all of my research on a classmates computer and I threw my notes in the garbage at a Pizza joint across the street from the column.

The first thing you need to know about the column is that it is large, incredibly large. The capitol block on the Column of Marcus Aurelius weighs an astounding 79 tons. The total height of the colum is 130 feet, 100 feet for the shaft, and a 30 foot base

To understand the importance of the column, it is important, first, to get a background on Marcus Aurelius himself. He was born into an affluent house, his grandfather was serving his second term as consul as well as being a prefect of Rome when Marcus was born. In addition to that, his aunt on his father's side was married to Antonius Pius, whom Marcus would eventually succeed. His grandmother on his mother's side was heiress to one of the largest Roman fortunes. 

Marcus was put into every position to become emperor, in 136, Hadrian announced his successor, Lucius Ceionius Commodus. In that same year, Marcus became engaged to Ceionia Fabia, Commodus' daughter. In 138, however, Commodus died, and after the death of Hadrian, the engagement was annulled. Antonius Pius was eventually adopted by Hadrian before his death, and it was arranged that Antonius Pius adopt Marcus.

Marcus was marked as future joint emperor at the age of 17, though he would not rule until he was 40. He worked beside Antonius, learning the ins and outs of the government, as well as filling public positions. He served as consul multiple times, in the years 140, 145, and 161, the last of which he was consul with his adoptive brother Lucius Verus. It is in 161 as well that Antonius Pius passed away, and Marcus became emperor, and Lucius was made co emperor.

Their reign immediately saw conflict, in 161 the Parthians invaded, and Verus commanded Romes armies in the following war. in 166 Rome saw victory, however, the returning armies brought home a plague that damaged the empire. Shortly after, Marcus and Verus set out on an expedition seeking to strengthen the empire, however, German tribes immediately invaded. The empire, being weakened, sold off imperial property to found their army. The Germans were being fought well, but in 169 Verus died. 3 years of conflict saw resolution to the fighting.

Marcus named his 16 year old son, Commodus, Joint Emperor in 177, and together they went to war looking to expand Rome's northern territories. In the year 180, Marcus Aurelius passed away in his military headquarters.

 The creation of the column was in honor of Marcus, and to celebrate his military victories. We know that the column was completed by 193, when Adrastus, the procurator of the column, requested the bricks and building materials of the sheds and other buildings that were put up around the column during its construction for the purpose of building himself a house behind it. The column was built with 31 blocks of marble, 10 blocks form the pedestal, 19 form the column, one on top of the capital, and one had been atop that to provide support for the statue, but was missing by the 16th century. the drums of the colum are 5 1/4 Roman feet tall and contain 4 steps (risers)

Much of the Pedestal is buried, and the frieze that had been on it has long since faded away, and been replaced with an inscription by the church. The original frieze showed two barbarians kneeling and offering themselves to the emperor, and is a symbol of submission. 

The helical frieze is over 200 feet in length and is broken into 116 units. The first scene included in the frieze is copied directly from Trajan's column. Beyond this, most scenes are relating to Marcus' wars, though the only scene that can be derived from history is the "Rain Miracle", which still doesn't match the stories told. 

The carvings of the frieze are often considered "messy" thought that can be attributed to a change in Roman carving. Most of the figures have disproportionately large heads, to show details of emotions, and the carvings are much deeper into the column.

The column was ordered to be restored by pope Sixtus V in 1589. In addition to restoration, a bronze statue of the apostle St. Paul was placed on the top platform. (to go with the placement of St. Peter atop Trajan's column) In addition, where the original pedestal relief was, is now a carving that states:

Sixtus V, High Priest

restored this spiral column,

dedicated to the emperor Antonius,

sadly broken and ruinous,

into its original form.

1589, 4th year of his pontificate.

Blog entry #2

Blog Entry #2 I am getting to this entry a bit late, both in terms of when I should have entered it, and for the fact that I am writing about a trip that was days ago. Keeping that in mind, you should see why my information may be a little...vague.
The Day I am going to be sharing with you is June 9th, when the class traveled to Ostia, which was a Roman port city on the mouth of the Tiber.

On arrival in Ostia we were surprised to find the city fairly well intact. This could be properly portrayed to you through many of the pictures that I definitely did take, but unfortunately I still have no way to upload them onto a computer. The first example of well preserved structures that we were brought to were 'medianum' which were apartments from the Hadrianic period. The thing I found most interesting about these buildings, although potentially boring to the history buff, was their size. The examples that we got to see were approximately 1600 square feet, and the average size was 2000 square feet. To explain, a modern 2000 square foot house can, fairly easily, provide 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a 2 stall garage. You can see examples of floor plans for houses this size here
After looking at the apartments, we traveled to the Barracks of the Vigiles. This is the area that housed the fire-fighters which were a Roman Cohort (1/10 of a legion). The thing I found most intriguing wasn't the structure itself, but the idea of fire-fighters being part of the Roman military. I still have trouble imagining the intricacies of the Roman societal structure, or any ancient societal structure for that matter. I even find the incentive of providing the vigiles with free grain supplied by the emperor after 3 years of service to be fascinating. No matter how long I am in Rome, I will be unable to comprehend the ancient society, and will be baffled by it at almost every turn. Just as I cannot comprehend how, now, people are content with throwing their garbage on the streets and parking cars in crosswalks and on curbs when they know they are going to get hit regardless. Seriously though, every car here has dents in it.

First class day in Rome

Welcome to my blog. Here I will share with you what I experience in my study abroad trip to Rome.

I suppose it is necessary to provide you a light background of my program, as well as my hopes for what to gain from this experience, given that this is my first blog entry.

I am in a program called From the Caesars to the Saints: Walking Ancient Rome. The point of this program is to visit and learn about the remnants of ancient roman society, while simultaneously having the modern Italian experience. Aside from this, I personally aim to gain additional experience in an environment that I would consider outside of my comfort zone.

The point of this blog is to provide and communicate my experience of the ancient world to you, so, unfortunately, information on my consumption of large quantities of Italian food and gelato will be absent.

The first site that the class traveled to was the Circus Maximus, which was a massive roman chariot racing stadium. The circus was supposedly laid out in the valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills by the kings of the 6th century BCE. To fully grasp its size, by the time of its completion, the circus could hold 250,000 people. The Circus Maximus now serves as a public park, which was made surprisingly clear to us as people began running around the track. This is in stark contrast with the Roman Forum, which was our second destination.

The Roman Forum was essentially ancient Rome's downtown area. It was a space for everything from political assemblies to public funerals. The forum was filled with many monuments and other buildings such as the Curia, Basilica Julia, and the temples of Castor and Vesta. With the amount of information that could be gained researching the Roman Forum, you would be better off looking into it on your own than reading a simple blog entry. What I noticed most, however, was that the Forum was treated the opposite of how the Circus Maximus was. Everything was marked off with handrails, and people were kept away from the monuments. This might seem an obvious thing to do, given that the Circus Maximus is a dirt oval, whereas the Roman Forum is made up of buildings that are gradually deteriorating, but it made me wonder about history. What do we preserve, how do we preserve it, and why?