Understanding Rome Podcast

A Podcast about Rome. Episode 15: The Domus Tiberiana

In September this year the structures long referred to as the Domus Tiberiana reopened to the public for the first time since 1970. They once formed a spectacular facade overlooking the Roman Forum, straddling an existing Roman road, and in fact dating not to the reign of Tiberius (as was believed when it was given the name, which stuck) but instead to the reigns of Nero, Domitian, and Hadrian. It’s a fabulously intriguing space, and offers a coherent and exciting connexion between the Palatine Hill and the Forum. It’s also great in my line of work offering another route through the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo; after all rule number one in tour guide school is never retrace your steps. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit understandingrome.substack.com/subscribe

A Podcast about Rome. Episode 14. Paranoia and Porphyry: Domitian and the Domus Flavia on the Palatine Hill

When visiting the ruins of the imperial palaces on the bucolic and ever-glorious Palatine Hill—possibly my favourite place in the world—today much of what we see is the complex as it was rebuilt by Domitian. He was terrified of being murdered by a conspiracy, and that was exactly what happened, amid the halls and fountain courtyards once gleaming with materials quarried and mined across the Empire. In this episode I quote both Suetonius and Statius. The translations I’ve used are respectively Rolfe, Loeb, 1914, and Slater, Clarendon Press, 1908. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit understandingrome.substack.com/subscribe

A Podcast about Rome. Episode 13: The Arch of Titus

Last time I spoke of the Flavian Amphitheatre, subsequently and more commonly known as the Colosseum in this free episode. The Flavian Amphitheatre was begun by the Emperor Vespasian and sponsored by the treasures looted during the Sack of Jerusalem by his son Titus. Soon after he oversaw the inauguration of the Amphitheatre as emperor of Rome, Titus died. Eleven years had passed since he had sacked Jerusalem, destroying its Temple, as general. After his death and deification a posthumous triumphal arch was erected in his honour, a monument which still has a profound resonance in Jewish culture. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit understandingrome.substack.com/subscribe

A Podcast About Rome. Episode 12: The Colosseum.

The Flavian Amphitheatre is undoubtedly one of the most famous buildings in the world, and an extraordinary manifestation of the control exercised by the Roman Empire over the citizenry. As Juvenal spat with disdain: “…for the [Roman] People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions, everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses” (Satires, Satire X)If grain imported from Egypt and Sicily kept Roman bellies from rumbling, then public entertainments gave Roman souls a state of jingoistic superiority whilst reminding them at every turn of the power of the Empire. The Flavian Amphitheatre, better known as the Colosseum, was a wildly cynical machine for maintaining a docile population through horrific violence. It was also an incredibly efficient structure for getting people in and out quickly and without the brawls that could see revolution lurking at every turn. As a building for managing large numbers of people it worked so well that it remains the prototype of every sports stadium you’ve ever been to. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit understandingrome.substack.com/subscribe

A Podcast About Rome. Episode 11: Nero's Golden House.

This is more an illustrated podcast (or a narrated selection of photographs) because there were just too many good images to choose from.In his life of Nero Suetonius tells us:“There was nothing however in which [Nero] was more ruinously prodigal than in building. He made a palace extending all the way from the Palatine to the Esquiline, which at first he called the House of Passage [Domus Transitoria], but when it was burned shortly after its completion and rebuilt, the Golden House [Domus Aurea].”The vast palace complex of the Domus Aurea was the work, according to Pliny, of the architects Severus and Celer and made use of land cleared by the great fire of 64 CE (the one in which Nero is said to have fiddled while Rome burned). It occupied all or part of three of the seven hills of Rome. Trajan subsequently obliterated all memory of Nero, and used the pavilion on the Colle Oppio as ready-made foundations for his new public bath complex.In the late fifteenth century artists began to explore the “grottoes” below the Baths of Trajan, and emulate the decorations they found. The results can be found all over Italy, but also from Mexico to London and most places in between.To visit the Domus Aurea one joins an internally organised tour. Presently open Fri-Sun, information and booking here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit understandingrome.substack.com/subscribe