Lunch at the Tomb of Priscilla

Following a strict chronological narrative the next post in my "History in one place" narrative should be the Church of Quo Vadis, which I discussed earlier.  I went over and had a quick peek at this while my travel companions were deciding on lunch options. They considered a snack bar that was doing a busy trade versus a little restaurant which looked cool and shady.  Cool and shady won out.

I am not going to do a real restaurant review because I suspect we did not catch Trattoria Da Priscilla at their best.  Dining in Italy - especially for dinner but to some extent for lunch - is intended to be a relaxed, extended experience.  As Via Appia day got underway the whole area was getting crowded.  In one of the few useful applications of my Italian language abilities it became clear that if you saw a table available and asked for it in Italian you got seated.  Those who asked in English....none available.

Lunch was pretty good.  I won't hold against them that glass of vino della casa that we ordered and never got.  We were perhaps a bit impatient to get on our way as the day was slipping away.

But Trattoria Da Priscilla gets a big plus mark, maybe an entire star, for having as its back wall a small section of the ancient Tomb of Priscilla!

Lets just go around the back for a closer look.  (Note, this is often not possible, we'll get to opening hours in a later post)

The Trattoria is on the right.  This is fairly impressive, but what are we actually seeing here?

Lets rewind chronologically first and have a look at an engraving from 1756.  This by the way is incorrectly identified by the artist, a Mr. Piranesi, as being the Tomb of the Scipios...

I am not sure if this is from the same side or the opposite in my photo.  The tomb has been knocked about a great deal and Piranesi seems to have altered the scale a bit. Note the difference in ground level.

The tomb is generally felt to be that of Priscilla, wife of Titus Flavius Abascanto, a freedman of the Emperor Domitian.  The contemporary poet Statius describes the elaborate preparations for her funeral and gives a rough location of the tomb.  An inscription said to have been found nearby is additional evidence.

What grabs your attention first is of course the central tower.  This is actually a much later construction.  Like so many other ancient buildings this was converted into a medieval watch tower using whatever old and new stones were available.  The actual tomb was two concentric cylinder the inner one having 13 niches for statuary.  

Here is the view walking around inside the inner cylinder.  The tower is indeed an architectural mess.  I assume the entry door is where the bricks can be seen above. There was a little opening to peek into on this.  My photo shows not hidden mysterious structures, just what looks like some lawn furniture covered with sheets.

The actual burial chamber is below our feet here.  It is descibed as a barrel vault that can be entered via a passage from one of the adjacent buildings (I am betting the Trattoria).  It is, or was, lined with travertine blocks and contained niches for three sarcophogi.

In recent times the burial chamber has been used to age cheeses!

A Gate in the Aurelian Walls - Our Second Stop

Our Western societies are in many ways based on the Roman Republic.  Or if you are in a more cynical mood, upon the later Empire.  But in either case we instinctively relate to Rome when we look at our own times and circumstances.  This can be misleading.  My initial thoughts when considering the Aurelian Walls were along the lines of our current debate on the role of immigration and on the building of literal walls.

But that does not seem to be very close.  The Aurelian Walls were built quickly and in response to an unimaginable catastrophe...hostile armies approaching Rome!  This had not happened for centuries.  So perhaps the better analogy would be the ring of fortifications that sprang up around Washington DC at the beginning of the American Civil War.

When L. Domitis Aurelianus was proclaimed Emperor by his troops in 270 AD you have to wonder if he was very happy about it. The Empire was a mess.  The Persians were ascendant in the East, having in fact captured the Emperor Valerian a generation earlier and supposedly keeping him alive as a human footstool!  Since then it was all rebellions, barbarian incursions, plagues and short lived Emperors who were raised up by their troops then in short order assassinated.  Repeat.

Things were so grim that Aurelianus decided to put a defensive wall around Rome.  He pulled it off in just five years - actually it was finished after he himself was assassinated - and it is in places sloppy work.  Existing buildings were incorporated into it.  Any kind of building material from grand to gritty was just tossed right in.  But darn it all his Wall worked.  It was still standing tall three centuries later during the interminable Gothic Wars that accelerated the Decline and Fall so abruptly.

Lets visit one of the main gates of the Aurelian Wall, the one that opens onto the Appian Way.

Porta San Sebastiano.  This is one of the largest and best preserved of the Aurelian Wall gates.  That makes sense as the Appian Way was not only the most famous "road leading to Rome" it was a major transportation artery as well.  The gate looks to have been built in various phases and that is exactly correct.  Aurelian and his crash program of 270-275 built a double passageway gate in a set of walls that corresponds to the lower segment of the above structure.  Maxentius, an Emperor who does not get the credit he deserves*, renovated and improved it. Even Honorius, that decidedly lesser ruler of the late, decaying Western Empire did some very effective upgrades, basically doubling the height of the entire twelve mile course of the Walls while reducing the openings to more defensible single lanes.  And of course Belisarius, one of history's truly great Generals, added additional features during the Gothic wars.  In medieval times and up into the modern era the gate had both defensive and commercial functions...it was a toll collection site for those wanting to enter the Eternal City.

The last real defensive use of the walls was actually in 1870 when the Bersaglieri breached the walls on their way to capturing Rome, ending the temporal power of the Pope, and bringing about the Reunification of Italy.**

Note the banner that says: Museo della Mura.  This is the Museum of the Walls.  It was open when we were there, and gives a nice sense of perspective on the structure.

But first lets see the Gate as we did, coming out from the City.

The first thing you encounter is the so called "Arch of Drusus".  This was a support for a now vanished aqueduct that served the nearby Baths of Caracalla. It was simply incorporated into the defensive system.  The actual gate can be seen beyond. Walls connected the two structures creating an enclosed courtyard that would have been a very uncomfortable place for any barbarians who had managed to sneak through the first gate.

Here is the arch from the other side, looking back towards Rome.  As you can see there are a bunch of somewhat barbaric looking people milling about. As this was "Via Appia" day there were large crowds of locals on hand.  Booths and tents for various causes were set up.

Here a bunch of kids are having fun on an obstacle course set up in the courtyard.

Of course it was necessary to go up the stairs into the gate.  Here on a platform actually right over the Appian Way a re-enactor is giving an impassioned speech about the duties of the Roman Soldier.  It was a little hard to follow but I did pick up "Punto gladius", which is at the point of the gladius, a type of short sword.

Looking out from the top of the tower you can see that the walls still remain an imposing barrier.  It would take more than a short sword to do battle along this defensive front.

Looking out over our route for the next phase of the trip.  The Appian Way continues onward.

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* Maxentius was a very energetic Emperor, a towering figure compared to some earlier or later ones.  But he was the Pagan Emperor defeated by Constantine at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.  The Church wrote most of the history of those times.  Constantine turned Christian and was dubbed "The Great".  Maxentius is largely a footnote.

** Oh, there was also a battle of sorts in 1943.  We'll get to that another day.

Tomb of the Scipios - First Stop

Note:  Our May trip to Rome and environs was in part an attempt to spend a bit more time at places that eluded us on the first trip.  Sometimes things were not open. Sometimes we lacked sufficient time.  A few I had not heard of previously.

I am going to organize things in a "History in a Place" format in which I group together places worth visiting that are geographically close enough to take in on a single day or part of same.  Rome is a daunting city, spread out, chaotic, even intimidating at certain times and in certain places.  You don't want to plot our a zig zag route across it.

I will try to spend an entire week on one area.  Sometimes this will be the usual M-W-F posting schedule, sometimes more often. At the end of each series I will put together some very specific advice, things like transportation options, places where food, drink and bathrooms can be located, etc.

First up, a return to The Appian Way.

The Queen of Roads as it has been called, exits Rome and heads south east.  It is in some sections very well preserved and on our last trip we did a bike tour that went down it a ways.  Then we had no chance to stop and browse, so its back for another visit.

The first little stretch of Via Appia is quite tranquil.

So relaxing in fact that I rode past our first stop.  But just a little past it I halted to examine this.  I  just love funky, medieval looking old doors.

But what's the name plate say?  The translation is a bit sketchy but it seems to say "Entrance to the Colombarium is at number 14 Via Di Porta Latina".  So this appears to be the "back door" not to the Tomb of the Scipios, but to another even cooler one, the Columbarium of Pomponio Hylas.  Alas, this was not on our agenda for the day.  

The sharp eyed will note that an apparently abandoned back door to a 1st century AD tomb still gets junk mail in the slot!

Back up a hundred yards and we were at the Tomb of the Scipios just as the tour was starting.  Note that this was a special "Via Appia" day in which many rarely open sites could be visited.  But you had to have reserved a time for your tour which was a bit of a logistic challenge when it was impossible to predict how long various stages of the journey would actually take.

The Tomb of the Scipios is the final resting place for members of the Scipio family, a quite prominent bunch in Republican Rome. Of course the one Scipio many of us have heard about, Scipio Africanus, is buried elsewhere.

It was in active use from the 3rd Century BC up into the 1st Century AD.  After that it was a known location - sort of a local attraction - until the later Empire.  After the advent of Christianity interest in pagan burial sites vanished.

The site was found and "lost" several times, with a fair amount of looting along the way. 

What can be seen today are the rock cut tombs that represent the earlier use, and a later columbarium, yes, another one, that was used for cremation urns.  This mode of burial was in vogue for lesser members of Roman society such as freed slaves. A few photos.  Sorry about the quality, it was blazing bright sun outside and dim, tomb like lighting inside.  

Around the side there are the openings to the earlier tombs.  This site has had excellent conservation work.

Still a bit of the original paint job!

In the oldest chamber of the tomb was the sarcophagus of L. Cornelius Scipio.  He was consul in 298 BC.  I say was in the past tense, the original has been taken to the Vatican museum and replaced with a replica.

Here' the real thing.

And here is the columbarium.  Fun but minimally useful fact.  The name comes from the Latin for pigeon.  Niches of this sort look a great deal like the little places carved out for pigeons in the larger chambers created by folks who kept the birds for food. In fact sometimes in archaeological sites it is hard to tell if a columbarium was for birds or for the ashes of their owners! We will be seeing a few more of these, of both types, in our journeys.

All for now.  I will be covering a range of Appian Way sites this week.  On Friday I will wrap things up and give my suggestions for places to hit or miss, and advice on how to see as much as you can in this ridiculously history rich stretch of road.

Three Roman Ships

We were a little bit lost.

It was our first day in Rome and we had rented bikes to ride out on the Appian Way. The bike place had sketched out a route that they recommended we take.  I thought we would do better by a different route.*  My travel companions were rightly skeptical. So I went on ahead to scout.  And found myself on Via della Navicella, which means "Street of the Little Ship".

And sure enough, there it was.

Its not all that little really.  And I found it a bit puzzling.  It looked old, but not quite "Roman Old", if you know what I mean.  Here is a close up.

The wild boar snout on the front also looked a bit anachronistic.  So, what's the story?

Supposedly near this site in Roman times stood a special barracks for sailors, the Castrum Misenatum.  So, what use were sailors in Rome?  Well, they had the job of operating the velarium, which were huge sail like sun screens at the Colosseum. If you know where to look on the site of same you can still see mooring sites for the big masts.

By "tradition" the sailors kept a ship model that they would carry around as a votive item, seeking divine protection for their lives, ever at risk of wave and storm. Supposedly fragments of this were found in the early 16th Century near the Basilica of Santa Maria in Domnica, which you see in the back ground of the first photo.  When the fragments then went missing Pope Leo X commissioned a copy that was placed in front of the church circa 1518.   Only in Rome can something look rather "new" but still be almost as old as the discovery of the New World!  
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We were getting tired of Rome.  It was hot and noisy.  So when we arrived in Tivoli it was with a sigh of relief that we found a delightful, unspoiled little town.  More on that in a bit.

One of the sites of Tivoli is the Villa d'Este.  The palace and its marvelous gardens are a UNESCO World Heritage site and well worth the visit.  

The artwork is 16th Century of course, but I was amused to encounter this:

This is one element of The Fountain of Rometta.  Other aspects include the She Wolf with twins you can see behind in this photo, and a rather damaged panorama sculpture of historic buildings in Rome.  This specific element is not really trying to show an Obelisk Ship - which would not of course carry its cargo upright (!), but rather is a fanciful depiction of Tiber Island.
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We were running late.  We had a train to catch but just enough time to duck into the museum inside the Baths of Diocletian.  Expecting a quick visit we found way more than we had time for.  Running from hall to hall looking at Roman stuff galore we only had time to stop and peek at the cooler stuff.  Like this:

A Roman column base shaped like a ship.  Note the wild beast at the bow...perhaps the Navicella statue was not a complete 16th century fabrication after all.
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* A few days later when also a little bit lost we discovered that my initial instincts had been correct, and that Via Della Navicella would have led us to our destination without that harrowing ride past the Tourist Hell of the Colosseum!

A Provisional Obituary

It is with considerable Trepidation that the Editorial Staff of the Times finds itself obligated to publish an Obituary for the late Badger Trowelsworthy, Earl of Pint Bottom and holder of the unique title "Dude of the British Empire".

The Times rarely publishes a second such announcement and in our entire history this appears to be the lone instance in which we are publishing a third one.  To put it plainly Lord Trowelsworthy's two prior "deaths" having been subsequently proven to be successful efforts to swindle investors and insurance companies we have Grave Misgivings in this matter.

But the circumstances are as they are.

Lord Trowelsworthy was last seen in mid May trudging across a dry and desolate landscape with a mattock over his shoulder.  When his expected return was not forthcoming his loyal retainers instituted an immediate search of all drinking establishments in a twenty mile radius. 

By the time Civil Order was restored several days had passed, and Lord Trowelsworthy being constitutionally indisposed to Temperance the Coroner had no choice but to issue a verdict of "presumed deceased, cause: Thirst".

It is of course customary in articles of this nature to recount in detail the salient features of the Departed's Life.  In this effort The Times is in no small way hindered by the fact that essentially all documents relating to Badger Trowelsworthy have on careful study been proven to be fraudulent.  Oddly, many of the forged documents are not at all the clumsy efforts they look to be at first glance.  No, for reasons impossible to fathom they are actually finely crafted work done by forgers at the pinnacle of their devious profession, who have in fact been commissioned to produce superb fakes of crude documents!

Among the "facts" that can be dismissed out of hand are his purported birth date of 1910 and the names of his parents Vicount Busby Smyth-Smyth and Consuela the Bar Maid. There is on the other hand some evidence to support his recent residence in Arsuk, Greenland, if only the six cases of contraband whale meat found in his rooms in Northumberland.

Of his activities in recent years much could be said.  But The Times is not that sort of publication.  In proper circles there is still considerable rancor over the matter of Lord Trowelsworthy's "fixing" of the Alamagordo Cup, a scandal from which the once illustrious sport of Armadillo racing shows no prospect of recovery.

Lord Trowelsworthy is survived by his puzzled widow and by an indeterminate number of jubilant ex-wives.  None of them will be quoted on the record, either on the advice of counsel or by their flagrant violation of the rules by which decorum is maintained in these pages.

In a surprise move Timothy Wolter, a retired physician living in a rustic province of the United States, has been designated as Lord Trowelsworthy's literary executor and personal representative.  Although also loathe to speak on the record Doctor Wolter made no effort to deny reports now in circulation that the Trowelsworthy Will has been read, and that it consists of several hundred pages of esoteric puzzles that are designed to keep distant relatives Biff and Otteria Trowelsworthy vexed and impecunious for the foreseeable future.  His widow Babs on the other hand is said to be recieving regular remuneration from sources unknown, with the express requirement that she spend them conspicuously.

We conclude this Obituary with the same skepticism with which we began it, by expressing as we see them the appropriate sentiments for such an occasion.

Badger Trowelsworthy

1910 - 2017

R.I.P.

(Residing in Paraguay?)

Decloaking

I have been blogging for six years or so, and on Facebook for about half that time. Essentially in this and all internet activities I have written under one or another pseudonyms, or "nom de cursors" as I like to call them.

This was not for any reasons nefarious.  But rather for reasons of a pragmatic nature.

When practicing medicine, especially in a setting such as the ER, it is just not ideal to have total transparency.  I mean, if the patients out in the waiting room are wondering why it is taking so long to be seen, would you really want them to Google up your name and find pictures of you lounging about in a pub with a pint of ale?

No, I thought not.

But I am now officially retired.  Whatever professional reputation I had in that prior life is now practically past the point where significant burnishing or tarnishing is likely. I was good at what I did.  Not perfect of course, nobody ever is, but I worked hard, I cared about the patients, and I always tried to do the right thing.

And in a non professional life it does not matter if people think I am eccentric.  I rather enjoy it in fact.

So, away with the pseudonyms.  I will keep the Dagmar Suarez email for communication but I am going to see if Tacitus2 and Badger Trowelsworthy* can have an offical name change to the more correct, if less colorful moniker that I have carried around for lo these many decades.

For those who know me only from Detritus of Empire allow me to introduce myself.

Hi, I'm Tim Wolter.

*Badger Trowelsworthy was a pseudonym that took on enough life of its own that the old boy deserves a proper send off.  It is forthcoming......

Adventures in Air Travel - Spring of 2017

Ah, flying places.  You never quite know what to expect.  There always seems to be a random element to it, this airport waves you through with a smile, that one picks your baggage apart to scrutinize your deodorant.  But it is still the Modern Magic Carpet that can pick you up in one part of the world and whisk you to another....with drinks in flight!

Lately there have been several high profile cases of passengers being handled roughly by airline staff.  In each instance there were extenuating circumstances.  It seems in general that it is crabby, disagreeable people who get themselves into difficult situations.  While this is understandable it is not an excuse.  The airlines and airport staff are trained quite specifically to deal with just this sort of situation and person, as cheerful and cooperative passengers are not the source of many issues.

So, in the aftermath of the United Airlines fiasco, what was the state of air travel in April and May of 2017?

Scene One.  A perfect trans Atlantic flight.  I had an empty seat next to me and the opportunity to stretch out and snooze.  An arrival sans jet lag, truly a modern miracle.

Scene Two.  Last time I went there Italian border control was a shuffling, milling mass of crabby humanity all waiting for a bored official to apply an entry stamp.  He chatted with his equally non useful colleague and did not even look at people.  Forty five wasted minutes.  This time?  Five minutes and through.  They still did not care a whit but at least they kept things moving.

Scene Three.  We got to our departure gate early for our return transAt flight.  This allowed us time for a bite of lunch and we sat across the way from our actual gate. There an ongoing drama was playing out.

The central figure was a stocky woman wearing a babushka style head scarf.  She was hoppin' mad about something, frequently gesturing at a KLM employee and shaking her fist.  At one point she spit on the floor.  The number of officials in the area increased quickly.  In addition to the two regular KLM/airport ladies there soon arrived: 3 guys in white shirts who donned yellow SECURITY vests and put on gloves. Also, a red uniformed airport official who directed bystanders elsewhere.  Finally, I think it was after the spitting part, four husky guys in deep blue uniforms that said KONILLIJKE MARECHAUSSE turned up.  My Dutch is sketchy so I thought this was the Royal Marines but in fact it was the Royal Constabulary, a fairly serious bunch who are the national police. I find this mildly disappointing, its a better story with Marines.

I give all concerned credit.  One of the "Marines" sat down and talked quietly with her for fifteen minutes.  Then the entire bunch - by now there were 8 or 9 officials involved - escorted her elsewhere.  Later discussing it with other passengers it seems that she was insistent on being arrested and taken to jail.  No doubt a story could be concocted to explain all this but it would be less plausible and less sad than whatever reality was on display there.

Scene Four.  Homeward Bound.  The guy behind us had his leg out in the aisle when the drinkie cart came through.  It bumped into him.  He yelled:  OWW!!!
The attendant of course was apologetic and said the obvious, that it was an accident. The boorish passenger replied in a voice loud enough for the entire airplane to hear: "Everything is an accident.  Even our birth!!!"

It is a good thing that our destination was near.  This guy kept carping at everyone and everything the rest of the way, in between pointing out that we were flying over the rather tony suburb that was his home.  My wife and I both made a point of telling the flight attendants that they had done well.  And this was even before they credited our account with some extra frequent flyer miles.  The official reason for this was that my in flight movie screen had not worked properly but I suspect the proximity of the crabby flyer made them a bit quicker and more liberal with this little "perk".

So what does it all mean?

I think it just means that more people of all sorts are flying.  Air fares are down a bit due to lower fuel costs, and at least Americans are enjoying a swell exchange rate these days.  More pleasant, cooperative travelers.  Also more people with psychological or neurological issues.  Also more garden variety jerks.

Maybe the favorable press on behalf of people who have been forcibly "de-planed" has emboldened some of the latter.  You hear stories of people just plopping down in a first class seat and pretty much daring the stewardesses types to make an issue of it. But for sure the jerks and the impaired are still a tiny fraction of the air traveling public.  Its just such a shame that in confined spaces one such can be heard and experienced by so many.