The mention of looted columns reminded me of the Great Mosque of Cordoba. Its famous double tiered arcades were purely pragmatic height creating compromise as a result of the local Roman and Visigothic columns not being tall enough for the large interior space.
At least, that was the case when the mosque was built in the 8th century. When the mosque was expanded [0] on several occasions over the next few centuries they made sure to commission new copies of the columns. Why? So they could build double arcades just like Abd al-Rahman I. A pragmatic solution copied not out of pragmatism, but in order to claim legitimacy through aesthetic continuation (much like every neoclassical building ever).
[0] Friday mosques traditionally have to have enough capacity to contain the entire Muslim population for the Friday prayer, so as the city grows so must the mosque.
> When archaeologists opened up the under layer, they found a Madonna, probably 8th century, which then decayed before their eyes (horror!) due to exposure to the air.
There is a scene of this in Frederico Fellinniās Roma if anyone has patience for a 2 hour long comedic dramatic film in which the main character of the film is Rome itself
Vatican Fashion Show - Federico Fellini (Roma)
I read this article in 2013 and made sure to visit that multi-layered church when in Rome in 2014. Well worth the visit and so easy to miss.
(2013) And obviously the project has been quietly discarded and forgotten.
I met Ignazio Marino once, liked him a lot, and been following his short stint as mayor of Rome.
Unfortunately for him, the back-then Prime Minister, Renzi, decided to drop support for him, pushed by many interest groups (some say even the roman mafia), angry at Marino for wanting to disrupt old balances of power.
A pity. He would have done great things for Rome.
I had a chance to speak to Marino when he came to give a talk about bioethics at my PhD institution. He was a very smart man - but he made several mistakes.
For example - he made up a ridiculous story about being invited by the pope to attend a march in Philadelphia, which quickly got exposed as a lie. He was also completely unable to handle the local Roman political players / senior civil servants (who, granted, are hideously corrupt and have been running things for their own self dealings with left governments, center governments, far right governments, and 5 star governments (whatever they are)).
> Unfortunately for him, the back-then Prime Minister, Renzi, decided to drop support for him
I think this narrative has spread too much and has become one of those lies that repeated indefinitely become truths.
Marino had a problem: he wasn't a long time memmber of PD (Democratic Party) of Rome, they had another candidate but Marino beat him at the primaries and became mayor of Rome.
So they started the war against him.
Renzi simply acknowledged that the roman PD was a nest of vipers and put a commissar (Orfini) to handle the transition.
But it wasn't Renzi that created Mafia capitale where members of PD were involved with bipartisan criminals of Rome (like Tassoni in Ostia that was in bed with the gipsy-mob family Spada)
I'm also talking about corruption, years after it's clear that Renzi was right when che tried to reset the roman PD, his fault was not being able to actually clean the house
https://roma.repubblica.it/cronaca/2021/04/10/news/scandalo_...
(sorry, Italian only)
Also, Marino wasn't loved by romans because he had radicals ideas about modernizing the city and romans are generally resistant to changes and also because he made some bad communication mistake.
I'm telling this as a roman who campaigned for Marino, voted for him and was happy having him as mayor.
I don't think that my statement about Renzi is in conflict with your explanation. I summarized it as "drop support for him", and avoided a longer explanation.
I am roughly in agreement with your longer explanation. And, by the way: thanks for your work with his campaign; I wish he stayed and enacted these reforms.
Wait, do you mean that Suburra is based on real characters?
Excellent post, thank you.
I was curious how the deconstruction of the Via dei Fori Imperiali was going since then. https://romeonrome.com/2015/02/the-life-and-death-of-via-dei... was the best I found.
I live in Rome, so I can give a bit of feedback on it. The road has been turned to pedestrian-only since August 2013 by the mayor Marino. It has been like that ever since. There is currently no plan for deconstruction, and the future of the road is still up to debate. I think it makes for a very nice walk in the heart of Rome, with plenty of space for tourists to wonder around without being cramped.
Thanks! Anything in English about the latest twists and turns for the debate? Is that new metro now open?
Interesting read. The Basilica of San Clemente, which the author spends some time describing, was the basis for the fictional "Basilica di San Tommaso" in Ngaio Marsh's 1970 novel "When in Rome" -- a nice read for those who enjoy the murder mystery genre, history and archaeology.
> Via dei Fori Imperiali, a grand boulevard running along the Forum and around the Capitoline, which Mussolini built so he could have processions, and to declare to the world how sure he was that no one would care about the Roman relics he was paving over
My guide in Rome, historian and avid city explorer, told me, that Mussolini wanted to extend might and glory of Ancient Rome into XX century, not to made it obsolete and forgotten. One of the purposes of Via dei Fori Imperiali was for him to have a view of Colosseum from the balcony of Palazzo Venezia, where he used to deliver his speeches.
Exactly. I don't remember Mussolini being someone who would pave over Roman stuff. Maybe medieval Roman stuff, but not ancient stuff.
This is one of the best read I had in a long time. Too bad the pictures are not in higher definition.
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