Those readers planning to be in Rome in 2009 may be interested to know about a special exhibit currently being held in the Colosseum and Forum and on the Palatine Hill. Assembled in honor of the 2000th anniversary of the birth of the Roman Emperor Vespasian, who was born on 17 November in the year 9 AD (Put that on your calendar and start looking for Colosseum cupcakes for the party.)
The exhibit celebrates Vespasian, but also his sons Titus and Domitian, who, like their father, ruled Rome in the second half of the first century AD. Following the suicide of Nero in AD 68, an event that marked the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty’s rule of the Roman Empire, and a struggle for control over Rome and its territories, Vespasian was crowned emperor by the Roman army while fighting the bloody Jewish Wars. He returned to Rome triumphant and along with major achievements in Roman law, is best known for having built the Colosseum in AD 70-80.
Most of the objects documenting the life and achievements of Vespasian and his sons are on display in the Colosseum, though organizers of the exhibit have made an effort to fold those monuments built by the three Flavian emperors into the mostra by providing a special audioguide that allows visitors to move from the Colosseum exhibit, through the Forum, and across the Palatine to see the Arch of Titus, the Flavian Palace,
the Temple of Vespasian and the Temple of Peace, all the while learning about the achievements of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian.
Admittedly, we don’t much like this new-ish trend of hosting special exhibits in the Colosseum (too crowded, too much chaos to allow one to really concentrate) and the exhibit as a whole is a bit hard to follow while navigating Rome’s ancient landscape. Nonetheless, we are thrilled that organizers saw fit to display portraits of the Flavian emperors–some colossal–in the Curia or Senate House in the Roman Forum.
Usually off-limits to visitors, the display of these portraits (most have been brought to Rome from the Naples Archaeological Museum, having been found in Pompeii and Herculaueum, as Titus was the reigning emperor when Vesuvius erupted and destroyed those cities), the exhibit offers a fabulous opportunity to get into Senate House.
Not only are visitors enjoying the chance to examine the visages of Titus and Vespasian up-close and in-person, but the staging of a part of the exhibit in the Curia allows one to admire the beautiful inlaid marble or opus sectile pavement and the Plutei of Trajan, two huge marble reliefs showing the Emperor Trajan performing such grandiose deeds as the institution of the alimenta, a charitable organization for orphans, and destruction of tax records, a gesture of fiscal pardon.
For more information about the Flavian Exhibit, properly titled The Divine Vespasian, visit the Comune di Roma website.
