Ciao Roma!
We begin another wonderful week in Rome! Today we explored Trajan’s Forum and the Pantheon. Trajan was a military general, and he focused his emperorship on expanding the empire. He led Rome into many wars, all of which were costly. He needed to prove to the Roman people that his wars were worth it, and that his army could accomplish more than just rape women and take food from civilians when they were off-duty. To do this, Trajan built the most magnificent Forum in the middle of Rome. He built the first outdoor shopping center, which pleased the people very much. Deep into the Forum, in front of the Temple of Trajan, Trajan’s Column was erected, most of which still preserved in perfect condition today. Trajan wanted to be remembered forever, so he carved images of his Campaign in Dacia in different drums of the column spiraling up, so people had to circumambulate in order to see all of the scenes. (Walking in circles was common in many rituals.) Many scholars believe that Trajan was buried under the column, which was surely controversial back in the day. It’s interesting that the Catholic church later put St. Peter’s statue on top of the Column!
Our group in front of Trajan's outdoor shopping center!
After seeing Trajan’s Forum, our class moved to the magnificent Pantheon, where Derek gave his presentation. He gave us so much information about this incredible structure, how it was the largest structure of its kind to be built for a millennium; 5000 tons of concrete! Emperor Hadrian who built the Pantheon, and being a Pythagorean scholar, he put much thought into this building, and as a result many perfect numbers are subtly contained in the Pantheon. Few examples include the perfect number 1 represented in the single oculus; the number 5 represented in 5 rows of coffers (because Pythagoreans believed in 5 marriages, a combination of the numbers 2 and 3, with 2 representing the two genders and 3 representing beginning, middle, and end); and the number 28 represented in the 28 coffers of each row (28 days in the lunar calendar). The Pantheon was built truly on Hadrian’s love for math and the perfection of this universe, and Hadrian also used resources from all parts of his empire to show the people the wealth he has acquired, and his destiny-to be the emperor of the great Roman Empire. Roman emperors really knew how to use architecture to win the favors of their people.
We ended the day with a fun Italian lesson with Fede! We all love her :)
-SiJia
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