This week's all day field trip was to some very early Roman sites at a few places north of the city. Our first stop was Tusculum, where we saw the 13 (maybe 14 or 15...they recently excavated some more) alters, as well as the alleged tomb of Aeneas (first picture below), which was definitely not actually the tomb of Aeneas, but probably a wealthy Etruscan from the 8th or 7th c BC. It was still kind of exciting.
In the field nearby were the remains of a this little medieval church, which is completely unrelated, but I thought it was cool.
Our next stop was Nemi. We went to the ship musesum, where we saw a few small remains and some reconstructions of ships thought to be the luxury ships of Caligula. Unfortunately the ships themselves, which were excavated from the nearby lake under Mussolini, were destroyed during in 1944 in WWII. We then climbed up a hill to the temple of Diana, shown below. (This is only one wall of it). It dates back to maybe the 8th c BC, but it became a Latin sanctuary in about 500 BC. The presiding priest was called the Rex Nemorensis. Apparently, if you wanted to take over as the Rex, you had to find the sacred branch, and use it to kill the existing Rex Nemorensis. Ironically, the temple is in a grove, so I wasn't sure which tree was the sacred one.
Next was Tusculum. We climbed up a steep hill to a site where a lot of wealthy Romans had villas, including Cicero. Despite the wind and fog, the view was amazing. The little house-looking structure is a Christian shrine. I'm not sure what the other lump of rocks is.
The view.
More view!
In the field nearby were the remains of a this little medieval church, which is completely unrelated, but I thought it was cool.
Our next stop was Nemi. We went to the ship musesum, where we saw a few small remains and some reconstructions of ships thought to be the luxury ships of Caligula. Unfortunately the ships themselves, which were excavated from the nearby lake under Mussolini, were destroyed during in 1944 in WWII. We then climbed up a hill to the temple of Diana, shown below. (This is only one wall of it). It dates back to maybe the 8th c BC, but it became a Latin sanctuary in about 500 BC. The presiding priest was called the Rex Nemorensis. Apparently, if you wanted to take over as the Rex, you had to find the sacred branch, and use it to kill the existing Rex Nemorensis. Ironically, the temple is in a grove, so I wasn't sure which tree was the sacred one.
Next was Tusculum. We climbed up a steep hill to a site where a lot of wealthy Romans had villas, including Cicero. Despite the wind and fog, the view was amazing. The little house-looking structure is a Christian shrine. I'm not sure what the other lump of rocks is.
The view.
More view!
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