After a few trips to non-Roman areas we went to the source, Rome. The Colosseum is truly jaw dropping. The size is imposing. The construction fascinating with all the roman arches. The Colosseum was commissioned by the emperor Vespasian in 70AD. Fun fact Caligula died in 41AD, so he could not have been in the Colosseum with the Gladiator (Russel Crowe). Supposedly they held naval battles in the Colosseum. It had a basement, so I cannot figure out how they sealed the floor of the Colosseum so the water didn’t run into the basement. The Roman engineering skills cease to amaze me. We had booked a tour that was supposed to include the cellar of the Colosseum as the Forum – but it never happened. I’m still not sure how they screwed that up so bad.
As impressive as the Colosseum is, Pompei is the pinnacle of Roman sites since you get to see what life was like for Roman people. Pompei is only a couple of short train rides from Rome. You all know that Pompei was covered in volcanic ash from Mt. Vesuvius. Hot ash will kill you but it you can dig it out as opposed to lava which is molten rock. That is the reason why the city is so well preserved. Some of the neat sites are the baths, the fast food joints, the bakeries, the brothel, the theater, and the house with the mosaic in front that says “beware of dog” in Latin. Even the simplest of things like their roads in town are ingenious. The sidewalk is elevated, so to cross the street they provide stepping stones. Thus the sunken roadway can be flooded to clean the streets, and the stepping stones keep the pedestrians dry. Plan on spending a full day here.
After sailing out of Trogir with my son Tyler, Brenda decided she wanted a holiday too. So we decided on a cruise of the southern Adriadic. Even though I flew into the Split airport I never saw the town of Split when sailing. We were actually more into Game of Thrones and did 2 tours on that subject. The Roman sites just happened to be where we were so we gladly saw them.
Split is unique in that most Roman ruins are viewed from behind a rope or on an elevated walkway. In Split you walk through the remains of Diocletian’s palace. You can sit on a marble step sipping a latte and check out the basalt lions from Egypt. Next time I’m going to bring a toga to really feel like I’m visiting a Roman emperor. At the time I didn’t have a clue who Diocletian was, but it didn’t detract from the awe.
Artist rendering of PalaceDiocletian’s Palace at dusk.
Our second Roman ruins stop was the Butrint National Archaeological Park in Albania. All I knew of Albania was that Dua Lipa has Albanian heritage. The Romans controlled the Balkans for centuries and thus cities and towns were established. It appears that Butrint was the Roman town of Buthrotum. This site could not be more different than Split. Butrint was in the middle of nowhere, so just our little bus tour had the run of the place.
Sicily being part of Italy, you might think this island is covered with Roman archeological sites. You would be wrong, its covered in Greek sites. However the one Roman site on the island is spectacular. The Romans were very open about who a Roman is, absorbing peoples into their society readily. And when it came to the Greeks they respected their culture immensely. Many Roman scholars spoke Greek and studied their philosophy and art. So when the Romans got around to kicking out the Greeks and the Carthaginians they simply absorbed the Greek cities into their Empire. What’s this you say about Carthaginians. This practice of Roman expansion would inevitably cause friction with their neighbours around the Mediterranean. One such neighbour was Carthage, just across the Mediterranean in modern day Tunusia. I’m sure you know the story of Hanibal and his elephants crossing the Alps. Well that story starts in Sicily and the battles there is what causes the wider war with Carthage.
The Carthaginians were in the west part of the island and the Greeks were in the east. There are very few archeological sites in the west, I guess the Carthaginians weren’t builders. All the best Greek sites are in the middle to the east part of the island. I highly recommend Syracuse, Agrigento and the theater in Taormina.
The Roman site is called Villa Romana del Casale. Its not a major public work like an amphitheatre. It was a private villa of a rich nobleman. The main attraction is the amazing mosaic floors. The main hallway had scenes of men loading exotic animals on ships. This is why it is believed the owner imported animals from Africa for the games held in amphitheaters around the empire. The other neat area was the baths and the gymnasium. Did you know the Romans invented the bikini? The gym has mosaics of bikini clad women playing sports.
We started our Roman Adriatic adventure in Split, Croatia. Although we had seen Diocletian’s palace before it was good to see it again now that I had a deeper understanding of Rome. It still blows my mind that you are walking where a Roman emperor trod in sandals.
Diocletian was one of the great Roman emperors. He stabilized the regime when it had grown too big and cumbersome. He is the only emperor to retire. That is saying something since most died by treachery or battle. Just a few minutes out of Split are the ruins of Salona, the birthplace of Diocletian and Roman town. Its not the most impressive ruins but still interesting.
On our way north we spent a night and a day in Pula. It has a large amphitheater and a few sites scattered around town. The outer façade of the arena is in great shape along with some well-preserved towers. It was built around the time of Christ and is the sixth largest Roman amphitheatre. The town was on the via Flavia which connected it to Rome via Aquileia.
The Roman highlight of the trip was the very important city of Aquileia. Aquileia sits at the top of the Adriatic. Due to its location, the main road from Rome to their Eastern provinces passed through this town. Being close to the Italian alps, they would also get some barbarians coming across and were responsible for protecting this area. Our first site was the port. Aquileia is connected to the Adriatic by a small river. Our guide Elbrich relayed the details of an attempted siege of the city. The residents had to quickly reinforce the port area. Their hard work paid off and the siege stalled and the barbarian emperor, Maximinus Thrax, was killed by his own troops.
However the main reason Aquileia hit our radar was the mosaics. Yes we can’t get enough of the artistry and craftsmanship of the Roman mosaic artisans. Something that I hadn’t really thought about until the History of Rome podcast was Christianity. The popular picture of Christians in Rome is dangling from the jaws of a lion. However a guy by the name of Constantine changed all that. The emperor before him was putting Christians to death i.e. Diocletian. Its amazing how one man can change the world. Without Constantine and the Cristian Roman state its possible much of the world could be Muslim today. The reason for all the explanation of Constantine is that he made Christianity the official state religion of the Romans in 313AD. Yes the Romans built churches and installed spectacular mosaic floors in them. The residents of Aquileia wasted no time and built the church in the early 300AD. It’s the largest mosaic I’ve ever seen. It depicts the story of Jonah and the whale. I especially liked the octopus.
Unfortunately for the Romans their success and fortune was eyed jealousy by a variety of barbarian peoples. One such group of people was the Hun. Attila was a fierce leader of these people from central Asia (modern day Kazakhstan). One thing that set Attila apart from other barbarian foes was his mastery of siege warfare. This requires siege equipment like catapults, towers, battering rams, etc. This scared the crap out of the Romans. They didn’t know what they were going to do when Attila approached Rome in 452AD. Instead of sending out an army to meet him, Pope Leo strolled out the front gates and had a chat with Attila. No one knows what Leo said but it got him sainted. I mention this because this is the same year that Attila sacked Aquileia. He knocked down buildings and burnt the church. For some reason the patriarch of Aquileia had decided he didn’t like the original mosaic floor and installed another floor above the original. Lucky for us the new floor burnt and the original was undamaged and survives in all its glory.
Here are some links with more information on this world class site.
In about 2022 I decided to learn more about Roman history after seeing all these places around the Mediterranean. Due to some medical issues I don’t read much anymore but I do listen to audiobooks and podcasts. When I went looking for something to listen to I found The History of Rome podcast and it got great reviews. I have listened to all 190 episodes, and it was a revelation. I knew we still feel the impact of the Romans today, but I had no idea how wide-spread it is.
The link to this map is a great resource when learning about the Romans and for determining if there’s a site near where you are vacationing. Roman Empire 125 general map (Red roads) – Roman roads – Wikipedia It’s a map of the roman roads and their cities. On our Adriatic trip I knew about Aquileia from the podcast so I looked at the map and confirmed it was in the area we were going to be in. It turned out to be amazing and very different than what I thought was Roman.
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