caesar novus

I propose these may be consequences of a populist utopianism that holds worker benefits as sacred and unconnected to real world consequences of their cost, productivity, or useful service. As California goes, so goes the nation... NYT notes San Francisco Police evidence lab is experiencing a "tsunami of incompetence'' and having it's thousands of cases thrown out and criminals released (maybe to maim or kill those good samaritans and witnesses who stuck their neck out to get them arrested). http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04/02...=1&ref=news A key employee responsible for this (and consuming the drug evidence) was not disciplined, but allowed a lucrative retirement. Probably the responsible managers are untouchable as well. That city is not an isolated example for such problems. The "Pension Tsunami" for California unionized gov't workers just defies description, so I will only quote, from http://reason.com/archives/2010/01/12/class-war/singlepage

Further reading of Coarelli's "Rome and Environs" sheds some light on this whole story of Nero's house being mowed down by following emperors to pander to Nerophobes. Why would they waste such a thing with total destruction - better to hide it. Apparently Trajans baths actually utilized the underlying parts of Domus Aurea (the famous part open to tourists) as a functioning basement, and that's why Trajan added extensions to that underground complex. Workmen were apparently trying to make extensions able to accept tourists as well, and those plans are only delayed and not necessarily cancelled. So I guess this quote stands true From a tourist point of view, I regret always accepting the story the D.A. was closed. Better to just show up once in a while just in case of an unannounced partial opening.

Wow, what really happened seems to be quite different than stated above. If you do a google NEWS search and open up the top 5 articles, you can start to infer who has the details and who is jumping to conclusions. There is a video of damage in http://www.digtriad.com/news/watercooler/a...0&catid=176 (but not the best article for facts). The story looks so subtle that it almost defies explanation. Let me lob a few challenges to assumptions here instead, although they are not exactly correct either. RAIN DID NOT CAUSE THE PROBLEM! (workmen triggered it, but rain has made it almost unworkable). THE DOMUS AUREA WAS NOT DAMAGED! (it was some weird extension by Trajan, never on show to tourists). D.A. IS NOT, WAS NOT, AND WON'T BE CLOSED... OR OPEN! (history, present, and ambitous plans endlessly cycle thru partial closures)

If you start at the rightmost grey tip of this tiny map and project straight leftward until hitting a small and then tiny pale yellow rectangle, that is the house of polybious and chaste lovers respectively. Itinerary not yet researched enough. Of Apr 16-25 event week, my first 2 days will be in Florence and last 2 around Naples (+pomp+herc), leaving almost a week in Rome (+ostia+tivoli). Some might do better to spend that last (Sun)day in Rome when I guess the Vatican museum is free. There is always the issue of hitting what's not closed on Monday. Sunday's have special opportunities and I may try to hit Quirinale palace morning hours on 18th, and am wavering about trudging the traffic free Appian way in afternoon. Colonna (sp?) palace is only open on Sat mornings, but I may have that penciled in for a later week. There is a minor special event in Tivoli that may draw me to that day, and special events may dictate the best day for Ostia as well. Gonna be a busy week ahead pounding the keyboard to gather info and train schedules and such... EDIT> P.S. Looks like another Pompeii house is reopening tomorrow with nice restored painting. House of the small fountain is at the top of the orange rectangle within the yellow area. If you follow that street to the right until it ends, I believe that is the once-famous house of silver wedding (closed for years?).

I believe the baths of Trajan fell INTO the restored part of Domus Aurea... and they are really mainly concerned about the Domus, which the mayor is checking out with a bunch of other officials. My book has maps showing the restored part of D.A. positioned mainly under the open (exercise?) courtyard of the baths, although Trajan's walls also cross over with potential of heavy rubble. I can't quite make out where the famous octagon room is, and of course the D.A. actually sprawls all over the place. The D.A. has been closed for years, but maybe like the Assisi smashup, this will end up with a descent restoration.

The above event list is daily giving a cornucopia of new events for spring and summer, even unrelated to culture week. For instance Pompeii will be lighted at night, and will open 2 new villas: http://www.pompeiisites.org/Sezione.jsp?ti...SezioneRif=1714 I can't find map or reference to "HOUSE OF GIULIO POLIBIO", but wonder if "Polybius" is another spelling such as in http://sites.google.com/site/ad79eruption/...julius-polybius ? From there you can get to maps and such, as well as do a search for "HOUSE OF THE CHASTE LOVERS - One of the most beautiful houses (Domus) of the ancient city has been opened to the public. The House of the Chaste Lovers, named after a decorative panel representing the innocent kiss of two lovers, was the house of a rich baker. Since its discovery in 1987 it has never been accessible to the public." Coordination of this monumental opportunity for readers of this forum now fulfills my final requirements for "Sixth Good Emperor". With my expert assessment of your needs and desires, I have designated our official meeting place as l'Isola, a nudist vegetarian restaurant just off Via del Corso: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/italy/rome/restaurants/389595 . Please attend nightly planning sessions wearing a purple figleaf for easy identification of participants.

Neros golden house is covered in the Roman Architecture video course from Yale (OYC series) at around lecture 11 (plus or minus 2 - check index). You can search it here or on google with the OYC tag... I have widely posted its various links in utube or .edu land. Almost more interesting to me was the follow on to this villa which was by bad boy Domitian (the first to dare to return to decadent villas). While Nero's has been tragically closed to the public due to wetness right after a titanic effort and expenditure to restore it, Domitian's is easily wandered thru at the crest of the Palantine. The interior decoration is gone, but to me that is mostly fru-fru anyway. The OYC course will relate what you see to amazing innovative architecture that extends the principles of Nero's place using recreations of fountains, statuary, etc.

A lot of Tivoli there - curse Rick Steves Italy guidebook for steering folks away from there. I prefer the display capabilities of flickr over picassaweb, but here is a really good batch of Pompeii/Herc shots: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/clements.pet...howall=true#100

Or almost as great. BTW here is a "great" site that lets you walk thru the houses of Pompeii, with special focus on interior decoration. You can successively click "next house", or bump up to a higher level for neighborhood navigation. Good for seeing bldgs chronically closed, like the famous House of the Silver Wedding which isn't even on the Pompeii brochure (except as a street name) http://sites.google.com/site/ad79eruption/...-silver-wedding

It's almost not too late to request a free tour of P.F. if we had a group set up, according to contact info in http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/italy/r...lass:30981.html . That page shows a number of Palazzos that are only open a half day per week - duly entered in my calendar. I wonder if the Naples event list has more potential; there is an empire related conference and such. Anyway the free run of most museums really excite me because of the flexibility. Normally the small ones are hard to cover because they are included in the ticket price of a far away big site/museum or they are overpriced for their size. Now you can just sweep them all up when you are in their neighborhood (beware hitting small ones at opening time because only a small part may be open due to late arriving staff). Also you can revisit big ticket sites briefly to see what you missed earlier, without feeling you have to linger to get your moneys worth.

OK, this supreme and titanic opportunity for any Romanophile was fully announced along with gi-normous list of special events, but in a very challenging form to translate into english (please post if you find a straightforward way). Unlike previoius years, I don't see a list of archeo sites and museums that are free that extended week, but almost all of them are Download site maps and such, which may not be available to freeloaders (the ticket booths then tend to have a hostile sulker, best not talked to). It's not about saving coins anyway, but now you have freedom to make short sampling visits, and return if you wish, etc. Be experimental, but don't linger in boring or crowded places; have a big list of plan B alternatives. Take full advantage... no eating, sitting down, or socializing during daylight hours! And in the meantime toughen up your feet for hard duty using the same museum/cobblestone footwear. Sigh, the final March 16 announcements just about break the limits of http://translate.google.com/# . Now and in years hence, you may need the top level in italian above and/or the translated http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=e...AC%2Findex.html They seem to keep changing the location of the details, so be aware you can click on "cultural events" then "major events", then the obvious. Currently this lands you in http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y...sl=it&tl=en or italian http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/opencms/...amp;pagename=52 . But the next step of clicking the region breaks translate. I found you can copy and paste the Rome events into translate, and it will work (but not the whole page which is too long). Many of the special interest tours of archeo sites seem to require reservations, and probably knowledge of Italian. I think it may be bad etiquette for a nontaxpayer english speaker to freeload into some of these - once I shot my hand up when they asked if any were english speakers and was embarrased to have the other 999 folks wait as every sentence was repeated in english. But other events look quite appropriate... so I gather there is no interest in sorting out these events and which ones look appropriate for Rome lovers? Looks like a lot of effort and reward...

I suspect most posters here agreed with your big picture perspective where Roman good side exceeds their bad. I urge you to post some top ten lists of their positive contributions, like technology, gov't or whatever. It somehow seems boring when I try even though I revere the Romans, and all I can come up with is something like the 5 worst Roman Arts: 1) 1st style painting 2) 2nd style painting 3) 3rd style painting 4) 4th style painting 5) their culinary arts. Well, maybe 3 best: 1) architecture 2) sculpture 3) mosaics It's fun to contrast the eccentric failings of geniuses or genius cultures. The very thing that drives them to such heights sometimes accentuates their lows. For the Romans I still believe naumachia's were the height of depravity - an almost certain pointless mass death rather than the hit and miss of colloseum or battlefield hijinks. More recently, look at Tom Edison who invented electric lights etc. His pushing of impractical DC current distribution rather than AC led him to twisted demonstrations of electrocuting of an elephant and smaller animals with AC even though he was supposedly a great humanitarian man of science. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison#War_of_currents

Whew, I was worried I might be scolded for including the obvious, since the link I posted turns up at bottom of your linked page too. Anyway, downloading to ipod can vary. First download all the mp3 or video files to a laptop or whatever, unless you have an ipod that can appear like another disk and want to go there directly. Hmm, I guess you set up a browser to have a default download location right into this kind of disk-extension ipod. Downloading to my mac, I press cntl or alt button while I click on each file. I don't wait for each to finish, but start all downloads in rapid succession. I think the hi res video stuff can take many hours, but mp3 is fast (low res vid is in between). Also there is some interesting html and other course materials you may want to download (just a few seconds worth). Next I will describe the simple case for a non-Apple ipod. Just drag and drop into it! If you originally put it in one directory, then just drop the directory into the ipod (Archos ipods work this way). I guess some folks use an itunes substitute to "synch" or load stuff onto non-apple ipods, but as an itunes hater I don't know about that either. For an apple ipod and itunes I can only describe my grumpy trial and error... I guess there is a drag and drop feature, right? But maybe not for a whole directory? I guess I have used this once for video. But for just audio, what I do is go to the top mp3 directory and do a "select all" on it. Then I apply "open file" to all selected, which loads everything into an itunes "music" folder (besides playing it, which I kill). Then I click on the ipod and tell itunes to synch with the music folder.

Funny how some OpenYaleCourses get propagated around. You can get back to the source and choose either just audio or high or low res video at http://oyc.yale.edu/classics/introduction-.../downloads.html and load it on your ipod if you want. Back up the hierarchy and find some other courses.

Sounds good and I wish I could visit (maybe thru cyber?). Although I don't understand the eagerness to draw parallels with the later empire phase (sounds like an equating of US to Nazi empire is also on the published agenda) or the surprise that was noted for parallels with the earlier Roman republican phase. And why the spin on Roman symbol usage as sort of inflated egotism? The US knew itself to be a fragile country and one that Europe rationally expected to fail The US only survived Britain's invasion of 1812 by a miracle of a hurricane/tornado hitting the invaders and (accidentally post war) showing plausible deterrence by Jackson's victory with the quirky contribution of New Orleans pirate cannoners. Even afterward the US was likely to be reabsorbed by surrounding superpower Brit, Spanish, or French colonies, except for the fact that Napoleon needed money to fight Britain and was willing to sell land for the US to expand west to a defensible mass. Surely early US symbolism was simply appealing to the same high ideals just as the anti-king Romans did. Here's another possible connection to early Rome... the US exemplified financial freedoms that were based on sort of a pagan Rome revivalism consciously introduced by renaissance Florence to ease Christian restrictions. I'm out of my depth, so can't explain this well, but apparently Florence appealed to rational Roman philosophy about greater good to overcome Christian teaching against paying interest, etc. They previously did weird workarounds like current Islamic banks to disguise interest (the current crisis in Dubai real estate is magnified by following scripture against intangible investments, so all rush into the tangible and install half the worlds construction cranes there). Consider how Alexander Hamilton reassured world lenders by making good on US debts even though nearly broke, and built unexpectedly strong financial foundations... and how Florence similarly became a financial/banking world power.

Oooh... better keep watch on events even now, because some long term ones are already starting and may fall off the featured list later. I haven't done your work for you (delving into regional searches), but just from the highlight list there are 2 all summer events right by the Roman Forum. Capitoline museum will have a exhibit on Roman-Greek relations, and the big white Kings monument (with a new glass elevator for forum viewing) will have a French impressionist exhibit (nice for me since I prefer it to Roman or renaissance paintings). Isn't it nice how they include maps and all: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=e...1337612205.html http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=e...6pagename%3D129

If you do a web search, shorten the spelling to Siena. For info, poke around http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g1879...na_Tuscany.html . Most folks change to the bus from Florence which is more convenient, but for train info I usually sanity check the Italian site with http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/e which provides you more info like the stop before the one you want to use, so you are ready. For cheap accomodation, I posted a monastery stay site in my "rome meet 10/11" thread in here, but it may not fit your needs. It includes nunneries, and seemingly any kind of church owned apt complex all over Rome or Italy. It is mainly a reduced tax category which shares the saving with you, but does not staff at night. So you are locked down when you may need to leave early for the airport, and some other problems. What I recommend is to use some recommended hotel(!). What I did was start with the somewhat overpriced but fully documented venere.com site even though their (large) selection in Rome was depressing, and reading the many customer writeups reminded me of many a dysfunctional stay. It is nice that they usually don't charge a deposit, and allow online cancellation. There are many other approaches, but that is the lazy one where you know what you get into (can display by map and price, etc). Also on that other thread I showed the gov't event list, but here it is translated. Poke around a few weeks ahead, and delve into various subcategories http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y...sl=it&tl=en Pay attention to the day of the week for museum closures (monday?) or free days (last sunday of mo?) with a decent guidebook (surely not AAA?) or something like http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page

That event list is building, but disappoints me so far. I guess march 16 will have a complete list, plus a list of (practically all) museums+archeo that will be open for free that week. You can stay within translate mode and back up the level of hierarchy for the march 16 announcements, etc. Another resource is http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y...sl=it&tl=en which lets you reserve entrance into closed bldgs such as in Pompeii. To make the actual reservation you have to pop out of the translate mode, but first get oriented there. I was hoping it would offer the famous silver anniversary villa, but I guess not. Lastly I noticed that for avoiding the bad lines for getting in to Vatican museum and it's fantastic Roman sculptures (not a part of culture week) you can sign up for a garden tour then afterwards they will let you loose into the museum with presumably no waiting.

I remembered Milan being a separate financial center after I posted. I guess I overlooked it because by chance it's been nearly deserted every time I pass thru (holidays?). Roman parasites must be what makes the hotels so expensive and a bad value - worse than Paris or even Venice, I think. I saw a TV show about gov't related visitors on astronomical freeloading accomodation budgets. You were too kind to bring up an "I told you so" on how the Chile earthquake had only a tiny fraction of fatalities compared to Haiti even from a quake 900 times more powerful (due to bldg codes, modern practices, etc). On the other hand, Chile is used to frequent strong quakes and I bet Haiti might have evolved low tech robust dwellings under a similar regime. Quake richter scales miss the point a bit because they measure the max power at underground epicenter. The power you experience is not only diminished by horizontal distance, but vertical (Chile's was twice as deep as Haiti). And a rarely mentioned point is frequently shaken areas like Chile and California have such shattered bedrock that they may not transmit shocks so efficently (except when loose material lets buildings resonate badly).

Well, then I wonder which "tribe" invented or at least popularized concrete structures. I heard the magic volcano dust ingredient wasn't limited to Vesuvius area, but also the Alban hills volcano (present day lake Nemi and ??) close to Rome. I wonder what other civilizations crushed by Rome donated stuff that Rome gets credit for. No, it can't be... Rome surely was the beginning and end of proper civilization!

Too bad... Chile just blew a big earthquake and much of the Pacific Rim is under a tidal wave warning: http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/?region=1 with your local estimated wave arrival times detailed at bottom of http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/messages/paci...2.27.124623.txt

I'm gonna guess the basilica was a case of the Samnites being a copycat of the Romans while they were independent. Then the Romans siezed the building (and town) and gave it a further veneer of Romanicity by minor refurbishment. Sure this involves some copycat of the Greek colonial style by someone at some stage. Sounds more plausible than the Romans and much of Rome being inspired by the Samnites. Or maybe that lecturer has her dates wrong and the Basilica went up only after the Samnites were crushed.

I guess it's a half hour into lecture 4 and somewhat 5 in http://academicearth.org/courses/roman-architecture where she claims the fancy basilica in Pompeii was built by the Samnites before the Romans took it over. This seems mind-blowing because it is a full fledged multistory roofed corinthean columnated concrete megacomplex. http://www.vitruvius.be/pompei.htm and other sources don't seem to suggest the Romans stole it rather than built or significantly enhanced it. Is this plausible, and if any little tribe surrounding Rome could come up with such magnificant stuff... then what is so great about Rome? It's not just a case of everyone exactly copying the Greeks, because there are many non-Greek elements. In fact she points out that it was more in the last 10 years of Pompeii's existance where (especially the villa's) start loading up on Greek colonnades, etc. and evolving away from Etruscan and Samnite influences.

I heard a professor say that it was exactly 1 pair crucified per year, so although it was a needless gratuitious act... the bodycount seems tiny compared to what the plural form might envision. Not to justify animal cruelty (I'm vegetarian myself), but it can be somewhat refreshing when a culture doesn't 100% sentimentalize pets (and especially dogs just for being indiscriminately devoted to an owner regardless of their qualities). In my area there are silly helicopter rescues of dogs just for looking sick, even when that deprives scarce equipment from being available to rescue humans - maybe for a month if there is a breakdown or accident. Les Mccann put it in crude perspective with other urgencies in his antiwar song "Compared To What":

That claim by Univ Pitt sounds entirely illogical. Even if they could prove that all remains of children found had died from an excess of hugs and kisses, that does not contradict that undiscovered children were sacrificed. What they should say is that dribs and drabs of archeo remains do not happen to support the historical claims. If they did appear executed (as thought earlier), that would be proof, but the lack of of proven instances doesn't, er... prove anything. We should be vigilant against a modern tendency in the social sciences to force fit evidence into politically correct interpretations. They presume each culture's behavior must be equally altruistic (except for dominant western culture, which is "bad"). Our children or grandchildren will no doubt work to deny the existence of burning women alive in contemporary India http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowry_death http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_(practice) just as Putin has expunged Stalin's crimes against humanity in Russian textbooks.