Philadelphia, PA

This Labor Day weekend, my husband and I took a trip to Philadelphia. This city was influenced by Classics in a big way. All of the founding fathers brought their Latin ideas and Roman architecture with them--so the whole city is a gem. I've chosen a few things to show pictures of--mostly from the Philadelphia Museum of Art (as usual, everything is owned by them and they get alll the credit; I also apologize for not noting the artist for each piece). This first image is of the East wing from the outside. At the top you can see a relief sculpture of some gods. Apollo is the easiest to pick out--who else do you see?








On the way to the museum from where I parked, I spotted this on a building. Hmmm what do you think they do in there and why do they need a caduceus?












This sculpture stands over a fountain in the museum, which is very appropriate. The water would represent the sea and this is Aphrodite coming out of it in her seashell.












This painting is of an abandoned bathhouse. You can see the structure being used for all sorts of other things other than bathing the ancient way. Roman ruins just wasting away...












A figure of Apollo--a lyre in hand to make him identifiable. I'm not sure what the staff is for...












Same artist--this is Zeus. I find it strange that he seems to be riding an eagle. It's definitely his symbol, but he usually becomes one rather than mounting one.












And finally we have Juno. I thought it was Ledo with the swan when I first saw this, but upon closer examination, you can tell it's a peacock. Juno is caressing it with love, that's for sure.










This one is odd, I think. It's a painting by a Flemish man, Jan Brueghel the Younger, called Allegory of Sight (Venus and Cupid in a Picture Gallery). It makes sense for Venus to be there looking at pretty things, but I'm not sure what her son has to do with it.








Here's The Emblem of Christ Appearing to Constantine by Peter Paul Rubens. This is from a famous event in history called the Battle of the Milvan Bridge and is, supposedly, what led to Constantine's acceptance of Christianity and changed the nature of religion in Rome.










Finally, there is this enormous painting which took up the better part of a wall. It's a gruesome depiction of Prometheus's daily punishment by that eagle. Good note to end on, no?

Ecuador (Quito and Guayaquil)

Obviously, the Romans did not make it over to South America, but the Spanish and Portuguese certainly brought their language and culture over. There was a clash with the indigenous cultures that already lived in those areas, but now everything seems to work well together.

In the church at the top of Cerro de Santa Ana there were stained glass windows of scenes for the death of Jesus. There's a nice shot of a Roman soldier doing a dirty deed.

This is a monument at the Malocon in Guayaquil commemorating the meeting of Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin. I think in honor of this--Ecuador went with a nice Greco-Roman style. You can see the columns and archy shape.

It was hard not to think of Latin with these abundant "una via" signs hanging all over the place. Sure it's Spanish, but it looks just like Latin!!

Los Angeles, California

When you think of L.A., you definitely do not think of Ancient Rome...or I sure didn't...but I was proven wrong as soon as I got to the airport. Hanging up as decoration was this airplane called "Daedalus." Can you tell me why?

I had no idea that something as amazing as the Getty Villa existed in this place. I have several pictures from this museum which was built into a hill and modeled after an ancient Roman villa. I took a little video of one of the "rooms"...take a look:

The attention to detail is amazing--you can see columns, plants, statues, and even come frescoes. I have some more pictures of this amazing place below.

This is one of the frescoes done in one of the Roman styles--painting to make a room look bigger by painting on fake scenery and fake columns.

Here is a similar fresco--this one has some nature going on too.

There were statues lining the pool. You can see its eyes are painted--accurate!

Her clothing has excellent attention to detail, but I am not sure what the pose is about.

This is one of the other statues from the courtyard. A Roman statue would almost certainly have been made from a different material. A certain body part of his drawing some attention--that is legit.

This is the foot of a certain statue...I bet you can guess whose!!

One last shot of this gorgeous place...those (few and rich) Romans sure had it good.

Inside the museum there are some excellent artifacts. This is a mug in the shape of a god's head, though it's not clear who the god is. My guess is pan due to the horns and his youthful appearance. It from Asia Minor in the 1st century BC.

This was a life-size statue of Leda and the swan. As we know, the swan is actually Jupiter, and she is certainly pressing him against her body in a very tender way. Here's a trivia question--who were their children?

I'm not usually into vases that much, but this one was very cool. Around the top edge, it shows all the labors of Hercules. Here you can see the Hydra and the Nemean Lion.

Another vase I love since it's one of the clever tricks of our hero of the Odyssey. I'm not sure if this is Odysseus himself, but it's definitely from the part where he and his men escape from the cave of the cyclops.

This is a very unusual marble sculpture. It's a satyr peeking out from a theater mask. If you look through the eye of the mask you can see his real face--such attention to detail! This sculpture (according to the Getty's lovely commentary) was intended to surprise and please someone looking at it since there's so much more to it than you would expect.

Here are some amazing piece of glass. Some of these were made by the "mosaic glass" method which you can learn about at http://www.getty.edu

Here are some little birdy brooches. These are actually Greek and they're made from bone. The golden pin with the dove on top is Etruscan. So these things aren't Roman, but they are from the 5th century BC--amazing!

This is a Roman cavalry helmet from the second century AD. This would not have been used in battle, but rather during events in which weapons and tactics demonstrations. I wonder how they breathed in it....

I really like this piece--it's a great combination of the Roman painting-portrait style on an Egyptian-style mummy. The dead man inside is named Heraklydies. It's from the 1st century AD.

This bust looks really silly with a piece missing. With its puffed up cheeks and those little holes in its mouth, what do you think it is?

On the elevator out of the museum there was a correct medical symbol! Usually you see the caduceus of Mercury, since it is cooler-looking. But the actual god of medicine, Asculapius, had a staff like this--a single snake and no wings involved.

This was part of a relief sculpture on a government building. The tablet which the creepy guy is holding reads "Lux et Veritas." Certainly a great motto, but I would have expected "lex" instead of "lux"

What a nice sign to see. Unfortunately, I don't think they mean the right one...

Dublin, Ireland

Dublin is a city that did not have a strong Roman presence, but their influence surely reached. A few Romans considered invading Ireland, but it never happened. Regardless--Latin certainly made its way there!

As you enter the National Library in Dublin--an enormous mosaic covers the floor with this glorious word at the forefront. Sapientia--it says!

On several light posts around London there was this coat of arms with a Latin motto. Obedientia civium urbis felicitas -- I would translate this as The obedience of the citizens is the happiness of the city. Telling, no?

Here is a memorial to Ireland's military. Hmmm, a flame that always burns? Temple of Vesta, anyone?

From the Museum of Archaology, here are two Roman coins that were found. The difference in size is very striking. The large one has the head of Janus and the small one has the head of Augustus.

In the library of Trinity College is housed the Book of Kells, an old copy of the gospels. This is one of the best examples of Latin script written for not just meaning, but also beauty. My photos of the text itself didn't turn out, but this is a photo of one of the signs in the library (copyright to them!) showing some of the different and gorgeous ways the word "et" was written in throughout the book. If just "et" looks like this...imagine the rest of the thing!

Bath, United Kingdom

An obvious city to visit for anyone looking for Roman remains. This city was known for its amazing water and fresh springs so the Romans decided to build a huge bathing complex. Once again--all photographs taken inside the Bath museum are of things owned by the museum and I claim no credit for their magnificence.

The local goddess was called Sulis and the Romans united her with Minerva and dedicated the building complex to Sulis Minerva. Convenient, no?

Here is the spring as it looks now. You can see the minerals in the water changes the color a bit. It felt warm and inviting.

The water flows on to the next room, as it would have. It would have flown from where it was hottest (above the heating system) to the cooler room (Frigidarium).

What was that ingenious heating system, you ask? It was called the hypocaust and looked like this. These little block towers were under the floor of the bathhouse. Down here would be a furnace, of sorts, and it would heat the area between these little towers which would in turn heat the floor and water of the hot room (Caldarium) of the bathhouse. There was a ventilation system which allowed the smoke to escape harmlessly.

Here's a view of the outside bath--bright and beautiful. You can see the two levels--the bottom one with the water and the room around it which would have held all manner of activities and access to the other rooms, and the top level which holds statues of emperors and a beautiful vista. Some of the emperors featured were Hadrian, Trajan, and Julius Caesar.

One thing you might see on that lower level would be people offering to sell you something. (at the museum they have re-enactors--fun!) One of these might fix your sandals, or help you clean up, and so on.

What's a bathhouse without a changing room? Nearby would have been cubbies to keep one's stuff in, and the wealthy would have a slave to guard their stuff lest it be stolen while they bathe.

So say you wanted to relax in the sauna--here is the bench you would sit on.

Here is a fragment of the roof. Why is it hollow, you ask? Well if it must be held up and supported, it should be light. Of course the Romans thought of that!

These coins of Nero help us understand when the town was settled.

And these bones help us understand what kinds of animals were in the area and (maybe) their purpose or their way of death.

These keys are fairly big and definitely of different shapes. We can only imagine what sorts of secrets they protected!

This note was found in the bathing complex. It's especially interesting because it uses Latin letters to write words in British Celtic. It's the only example of the language we have.

These are some tools found at the baths. They don't look that different, right?

Following is some art found in the baths. There were all sorts of themes--mainly mythological and hunting-related.