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.

London: British Museum (beyond just Latin/Roman)

This museum is amazing! For any lover of classics, this is like an air-conditioned heaven. What I have here goes well beyond Latin, but is fascinating to anyone with a curious mind. Again--everything pictured here belongs to the British Museum and not me. Though really--it belongs to any students of the world with a heart.

Here is the museum from the outside--the classical references are hard to miss! Do I see Ionic columns?

First: the Rosetta Stone. One of the most important pieces to studies of ancient scripts, it is what allowed scholars to understand hieroglyphics. There was quite a crowd around this puppy...that's for sure.

These are two figures from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. Their size is impressive enough, but you can also see some of the detail work. Oh yeah...wonder of the world, people!

A statue of Hadrian, one of the more prolific builders among the Roman emperors. Accompanying him is, of course, his very special friend Antinous--looking young and beautiful as ever.

Here we have an impressive acrobat. This is from Roman times, made in Egypt (I think). The alligator has been worked into this enterprising performer's routine in a way that clearly merited recognition.

Ancient games! These are actually Greek, I believe, but similar regardless. The Romans certainly had similar games. Anything look familiar?

Ancient pipes! You can see how intricate the workings are and how carefully they are crafted. Engineering project, anyone?

This is a carved pendant--probably smaller than my two thumbs next to each other. I want to say this was onyx with some other gems--regardless it is an amazing achievement. Such intricate work and completely without machines!

Fish bottle, anyone? Yes, this is made out of glass. It is certainly not a display of typical Roman practicality, but it certainly displays their skills.

Here are some more examples of glass (one has gold!!):

Here are some other valuable--put into piles by the loving museum staff. You can see precious metals, gems, coins, and all manner of shiny things.

Here we have some little pepper pots. They are very small and fragile. Pepper was a rare thing that was imported from India, so of course you had to have something fancy to hold it in. It's hard to make out in this picture, but the spoons also have images and designs in them.

Here we have some sieves. A very practical thing, but you can again see how there is room to be artistic in the design.

Silver goblets. Varying shapes and sizes and designs, of course. Remember--there was no mass production.

This is a rattle. That's right--you shake it and there's noise. In our culture these are generally a children's toy, but for Romans these were more often used in religious ceremonies. The noise was intended to scare away evil spirits.

Forceps! These probably look familiar from some procedure you've had in your life. However--these were not used to remove teeth, but rather to remove your uvula. Yeah, definitely something I need to read up on.

Here is another medical instrument--this time a clamp. You imagined getting your uvula removed as unpleasant? Well this was for castration (usually for animals, one hopes).

Here's a very interesting artifact showing a less scientific approach to medical issues. This one was probably made by someone who had a leg problem, so he creates a model of his leg and writes a prayer to the god of healing--Asklepios. Clever, no?

Sometimes your prayers are of more negative nature. A bunch of these were found in a certain place--they are little lead sheets with curses scratched into them. Curses usually involved calling upon a certain god with a specific badness to happen to your enemy. Perhaps "may all his cattle fall sick and die." These were found rolled up like the smaller picture here.

This is a medicine box a doctor may have kept various herbs and things in. Since most Romans were very suspicious of such things, I imagine such boxes were very rare.

And when the medicine didn't work, Romans made tomb decorations. Here are a couple examples from the tombs of freedmen, who were known to get rich and become a little uppity, even in the afterlife.

A statue of a crouching Venus. It is rare for her to be in such a position, and I really like it.

This is a relief sculpture of the myth of Latona and Niobe. It's in the incredibly uplifting part of the story when Apollo and Diana kill all of Niobe's children. Ah, the ancient world!

We end the British Museum post with the Parthenon. That most amazing example of Greek architecture--aaah. The museum has a whole hall of figures from it, but this was my favorite part.