London: Part 1

Londinium was a town founded by Romans around 43 AD. It was a pretty significant city until the 5th century AD when Rome fell. The name came from some local Celtic word, but the Romans made it into a true city. When the city started to grow, it was sacked by Boudicca in around 60 AD, but that revolt was soon put down. After that it grew in every way imaginable.

Modern London is very aware of its Roman heritage and remnants of ancient cultures can be

found everywhere. It may take quite a few posts to show all I found--and believe me, I did

not find it all.

So we start

with a painting depicting someone from Rome's early history: The Rape of the Sabine Women. This painting is housed in the National Gallery and is by Peter Paul Rubens.

You can see the Romanesque architecture in the background to help you place it in case you're not sure. The people speak for themselves.

This is a "Roman Triumph" by also by Rubens.

It's got excellent details, and you can again see the distantarchitecture. Notice the musical instruments, sacrificial animals, priests, and fire!

As I walked down the street, I noticed this hanging above some random restaurant. The Latin above it says "orbes orbem semper spectent" which would translate roughly to: Let the worlds always watch the world."

This is a stained glass window from the Royal Airforce Museum. It shows an RAF pilot with the following

Latin motto: ad astra per aspera

Also from the RAF museum, this is a statue of Icarus. Now, why might that be in a museum devoted to Britain's expertise at flying?

In Picadilly Circus, this statue of Eros stands right in the center. You can see the wings and bow and arrow very clearly. Also, it's a much more classical representation of Eros--no chubby cheeks.

In the Tower of London, in the armor exhibit, I found this crest which I think must be a play on Vergil's famous line. This crest says "Arma virumque gero" ...hehe, get it?

Randomly walking down the street and there's a random Roman reference. Woooo!

Do you think the owners of this place worry about it burning down? Aaah I crack myself up.

This is known as Cleopatra's Needle. It did come from Egypt--but in the 18th century. Still--ancient stuff, woo!

As you walk towards Parliament and

Westminster Abbey, you see a lot of people protesting for peace. One of the signs has a famous Latin quote! This is from a Horace poem, in which he meant it literally, and was later used by British poet Wilfred Owen ironically. It says "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" which translates to "It is sweet and glorious to die for your country"

Here are a few angles on the big Boudicca statue near a Tube statue. It's very cool.