Looking over the ancient Forum and trying to figure out what was what.
William peeking out from behind the Lupa in the Capital Hill Museum.
We both liked this ancient mosaic dining room floor, now in the Vatican museum.
The bronze doors of the first Christian Church built in 318 AD.
Golden columns in the above church "recycled" from the Temple of Jupiter.
William with a device for throwing stone balls in the Castel Sant'Angelo, a fort for the protection of the pope in times of war that was built using the structure of the Mausoleum of Hadrian.
The Circus Maximus with ruined palaces at the top of the hill.
Over my left shoulder is the keyhole of the Palace of the Knights of Malta. When you look through the keyhole you get a perfect picture down a leafy path to see St Peter's.
The camera did not do the sight justice. The whitish blob at the end is St. Peter's.
The Roman Empire lasted a long time--500 years of expansion and Empire building, 200 years of consolidation of the Empire and then 300 years of decline.
Finally in 537 AD the barbarians cut the aqueducts and overran the city. Rome's population fell from 1.5-2 million at the height of the Empire to about 30 thousand. City buildings became the property of the church and the pope ruled what was left of the Roman Empire.
It was the final cutting of the aqueducts that destroyed the city for a long time. Think of the public toilets that no longer flushed, the lack of fresh water, the stagnant baths. It must have been truly horrible. The worst part was that no one was able to reconnect the aqueducts for 1,000 years.
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