Beware the Ides of March! 15 Ways to Caesar the Day!

In Rome, where past and present happily co-exist, the ancient world is never far away.

The month of March, for example, brings visions of Mars, the studly god of war and the mythological "father" of Romulus and Remus, for whom the first month of the Roman year, Martius, was named.

But March also brings thoughts of the all-powerful Julius Caesar who mistakenly paid no heed to the omens that foretold his death. As a result, Caesar was assassinated15th of March in 44 BC as he entered a meeting of the Roman Senate. His death was orchestrated by a conspiracy of Senators who feared his increasing power and thought him a threat to the Roman Republic.

Julius Caesar's assassins claimed he was a tyrant. Yet, since his death some 2051 years ago, innumerable writers and thinkers have debated the motives that compelled him to assume control of the Roman Empire. Was Caesar a noble man or was he an ambitious one? Did he aspire to restore the Republic or did he secretly aspire to be a king? The question remains unresolved and Caesar remains a pivotal figure in the history of the Western world.

On Thursday, March 15, the anniversary of Julius Caesar's death, we invite you to remember the Ides. To this end, we at the iDC offer 15 suggestions as to how you might Caesar the Day!

I. Throw a Toga Party!

What better way to get into the spirit of the Ides than to spend an evening amongst friends, Romans, and countrymen?

Togas might be hard to keep on, but in certain situations that difficulty may prove advantageous. Don't forget to buy enough 'nectar of the gods' and honeyed wine for everyone.

II. Bring Flowers to Caesar's Temple

Bad news! Shakespeare got it wrong! Caesar wasn't killed on the Capitoline Hill (as the play suggests) or in the Forum (as many people believe). Rather, his assassination took place in the Portico of Pompey, near today's Largo Argentina.

Caesar's funeral was a public one. His body was carried to the Forum on an ivory couch and set upon on the Rostra or speaker's platform in a gilded shrine modeled after the Temple of Venus he had recently built in Rome. Mark Antony delivered his famous speech and so moved the crowd that they took over the funeral. Instead of removing Caesar's body out of the Forum for cremation as originally planned, it was burned in this most important public space. Two years later, Caesar was made a god and an altar and temple were erected on the site where his body had been cremated.

Each year on 15 March, Romans visit the ruins of the Temple of Divine Caesar in the Forum, leaving flowers in Caesar's honor.

III. Read Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
(or re-read it)

"Not that I lov'd Caesar less, but that I lov'd Rome more"

So says Brutus when he explains his decision to join the conspiracy against Caesar.

IV. Hip Hop With Marc Antony

Find the Bard a little old fashioned?

His Royal Hipness, Lord Buckley, recast Marc Antony's Funeral Oration, transforming Shakespeare's "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" into "Hipsters, flipsters and finger-poppin' daddies: knock me your lobes." You won't want to miss Buckley's brilliant adaptation of Antony's famous speech.

Read all of Marc Antony's Funeral Oration by Lord Buckley

V. Get Appointed Dictator

In late February of 44 BC, Caesar was made dictator for life, an appointment that spurred Brutus, Cassius and others to start plotting his death.

Caesar denied his autocracy - even refusing the crown of kingship when it was offered to him three times - but he did take the time to advertise his position by minting a coin that read "Caesar Dictator."

The moral of the story: when appointed dictator, be careful!

VI. Read Caesar's Mail

Thornton Wilder's The Ides of March, first published in 1948, is a brilliant epistolary novel set in Julius Caesar's Rome. Wilder called it "a fantasia on certain events and persons of the last days of the Roman republic." Through vividly imagined letters and documents, Wilder brings to life a dramatic period of world history and one of history's most magnetic, elusive personalities.

In this inventive narrative, the Caesar of history becomes Caesar the human being. Wilder also resurrects the controversial figures surrounding Caesar -- Cleopatra, Catullus, Cicero, and others. All Rome comes crowding through these pages -- the Rome of villas and slums, beautiful women and brawling youths, spies and assassins.

Buy Thornton Wilder's Ides of March

VII. Invite Caesar To Your Living Room

HBO's ROME series lets you watch Julius Caesar in wide-screen high-definition format. The dictator has never looked so good! Season One (now available on DVD) chronicles Caesar's rise to power in Rome.

No spoilers here...we won't tell you what happens to him on March 15, 44 BC. You'll have to watch to find out.

Buy Season One of HBO's ROME on DVD

VIII. Order Caesar Salad!

OK, Ok, it wasn't named for Julius Caesar. But ordering a Caesar salad is a festive way to celebrate Caesar nonetheless.

Wow your friends with this fact: Caesar salad was invented in Tijuana in 1924 by Caesar Cardini, an Italian restaurateur and chef. It's been croutons for everyone ever since!

IX. Watch Marlon Brando Play Marc Antony

In Joseph Mankiewicz's film version of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (1953), Marlon Brando plays the opportunistic Marc Antony and delivers the famous funeral speech with pure conviction.

James Mason plays the honorable Brutus, while John Gielgud is positively serpentine as the lean, hungry Cassius. Louis Calhern is an intelligent but sinister Caesar.
Buy Mankiewicz's Julius Caesar

X. Come, See, Conquer!

Pay homage to Julius Caesar by adopting his slogan "Veni Vidi Vici" - the phrase he so famously coined in 47 BC.

The phrase was the only message the Caesar sent back to the Roman Senate after his victory over Pharnaces II of Pontus in the Battle of Zela. His terse remark - translated as "I came, I saw, I conquered", - simultaneously proclaimed the totality of his victory and served to remind the senate of Caesar's military prowess.

XI. Cross the Rubicon!

Rubicon is the ancient Latin name for a small river in northern Italy, near Ravenna. For the Romans, the Rubicon was the border between the Italian peninsula and Cisalpine Gaul.

The river is notable as Roman law forbade any general from crossing it with a standing army. When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC to make his way to Rome, he broke that law and effectively started the civil war that would catapult him to power.

XII. Turn You Calendar to July

The Roman Senate named the month of July for Julius Caesar. It was their way of honoring him after he reformatted the calendar - which had become a chaotic embarrassment. Bad calculations had caused the months to drift wildly across the seasons. January, for example, began in the autumn.

The Julian calendar came into effect in 45 BC. It was created in consultation with Alexandrian astronomers, and had a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months, with a leap day added to February every four years. Hence the Julian year was on average 365.25 days long.

XIII. Get a Haircut with Fringe

Tired of the same old look?

Surprise your friends with a fringe! Any reputable hairstylist can help you get the Caesar look. It'll be great for the toga party.

XIV. Ask This Question: "Et tu Brute?"

Do you find yourself siding with Caesar rather than against him? Proclaim your loyalties with iDC designed shirts that feature Caesar 's (supposed) last words, "Et tu Brute." The gory stab wounds will help make the point that you're really a Caesarian!

By the way, Caesar probably never said, "Et tu Brute." But what does that matter?

Buy Et Tu Brute Products at the iDC City Shop

XV. Pay a Visit to Caesar's Palace!

"Let the dice fly high!" is what Caesar exclaimed when he dared to cross the Rubicon in 49 BC (at least according to some scholars). What he meant was "let the big gamble begin." Little did he know that so many enthusiastic dice rollers would join him Las Vegas two millennia later!

Literary Rome: Strangers in Paradise

Fall has arrived and there's no better time to be in Rome! The air is cool and silky; moderate temperatues make being outdoors a pleasure. These sunny autumn days are called ottobrate romane and since antiquity they have been celebrated for their extraordinary light and their crisp, clear air.

The crisp air and the golden light of Rome in the fall and the winter have inspired many writers to wax eloquently upon the beauty of the Eternal City. Visiting Rome in the nineteenth century, the American writer Henry James extolled the extraordinary quality of Rome's atmosphere:

The aesthetic is so intense that you feel you should live on the taste of it, should extract the nutritive essence of the atmosphere. For positively it's such an atmosphere! The weather is perfect, the sky as blue as the most exploded tradition fames it, the whole air glowing and throbbing with lovely color....

James was just one of many American and British writers who found their muse in Rome. We'll be talking about those Strangers in Paradise in this issue of City News as we pay a visit to literary Rome and the achievements it has inspired.

Writing Rome: The Romance of Ruins

For centuries travelers have been coming to the Eternal City to admire its layers of history, to revel in the romance of its ruins, and to soothe their souls as they traverse the layers of time.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, British and American writers were among the tourists who flooded Rome. Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, Oscar Wilde, and many others sought to convey the experience of Rome in travel journals, poetry, and fiction.

The British Romantic Poet, Lord Byron, started a fad in the early nineteenth century when he described a nocturnal foray into the Colosseum. In his poem, Manfred, Byron penned a celebrated description of the Roman arena as seen under a brightly-lit moon. From this point on, nighttime visits to the Colosseum became de rigeur for nineteenth-century travelers, many of whom had committed Byron’s lines to memory:

When I was wandering, - upon such a night
I stood within the Coliseum's wall,
Midst the chief relics of almighty Rome!
The trees which grew along the broken arches
Waved dark in the blue midnight, and the stars
Shone through the rents of ruin; from afar
The watchdog bay'd beyond the Tiber; and
More near from out the Caesars' palace came
The owl's long cry...
Ivy usurps the laurel's place of growth;-
But the gladiators' bloody Circus stands,
A noble wreck in ruinous perfection!

Byron’s praise for the Colosseum became part of the myth of Rome. The experience of visiting the arena at night was repeatedly incorporated into Rome’s literary tradition. Most famous of late night visitors to the Colosseum is probably Daisy Miller, a character penned by Henry James in his story of the same name.

A spunky and impetuous American girl who refused to conform to European social conventions or to listen to practical advice, Daisy risked all to experience the romance and mystique of the Colosseum at night. Her midnight rendezvous with the colossal ruin cost her life, for in the arena she contracted Roman Fever. She died shortly thereafter and James laid his fictional character to rest in Rome's idyllic Non-Catholic Cemetery.

Read Daisy Miller! Buy a copy from the iDC City Bookshop!

The Non-Catholic Cemetery in Rome: An Endangered Monument

Tucked beside an ancient gate and within a bend in Rome's third-century Aurelian Walls are two landmarks: one is the pyramid-shaped Roman tomb of a first-century civic magistrate named Gaius Cestius; the other is Rome's Non-Catholic Cemetery (often called the Protestant Cemetery).

The cemetery got its start in the early eighteenth century when this area of town was little more than a cow field. The cemetery was established to accommodate the graves of non-Catholic travelers and residents who died in Rome, for Papal law forbade their burial in Catholic resting places.

The earliest grave discovered in the Protestant cemetery dates to 1738, an era in which Roman law required that funeral services be held after dark and by torch light. Since the early eighteenth century, approximately 4000 people have been buried in this green idyll, and today, the cemetery is one of the most peaceful and beautiful places in all of Rome.

A cemetery is a must-see for any lover of literature. In the oldest section of the cemetery is the grave of the English Romantic poet, John Keats (1796-1821). Having contracted tuberculosis, Keats came to Rome in search of a healing climate. He took up residence in a pensione overlooking the Spanish Steps, but the disease took his life just three months after his arrival.

After Keats' death, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelly visited his grave in the Protestant Cemetery and wrote that "it would make one in love with death to be buried in so beautiful a place." When Shelley himself died in a boating accident near Viareggio in 1822, his body was cremated on the beach, but his ashes were interred in this cemetery and his grave was inscribed cor cordium or "heart of hearts."

From the early nineteenth century to the present day, the graves of Keats and Shelley have been sites of literary pilgrimage. Oscar Wilde sought to pay homage to these Romantic poets when he visited the cemetery in 1877, immediately after an audience with Pope Pius IX. Upon seeing the grave of Keats, Wilde fell to the ground and lay prone atop the plot for a long while. When he rose to his feet he declared, "this is the holiest site in Rome".

Visitors to the Protestant Cemetery agree that it is one of Rome's most extraordinary sites. But, at present, the Cemetery is at risk. It is on the World Monument Fund's 2006 list of the 100 most endangered sites on earth. Many of the cemetery's monuments are crumbling - they've been damaged by pollution and by years without maintenance. The landscape is overgrown, and the site is waterlogged by poor drainage.

To help preserve the cemetery, a new organization, Friends of the Non-Catholic Cemetery in Rome, has been founded. We at the Institute of Design & Culture have joined this effort and we invite you to do the same. If you'd like to help, visit their website:

Make a Contribution to the Protestant Cemetery

In the English Ghetto: the Keats-Shelley Memorial House

In the era of the Grand Tour, the neighborhood around the Spanish Steps was known as the English Ghetto. There, English-speaking travelers and expatriates made their homes. Among them was the poet John Keats, who came to Rome in late 1820 and died just a few months later in February of 1821.

The Roman pensione in which Keats spent the last three months of his life overlooks the Spanish Steps. Though this is now a rather tony address, Keats' accommodations were quite modest, for he was neither wealthy nor well-known at the time of his death. He occupied a few small rooms, including a bedroom that looked out at the Spanish Steps and a living room that faced Piazza di Spagna. As there were not kitchen facilities, meals were brought in by local restaurants.

Though Keats' possessions and furniture were burned after his death in 1821 (Roman law required this following death by a disease like tuberculosis), the building that housed Keats' rooms was purchased and restored in the early twentieth century. It now houses a museum and one of the finest libraries of Romantic literature in the world.

On view in the museum is an extensive collection of paintings, objects and manuscripts celebrating the lives of Keats, Shelley and Byron, as well as locks of Milton and Elizabeth Barrett's hair, a manuscript and poem by Oscar Wilde, and splendidly bound first editions and letters by Wordsworth, Robert Browning, Joseph Severn, Charles and Mary Cowden-Clarke.

You can learn more about the Keats-Shelley House by visiting their website, where you can take a virtual tour, or by planning a visit next time you're in Rome.

The Keats-Shelley Memorial House

"It was on a dreary night of November..."

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, writer and wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley, is not buried in Rome, nor did she write a novel that used the city as its backdrop. Nonetheless Mary Shelley traveled several times to the Eterna. Like so many other literary visitors of her era, she found Rome to be spellbinding. Most of her time in the city was taken up with visiting museums, archaeological sites, and churches, and a letter of 1819 describes her experience:

But my letter would never be at an end if I were to try [to] tell a millionth part of the delights of Rome - it has such an effect on me that my past life before I saw it appears a blank and now I begin to live - in the churches you hear the music of heaven and the singing of angels.

Mary Shelley is best known for her novel Frankenstein; or,The Modern Prometheus, and though it speaks of a world outside Rome, we take a moment this Halloween to pay homage to her literary masterpiece.

Born in London on 30 August 1797, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was the second daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, an early feminist writer, and of William Godwin, an anarchist, atheist, and dissenter. Mary lived up to her the achievements of her intellectual parents, publishing Frankenstein; or,The Modern Prometheus at a young age. How did this book come into being?

When Mary was sixteen years old, she met her husband-to-be, Percy Shelley, when he and his wife visited her family's bookshop and home. Over the course of the summer of 1814, they fell in love and eloped to France - despite the fact that Shelley was still married. They were soon forced to return to Britain for lack of financial resources.

In 1816, Mary and Percy returned to the continent, taking up residence in Lake Geneva for the summer. Lord Byron was living nearby, and one evening at a gathering of writers and intellectuals, Byron proposed a competition amongst the writers: each would compose a ghost story and share it with the others.

By the next morning, Mary had come up with nothing. However, the following night she had a waking dream in which she saw "the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together." After talking about this dream with Byron, Mary began to write what was to become the fourth chapter of Frankenstein, which begins, "It was on a dreary night of November...."

The story is one of a young Swiss student, Victor Frankenstein, who discovers the secret of animating lifeless matter. By assembling body parts, Frankenstein creates a monster who vows revenge on his creator after being rejected from society.
Today we often identify the artificially-created being in this story as "Frankenstein," but it is interesting to note that it is the creator, and not the creature, that bears this name in Shelley's novel.

Shelley's Frankenstein was published in 1818 and critics immediately began to debate its meaning. It has been read as an allegory of the Industrial Revolution and the ultimate power found in the creation of life. Others have seen it as a tale of pregnancy and motherhood, reflecting the fears of bringing a new innocent life into the world and raising it properly so that it does not become a monster.

Buy Frankenstein from the iDC City Bookshop

Want to Learn More About Literary Rome?

If you're interested in learning more about literary Rome, visit the iDC City Bookshop, which features a selection of books about Rome and about those who have written about it.

Or, take our Strangers in Paradise City Course when you're next in Rome. We'll donate 10% of the proceeds from the City Course to the Non-Catholic Cemetery in Rome.

The iDC City Bookshop

Et Tu Azzurri!

Italy Wins the World Cup and Rome Stages a Celebration that Would Make Caesar Proud!

Ancient Roman generals who conquered far-reaching parts of the world were celebrated with spectacular triumphal processions. In Rome, the more things change, the more they stay the same. And so, last night, Italy's World Cup soccer champions - the Azzurri (or the Blues) - re-entered Rome with a massive celebration that would have made Julius Caesar green with envy. Generals like Julius Caesar began their triumphal parades in Rome's Campus Martius, an open field that served as a training ground for the ancient Roman army. The Azzurri, who spent the past weeks laying low their fair share of international opponents, did exactly the same thing. They newly crowned champions began their victory parade at Palazzo Chigi in the central Campus Martius.

There they were received and congratulated by Rome's new Prime Minister, Romano Prodi. Official ceremonies out of the way, the Azzurri eschewed the ancient generals' four-horse chariots, and instead mounted a blue, double-decker, open-top bus that moved them slowly down the Via del Corso, a road first laid in 220 BC. Hugh crowds thronged the streets, cheering at the top of their voices as the laurel-wreathed football champions proudly displayed their hard-worn spoil of war, the World Cup trophy.

All eyes were on the Azzurri as their bus left the Via del Corso and made its way through Rome's city center, Piazza Venezia. Sky-cams showed the spectacular scene as hundreds of thousands of fans ran alongside the Azzurri-mobile. Jammed wall-to-wall in every street and piazza, the mass of spectators gave the illusion that the city streets were sparkling and waving under the streetlights. The enormous crowd slowed the victory bus to a crawl, but a good-natured police force locked arms to form a human chain, clearing the roads and allowing the Azzurri to make their way past the same ancient theaters and temples that Julius Caesar himself would have seen when he celebrated his three-day triumphal procession in 46 BC.

While Caesar's procession ended on Rome's Capitoline Hill, the ultimate destination of the was the Circus Maximus, the Eternal City's ancient chariot-racing stadium. Some 250,000 ancient spectators once fit in the massive grandstands that surrounded the Circus; last night 500,000 modern soccer fans packed into the space. As the Azzurri's bus rounded the corner of the Circus Maximus and the new national heroescame into sight, the roar of the crowd was deafening. Red, white, and green flags waved wildly. Loudspeakers blasted the oh-so-appropriate musical theme from the 1959 movie, Ben Hur. And as the bus crept toward a newly-erected stage, its 500,000 fan entourage pressed for space in the already-full stadium.

Taking triumphant leave of their horsepower driven chariot, the Azzurri assumed positions on a stage facing the Palatine skybox - the place from which Roman Emperors once cheered their favorite chariot racers. The arrival of each player provoked roars of adulation from a crowd wearing red, white, and green wigs and decked out in Italian flags folded to make togas, capes, and turbans. As a million-voices belted out Queen's victory anthem, We Are the Champions, and tri-color fireworks lit up the sky, it became clear why Rome is called the "Eternal City." It was a celebration that Caesar would have loved.

Et tu, Azzurri? In Rome, the more things change the more they stay the same.

New Ara Pacis Museum Opens!

Make Your Offerings at the Altar of Peace!

After the assassination of Julius Casesar in 44 BC, Gaius Octavius, Caesar's great nephew and heir, fought his way to political and military stardom. The young Roman avenged the death of his uncle and put an end to the civil wars that had ravaged the Roman Empire for decades. As a result, he was considered the most powerful man in the Roman world.

For his achievements, the Romans honored Gaius Octavius in many ways. The Senate awarded him the title of "Augustus" or "Revered One." They also gave him extraordinary political powers, essentially making him Rome's first emperor.

After Augustus achieved military victories in Gaul and Spain, the Senate constructed the Ara Pacis or Altar of Peace to memorialize the peace and prosperity brought to Rome by his victories. Greek artists of the highest skill were commissioned to carve practically every surface of the Ara Pacis with images that evoked the benefits of Augustus's reign.

From portraits of Augustus and his family to images of the gods and goddesses that blessed the city, the Ara Pacis was a visible testament to the idea that Augustus had reawakened the Golden Age.

To learn more about the Ara Pacis and its meaning (and to get ready for the unveiling of the new Ara Pacis museum on 21 April 2006), check out our newest slide show.

The iDC's Ara Pacis Slide Show

A New Home for Saint Peter!

Construction on St Peter's Basilica Began 500 Years Ago!

On 18 April 1506, Pope Julius II traded his papal tiara for a hard hat and climbed into a foundation trench to lay the cornerstone for a new basilica honoring St. Peter. Three years into his reign, the Pontiff had decided that the old basilica - constructed by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the early 4th century - was too decrepit to stand any longer.

Julius II asked his architect Bramante to design a new Basilica and Bramante was pleased to oblige. In true Renaissance spirit, he proposed a building that combined the colossal vaulting of the Basilica of Constantine in the ancient Roman Forum with a dome resembling that of the Pantheon. A medal depicting his proposed building was struck in honor of the project (see right).

It was to be more than one hundred and fifteen years before the church was consecreated and still several decades before the interior was completed.

Beware the Ides of March!

Got Caesar?

Some despise Caesar for his ambition, while others praise him for his devotion to Rome. No matter what we think of Caesar, he looms large in our imaginations. Was he "the nobles man / That evr lived in the tide of times" as Marc Antony describes him in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar? Or was he an ambitious tyrant on the verge of destroying the Roman Republic as Brutus believed? Did he wear a white toga or a black toga?

One of the more interesting ways to understand the historical figure of Julius Caesar is to look at how he has been representing in the popular media - from Shakespeare to HBO.

Written probably in 1599, Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar, is fundamental to many people's knowledge of Caesar. Shakespeare based his depiction on a biography written by the ancient historian Plutarch. In funeral speeches given by Brutus and Marc Antony, Shakespeare contrasts the image of Caesar as tyrant with the image of Caesar as the noble savior of his country.

Twelve films about the life of Caesar have been made since 1914. One of the most successful brings Shakespeare's play to the silver screen - it was directed by Joseph Mankiewicz in 1953 and it stays quite close to the Shakespearean text. It stars James Mason as Brutus, Louis Calhern as Caesar, and the young Marlon Brando as Antony. All provide powerful performances.

Since 1938, there have been eleven television productions that illustrate the life of Julius Caesar. Certainly the most ambitious and the most scenographic is HBO's ROME, which premiered in fall of 2005.

Filmed at Cinecitta Studios in Rome, where an enormous set of the Roman Forum was created, the series depicts the final year of Caesar's life. The show's makers take a cue from Shakespeare as they illustrate the duality of Caesar's character, presenting him as noble one moment and despicable the next.

Though these media accounts are "fictional," they are also powerful. They give shape to our images of ancient Rome and its most provocative ruler. And, importantly, such mulitmedia representations of Julius Caesar's life provoke us to marvel at the complexities of political power in ancient Rome and to compare it to our own complicated world.

44 BC Revisited

A Walk Through Julius Caesar's Rome

If you could time travel and make your way back to 44 BC, what would you see? What did Caesar see in his final days as he strolled through Rome, unaware that 60 senators were plotting to take his life?

We've just posted a new slideshow on our website that will help you make the journey back to Caesar's Rome. And, just in case it seems that you learned about Caesar's life and death long ago (perhaps shortly after he died!), our slideshow will give you an update on the basic facts and the gory details!

Revisit the Year 44 BC

Reading, Writing, and Rome

Pay a Visit to the City Library!

If you're looking for books that will help you learn more about Rome, we suggest you pay a visit to the iDC's City Library. You'll find loads of interesting books about the Eternal City.

This month, iDC City Scholars are raving about Jonathan Harr's account of a Caravaggio mystery, The Lost Painting. Written as an art-historical thriller,t he book follows scholars as they search Europe for a Caravaggio known to have existed, but long lost. The story is a true one. It's exciting and when you finish the book, you'll probably know a lot more about Caravaggio's life than when you began!

Random House 2005.

Visit the iDC City Library

Strike a Pose!

How to Look at a Roman Sculpture

Ever wonder just how you should look at ancient Roman sculptures? What can you learn when you look closely at Roman portraits? What do their faces tell us? What do their clothes and hairstyles convey? How can we decode the messages they meant for us to understand? How can we get insight into the days of their ancient lives?

We're here to answer those questions! We've called in our Roman sculpture expert, Dr. Julia Lenaghan, and she's provided us with ten basic questions that you can ask yourself the next time you're admiring the ancient Roman jetset in an archaeological museum.

Visit our Roman Sculpture website and you'll learn how to judge who's hot and who's not.

Ladies with an attitude
Fellows that were in the mood
Don't just stand there, let's get to it
Strike a pose, there's nothing to it
-Madonna

Roman Vogue: How to Look at a Roman Sculpture

Despite Rumors About the Salad

The Real Story of Caesar's Famous Salad

Despite rumors you may have heard, Julius Caesar did not invent Caesar's Salad. In fact, Caesar's Salad was the result of Prohibition. In 1924, the celebrities of Hollywood ventured south of the border for relief from the "dry" heat of L.A.

One night, when a group of the fab and famous descended on Caesar's Hotel and Restaurant in Tijuana, chef Caesar Cardini was forced to throw together an impromptu meal. In a moment of inspiration (his cupboards were almost bare) he simply threw everything in the kitchen into a bowl - eggs, romaine lettuce, garlic, Worscestershire sauce, lemon juice, and olive oil. Anchovies, already an ingrdient in Worcestershire sauce, were later added to the recipe, according to Ruth Reichl, editor of Gourmet magazine.

On a recnetly broadcast NPR interview, Reichl advises that when making the true Caesar's Salad, one must do two things: first, you must leave the Romaine lettuce leaves whole so that they may be eaten with your hands (this being the way the first Caesar's Salads were eaten). Second, the dressing should not be whisked together, rather the eggs should be broken on top of the lettuce and then Parmesan cheese should be grated over the top.

The original recipe follows. It has been authenticated by Rosa Cardini, daughter of the salad's inventor

CAESAR'S SALAD

1/2 cup day-old bread, cubed
3/4 cup garlic oil, divided use
2 small heads romaine lettuce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 eggs*, coddled (boiled in the shell for 1 minute)
Juice of 2 medium lemons
8-10 drops of Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. To prepare the garlic oil, place 4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled and quartered, in a good quality (e.g. Extra Virgin) olive oil and let it stand at room temperature several hours or even up to 5 days.

2. To prepare croutons, pre-heat oven to 225 degrees. Toss bread cubes with 1/4 cup garlic oil and spread on a pan or baking sheet. Toss frequently and bake until golden brown, about 2 hours.

3. Wash, dry and crisp (in the refrigerator) the leaves of the romaine lettuce. Originally, Caesar left the lettuce leaves whole, and the salad was eaten with the fingers, but later he tore the outer leaves into 2-inch lengths, leaving only the small inner leaves whole, and the salad was eaten with a fork.

4. Place lettuce in a large bowl and toss with remaining 1/2 cup of garlic oil. Add salt and pepper, again tossing gently. Break the coddled eggs* over the lettuce, add lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce and toss two or three times. Add croutons and cheese. Toss lightly once more.

Serves 4.

PLEASE NOTE
*Over the past few years, the threat of salmonella in barely cooked or coddled eggs has prompted many cooks to use pasteurized eggs or egg substitute or skip the egg entirely and use a heaping tablespoonful of mayonaise to simulate the consistency of the coddled egg.

Rome Reborn!

Something Old, Something New in the Eternal City

Extra, extra! Read All About It!

Laocoon renews contract with the Vatican!

Promises another 500 years!

The stones of Rome are quivering with excitement this week as we prepare to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the rediscovery of the Laocoon. Why is this sculpture so important? Find out by reading our article below.

There's lots of other news from Rome here too. We hope you enjoy this update from the Eterna. And, as always, we thank you for your support for the iDC and hope to see you in Rome again soon!

Ancient Rome Reborn in the Renaissance

The 500th Anniversary of the Rediscovery of the Laocoon

On January 14, 1506, a momentous discovery was made in the city of Rome. A farmer digging in his vineyard, near the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, began to uncover pieces of an ancient sculpture. The pieces were quickly identified as belonging to the Laocoon, a sculpture that had been famous in antiquity.

After its discovery, the Laocoon quickly made its way into the Vatican collection of antiquities. There, for centuries, it has been drawn and admired by artists as diverse as Michelangelo, Titian, El Greco, Rubens, and Gericault - all of whom were influenced by the work's powerful, twisting movement and by its highly defined anatomy.

January 14, 2006, marks the 500th anniversary of the rediscovery of the Laocoon. In celebration of this important anniversary, we've posted an article about the Laocoon on our website. And for those of you who want to know even more, there's also a slidehow about the impact of this ancient sculpture on the history of western art.

Rediscovery of the Laocoon: Article and Slideshow

Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts

The Story of Laocoon

The Laocoon sculpture is a familiar image, featured in Latin textbooks and discussed in almost every art history survey course. But what's the story behind this sculpture? Who is Laocoon and why are he and his sons being strangled?

The story is told in an epic poem called the Aeneid, written by the Roman poet Virgil in the first century BC. In many ways, the Aeneid picks up where the Greek epic, the Illiad, left off. The Greeks are at war with the Trojans because Paris, a Trojan prince, has stolen Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world.

After many years of fighting, the Greeks haven't managed to breach the walls of Troy, so they turn to trickery. The Greek army constructs a giant wooden horse, leaving its belly hollow so that they can hide inside. They wheel the horse up to the walls of Troy, pretending that it's a peace offering. But, after almost a decade of warfare with the Greeks, the Trojans are mistrustful and there is a discussion about whether or not to bring the horse into the city. Amidst the confusion, Laocoon, a Trojan priest, says this:

O my poor people,
Men of Troy, what madness has come over you?
Can you believe the enemy truly gone?
A gift from the Greeks, and no ruse?
Is that their way?
Have no faith in the horse!
Whatever it is, even when Greeks bring gifts
I fear them, gifts and all.

Laocoon is punished for his words. Some of the gods want the ruse to be successful so that the Greeks will win the war. So, as Laocoon stands at the seaside, preparing to make a sacrifices, snakes are sent from the sea to strangle he and his sons.

From the calm sea - twin snakes
Coiling, uncoiling, swam abreast for shore,
Their underbellies showing as their crests
Reared red as blood above the swell; behind
they glided with great undulating backs.

They slid until they reached Laocoon.
Each snake enveloped one of his two boys,
twining about and feeding on the body.
Next they ensnared the man as he ran up
With weapons: coils like cables looped and bound him
Twice round the middle; twice about his throat
They whipped their back-scales, and their heads towered,
While with both hands he fought to break the knots,
Drenched in slime, his hand-bands black with venom,
Sending to heaven his appalling cries.

Text adapted from Robert Fitzgerald's translation of the Aeneid. Published by Vintage, 1990.

Reading, Writing and Rome

Pay a Visit to the City Library!

If you're looking for a hot read to warm up the winter nights, we suggest you pay a visit to the iDC's City Library. You'll find loads of interesting books about the Eternal City.

This month, iDC City Scholars are raving about Mary Beard and Keith Hopkins' new pocket-sized volume, The Colosseum, published by Harvard University Press. Written by classical scholars, but aimed at the general public, the book gives the inside story on Roman gladiators and the Flavian amphitheater in which they fought.

iDC City Library

Marcus Aurelius Rides Again!

New Galleries Open in the Capitoline Museums

In December, the Capitoline Museums - the world's oldest public museum - made a dramatic jump into the twenty-first century. A new glass pavilion and numerous remodeled sculpture galleries were inaugurated and opened to the public. This brilliant new addition - meant to house the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius and other ancient treasures, some of which have not been on exhibit for decades - vaults the Capitoline Museums into the modern world.

Find Out More: the iDC website currently features an article about the Capitoline's new galleries, as well as photos, and a slidehow about the history of the Marcus Aurelius statue.

Marcus Aurelius Rides Again: Article and Slideshow

About Us

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