Walking all 14 Regions of Ancient Rome (in a single day)

Welcome to Rome. I'm here in St. Peter's Square with the basilica and the summer tourist circus in full swing behind me, but I'm not here to talk about the Vatican today. I want to talk instead about an often overlooked aspect of ancient Rome, which are the city's neighborhoods. Now, we don't know too much about the vici, the small neighborhoods in which most Romans actually lived, but we do know a fair amount about the borders, at least, of the regiones, the larger wards in which Rome was organized. There were 14 of these, and they were defined by Augustus, existed for seven centuries, and in many ways were the framework of life in ancient Rome. So let's go today on a grand tour of these 14 regions, see what survives, and try to get a sense of how ancient Rome actually looked 2,000 years ago. I'm now crossing the Tiber, as you see, and receding gently behind me, there is Trestavere, Trans-Tiberium to the Romans. This was the 14th of the Augustan regions, an area known in the ancient world for its large immigrant communities. It found, for example, a temple of Assyrian gods there and several synagogues. It was, from ancient Romans, a first port of call in the ancient city, and so it seemed appropriate for our little tour here to begin there. Welcome to Piazza Farnese. Behind me, you'll see one of the piazza's two renaissance fountains, each made with a huge stone tub from the badge of Caracalla. In antiquity, this was part of Region IX, Circus Fleminius. This was more or less coterminous with the Campus Martius, originally a place for military exercises, but later Rome's great entertainment district. The Piazza Navona, a few blocks to my left, was famously laid out on top of the Mission Stadium. There are also baths here, and of course, a few temples like the Pantheon. People didn't live here, or not in great numbers in antiquity. It was only in the Middle Ages when this area, opposite the great pilgrim magnet of St. Peter's, became Rome's center of population. This became really a place people resided, as well as were entertained, and remains in many ways the heart of Rome's centro storico. A brief addition, I couldn't bear to pass the Piazza Navona without recording something. Behind me, of course, is the Fountain of the Four Rivers, Bernini's masterpiece, an outdoor sculpture. This was, as I mentioned, laid out on top of the Mission Stadium. Domitian, among as many other odd enthusiasms, liked the Greek games, that is, things like the foot racing, boxing, and wrestling. Most Romans, of course, preferred things like chariot racing and gladiatorial combats. They weren't very popular, but he was emperor, so he had his say. Put the stadium here, and it can still be seen on the other side of the square, about 20 feet below where we're standing. So anyway, onward to our next region of Rome. Rome's seventh district lay along, and was named after, the Via Lata, the Broadway, which was the urban extension of the Via Flaminia, the great highway leading off into northern Italy. That's the Via del Corso now, you see just ahead of us in this view, and it seems to have run through a neighborhood of mixed commercial and residential uses, like much of Rome. Beside us is the Column of Marcus Aurelius, which actually lay just outside that district's boundaries, but I like the monument and here we are, so why the hell not? It was raised by Commodus, Marcus's otherwise worthless son, to commemorate his father's victories against the Marcomanni and the Quadi. Welcome to Piazza del Quirinale. Behind me are the famous Dioscuri, or Quirinal Horse Tamers, salvaged in the Middle Ages from the ruins of the Baths of Constantine. These statues are almost all that remains of what was, in the Roman era, one of the city's most affluent districts, the Alta Semita region, named for Alta Semita, the street that ran along the crest of the Quirinal Hill. That street was lined by mansions and gardens. The famous Gardens of Solace were near here, but unfortunately, thanks to heavy overbuilding, little beyond those statues and their memories survives. The fifth district mentioned in Rome was Esquilii, named, as you've probably guessed, in the Esquiline Hill on which we're now standing. It was, for the most part, a residential district with few monuments, but there was one very great exception. It is just behind me now, and that is the Baths of Diocletian. Now, the central block of the Baths, the Frigidarium, was converted into a church during the Renaissance. There's a wedding going on in there right now, as I found a few minutes ago. Let's take a very quick look at the atrium, which once connected the Frigidarium with the rest of the Baths. Give you a sense of the grandeur inside. It's just one moment. I'll keep quiet once we're in. All right, well, pardon the long silence, but that was with a quick look, wasn't it? All right, we'll move on from here, descending towards the heart of the city, and on to our next district. This is the Appian Hill. The ruins behind me belonged to the Baths of Trajan, a complex once almost as large as the Baths of Diocletian. Unfortunately, thanks to Renaissance stone robbing and other pitfalls, not much remains of these Baths, besides these brick fragments beside me. But they are still pretty impressive, and a nice little accent to this park here. All of this area was part of Nero's Golden House, that sprawling mega-mansion which covered much of Rome in the last years of that tyrant's reign. The substructures of that palace can still be visited right down the hill, a short distance from here. Now here, a quick aside, a nice little bit of the Baths of Trajan behind me. All of this belonged to Region III, Isis at Serapis, named for a sanctuary of those Egyptian gods. The most impressive building in this area, however, was the Colosseum, which we'll visit next. This would be a good thumbnail shot. Anyway, you've seen it before. The Colosseum, the Palladian Amphitheater, the pride and joy of Region III. Kind of surprising, I think, that they didn't name the region after it. Those are just nicknames, after all. Some prominent landmark. Must have been some temple of Isis and Serapis. Anyway, on to our next region. There she is again, glowing in the evening light. We're now, though, in a neighboring region, Region IV, named for the Templum Pacis, Temple of Peace. Not much remains of it today, unfortunately. Just this bit of marble floor, which I'm going to try to show you through this obnoxious metal fence here. Let's see. Bit of blurriness. Eh, not half bad. The Templum Pacis was built by Vespasian, who, with the spoils of the Jewish War, was part of the imperial fora complex that complemented and adjoined the Forum. It's a bit loud here, so we'll move on to our next region in a bit of a quieter place. This is the Clebo de Sgauro, the ancient Clewis Sgaurus. Almost uniquely among Roman streets, it follows its ancient course at its ancient level. If you look to my right here, you see the walls of a second-century insula, still preserved at street level, with just the arches bricked in. Above them is the church of Sant'Eggiovanni Paolo. In antiquity, this was Region 2, Caelomontium, as this is the Caelian Hill. It was, in the antiquity especially, one of Rome's most affluent regions, with mansions on both sides of this street and around. In fact, one of Rome's great Dark Age popes, Gregory I, grew up in one of the last sanctorial mansions just downslope, and that mansion has become the church of San Gregorio Magno, which can still be visited. The unassuming massive brick behind me is all that remains of the Porta Cappena, the namesake of Rome's first region. It was through the Porta Cappena that the famous Via Appia, which tied Rome to the south of Italy, entered the city. Later, the Porta Cappena's job was outsourced to the Porta San Sebastiano of the Aurelian Walls, located about a kilometer that way. But this district, as it was outside the city initially, housed not only the usual homes and businesses, but also tombs, including the famous Tomb of the Scipios, again down this street but unfortunately closed. For more on this corner of Rome and our next district, bear with me. Rome's 12th region, Piscina Publica, was named for a public swimming pool that has never been located, but it also housed the famous Baths of Caracalla, which you can see behind me, Rome's best-preserved thermae. I have a video on Tolentstone about these, which I'll happily refer you to. I'll move quickly on to our next region before the sun sets. Two regions for the price of one, Circus Maximus and Palatium. Circus Maximus is pretty self-evident. As you can see, I'm walking on the spina, the central barrier around which the track wound. There's not much left of the actual circus. The seats and superstructures are long robbed away or buried, but the sheer scale of the space is obvious. Imagine a quarter million people cheering, and the great clouds of dust whipped up as the chariots rounded around the track. It must have been quite a spectacle, and the emperors themselves enjoyed it from their seat on the Palatium. There it is, the Palatine Hill. It's very impressive now, but this is just a shell of what it once was. All you really see, for the most part, are substructures upon which the actual palaces rose. So picture another two or three stories of marble and stucco upon those gaunt brick piers. It must have been truly imposing, and wonderful evidence for how well the emperors combined power and display. Region 13 was Aventinus, the Aventine Hill. For many centuries, the hill's life was tied to the river, which you can see just behind me. Many of its inhabitants worked in the docks and warehouses that lined the riverbank, and this was, for many centuries, a working-class district. Then, as in other centuries and other places, it became gentrified as the rich-built mansions that took advantage of the wonderful views and breezes here on the hill's crest. Later still, after Alaric burned many of those mansions in his sack in 410, this church, Santa Sabina, rose from the ashes and has stood there for more than 16 centuries. A wonderful example of how many continuities there are throughout their landscape in the city of Rome. Last but not least, Region 8, the Form Romanum. Nothing to say here that the picture can't. Glad I was here for sunset. Thanks for joining me on this tour of Rome's 14 regions, and stay tuned for much more content on Secrets of the Past and Told in Stone. Have a good night.