Museum of Roman Civilization
The Museum has both documentary and educational value, in that the material on display is essentially made up of reproductions of xamples of classical archaeology which have either been lost or destroyed or of works, which have been pieced back together.
There are mainly moulds of statues, busts, inscriptions, reliefs and of life-size parts of buildings, of plastic models of monuments and architectonic complexes of Rome and of the provinces of the Roman Empire, as well as evidence of the so-called “material culture” such as furnishings, objects of domestic use and work tools.
The Museum is divided into 59 sections that cover a surface area of 13,000square metres, for a wall development of 3 kilometres and a height of about 10 metres: such dimensions obviously make it possible to reconstruct, completely or partly, buildings and monuments of the ancient Roman world.
The first fourteen rooms house an historical summary of the origins of Rome until VI century A.D., which includes a map that illustrates the progressive expansion of the Roman Empire, the portraits of emperors and illustrious men including Caesar, Augustus, Claudius, Nero, Brutus, Pompeus, Cicero, and plastic models of numerous Augustan, Trajan, Severian and Aurelian monuments.
There are moulds of inscriptions and early Christian reliefs and sarcophaghi including that in porphyry of Costantina, the daughter of emperor Constantine, that of urban prefect Giunio Basso and that of St. Ambrose on exhibit in the section dedicated to Christianity.
Among the numerous other sections that reconstruct Roman civilization in its varying aspects in detail, from public life to everyday life, there are those dedicated to the military sectors of the army and navy, that of the ports and provinces of the empire, a section dedicated to baths, aqueducts, nymphaea and reservoirs and a section illustrating theatres, amphitheatres, circuses and arenas with plastic models of the Colosseum and the Theatre of Marcello in Rome.
The complete series of moulds of the Trajan Column deserves a special mention, there are reliefs that illustrate the two military campaigns of the emperor Trajan against the Dacians (101-102 and 105-106 A.D.) and the plastic model of Rome (scale: 1:250; surface:200 metres squared), created by architect Italo Gismondi, which reproduces the city as it was presented at the time of the emperor Constantine, and it is reconstructed on the basis of results and research and excavation campagins carried out over the years.
It’s construction had started for the Augustan Exhibition of the Roman World in 1937, it was completed in the seventies and is a useful instrument in learning about the ancient city, in an interesting comparison with the aspects that the same presents today.
Address: Piazza Giovanni Agnelli, 10
Visiting Hours: Every day from 9 am to 2 pm.
Sundays from 9 am to 1.30 pm.
Closed on Mondays, Dec. 25, Jan. 1
Price: € 6,50; reduced € 4,50
http://en.turismoroma.it/
