Saturday, March 15: The Ides of March

Alex admiring the Ara Pacis

Today was a breathless day. Tanner and I accidentally slept in and had to hurry out the door to meet the group. Apparently my hair in the morning is quite impressive. Anyway, our first order of business was to visit the Mausoleum of Augustus and the neighboring Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace) Museum, designed by Richard Meier. We translated the first couple of lines of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti (The Deeds of Divine Augustus), a funerary inscription chronicling his life and achievements. He defeated Brutus in 44 BC when he was only 19! It was interesting to see that Mussolini had put up another Latin inscription detailing his own achievements close to that of Augustus, as if to show that he was trying to bring Italy back to older ideals. The Ara Pacis was very ornate, with many tiny animals carved into the stone.

Reading Ovid at theVilla Borghese gardens

After that we visited the Basilica of Santa Maria Del Popolo. There were some beautiful paintings by Caravaggio, and many interesting uses of skulls. We then adjourned for lunch, after which we walked into the Villa Borghese park to read Ovid’s version of the story of Apollo and Daphne. Apollo loves a girl who does not love him back and chases her so persistently that she prays to be turned into a tree. We saw this story dramatically come to life inside the Galleria Borghese as one of Bernini’s amazing sculptures. We also saw his David, an aggressive and dynamic statue, as well as his amazing Rape of Proserpina and his Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures, but a camera couldn’t really capture the minute details anyway. The entire experience was amazing. Today was an art day, and was the most fun I have ever had in a museum.

Will Norton '17 and Tanner Coffin '16