Posted on 06/05/2016 7:03:09 PM PDT by marshmallow
A recently completed restoration and exhibit shows how Christians put their mark on Rome after the emperors exited the stage.
For 1200 years the Roman Forum thrived as the legislative, religious and administrative nerve center of Rome. From the little kingdom founded in 753 BC to the SPQR of the Roman Republic to the mighty Empire, the little open area grew from marketplace to city center to hub of the world. But then what happened? When the Empire fell in 476, did the Forum just cease to be?
No, it did not. Despite the implosion of the Roman government, the Forum continued to develop, transforming as new overlords came to settle on the Palatine Hill. Its survival instinct, however, was no longer fueled by the old pagan gods, but by Christianity. As the temples were gradually abandoned, Christian churches came to redefine the space of the Forum.
These mysterious years, often pejoratively called the Dark Ages for lack of historical record, receive a colorful testimony in an exhibit on display in the Forum until Oct 30, 2016. For those who think they have “done” the Forum, “Santa Maria Antiqua tra Roma e Bisanzio" reveals 300 years of history after the Roman Emperors exited center stage.
The exhibit is housed in the Church of Santa Maria Antiqua, a 7th-century church nestled into the remains of the imperial palace. Covered by a landslide caused by an earthquake in 847, the church was unearthed in 1904 and briefly studied before shutting down for a 40-year restoration that concluded just a few years ago. This exhibition is the first time the general public has set foot in the church for half a century.
Walking toward the church is a like a time warp of history. Passing under the massive platforms of...........
(Excerpt) Read more at aleteia.org ...
Beautiful.
A reminder that Our Lord was born into the world at just the right time in history.
Just lovely. A happy Sunday to all.
I like this statement.
The guy on the right holding the scale model building on his lap is probably the patron who constructed the building At least in later centuries that’s what that would often indicate.
And the guy on the far left is holding what appears to be a cassette player boom box.
The population of Rome had fallen from around 1 million in the 1st century AD to maybe 20,000 by this time.
It must have been very spooky to walk around the immense ruins of such a once great city.
The Roman Empire per se collapsed only in 1453 when the Turks slaughtered and raped Christian women and children after slaughtering their men and defiling the Churches of Constantinople.
Indeed. I often wonder about peoples who experienced such calamities — like those who emerged from the shattered ruins of Warsaw in 1945 after the Germans had razed it to the ground, or going back in time, to the people who survived the collapse of Nineveh or Eridu or Babylon etc
It is amazing how many people in Western Europe and American have no clue that the Roman Empire lasted almost a thousand years after they think it ended. Also, that Rome was not even the capital of the Roman Empire after 330 AD.
“The Roman Empire per se collapsed only in 1453 when the Turks slaughtered and raped Christian women and children after slaughtering their men and defiling the Churches of Constantinople.”
My childhood bedtime stories....One of my dearest friend is a direct descendant of Constantine Paleologos XI and my ancestor dies on the walls of The City fighting along side of him.
One of the things that happens to people who have suffered such a calamity is that hundreds of years later we still remember.
In the bottom picture....is that Mary in the middle?
I think that if Justinian hadn’t tried to reconquer the West AND had made up with the Copts and Syriacs instead of persecuting them, then the bedouins would never have been able to get north of Nabatea
Not really, Rome was one of the two capitals. Diocletian separated the Empire into two halves with Rome and Constantinople as two equal co-capitals.
however the East was richer, far better educated and safer from Germanics than the West, so over time, the East took precedence
The separation really took hold after Augustus (Emperor) Theodosius I died in 393 AD and his successors, his sons, the two "Caesars" (the second layer or what we'd called Prince-in-waiting) took over: Honorius in the West and Arcadius in the East
Both of these were weak, but Honorius had tougher opponents and was not able to scare off Alaric from sacking Rome -- and the sack of Rome was the end, because what kept the barbarians at bay was more the AWE of Rome - the eternal city.
“I think that if Justinian hadn’t tried to reconquer the West AND had made up with the Copts and Syriacs instead of persecuting them, then the bedouins would never have been able to get north of Nabatea.”
You may well be right, but it is equally possible that had he thoroughly crushed the Nestorians, Mohammedanism might never have developed at all. In any event, his attacks on Nestorianism were calculated to appease the Monophysites, not alienate them. The West had other ideas, sadly.
Rome in the 8th century was a different case: what happened was the result of centuries of a decline so profound that it shattered not only the political regime but also the society and the economy that built the city.
I read once that most urban centers in Italy (formerly one of the most urbanized parts of the Roman Empire) were almost completely abandoned by the end of the sixth century: a city was simply a target for barbarian or bandit attacks. Building in stone more or less ceased apart from Rome or Ravenna and living standards fell below the Iron Age level.
Thanks BenLurkin.
Madonna and child Jesus
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