STAIRCASE OF THE ARACOELI, 1347-1349. The short-lived rule of the "Tribune" Cola di Rienzo was popular insofar as it was practical. During the period of the papacy's long residence at Avignon, Cola's revolutionary and anti-aristocratic city government passed a new set of city ordinances which sent the barons out of the city and subjected them to severe legal punishments if they committed violence. The barons pushed back, but were devastated in a battle at Porta S. Lorenzo in November 1347. The powerful Colonna family, whose fortress was built into the ruins of a vast Severan terrace containing a stepped ramp leading from the Campus Martius up to the summit of the Quirinal, lost its leaders and withdrew to their fiefdom of Palestrina. Cola, planning for the Jubilee of 1350, had the marble steps stripped out of the Colonna stronghold, but by December 1347 he had fallen from power and fled. The Comune carried on with the project, assigning it an architect in 1348. It was completed in 1349, and paid for by a Colonna, but it was Cola's project and also served as a thank you to the Virgin for ending the Black Death in the city. It was the most important public work of Trecento Rome, and remains today a silent but eloquent tribute to what the people can achieve even against their overlords.

#SpoliaSunday takes us to the long #staircase of the #Aracoeli, which were once the steps of a huge covered ramp leading to the #Severan temple of #Serapis on the #Quirinal in #Rome. They are also the product of a successful war by the Comune on the #Colonna barons. #AncientBluesky 🏺

SARDONYX CAMEO OF SELENE (?), 193-217 CE. THE BRITISH MUSEUM This big (c. 10x14cm) cameo was probably a court commission, given its size. It shows a goddess with her chlamys billowing out behind her, in a small chariot being pulled rightward by two beautifully-carved bulls. They are going at a rapid trot and the front hooves of both are up in the air. The goddess, by comparison, is rather weakly carved, with shapeless arms and a profile that does not help us identify her, a problem worsened by damage to her crown and sceptre. Her hair suggests the Marcel waves of a Severan empress, like Julia Domna, from a prominent family from Emesa in Syria. This might be the Goddess Syria, a flattering tribute to the empress. She could also be the moon goddess Selene. The cameo's 3-level stratification, an ivory white layer between two red layers, mostly eliminates the topmost red layer, leaving its traces on the haunch of one bull and in the creases of the bulls' coats. Julia Domna was just the first powerful empress of her family, and she was accorded special titles and honours, especially in the latter part of the reign of her husband Septimius Severus. She was practically co-ruler with her son Caracalla. Whoever the goddess was, Domna was the one driving the chariot of state, with its uncontrollable problems pulling her and her family forward.

For #ReliefWednesday, among the splendours of the #BritishMuseum we find this quite large #sardonyx #cameo showing a goddess in a chariot pulled by two restless bulls. The size suggests an imperial commission of the #Severan period. Maybe Julia #Domna as #Selene or the Dea Syria. #AncientBluesky 🏺

MOSAIC EMBLEMA WITH CHARIOTEER AND HORSE, 193-235 CE. PALAZZO MASSIMO ALLE TERME This magnificent emblema comes from a cubiculum in the gigantic villa of the Severan emperors at Baccano at the fifteenth mile outside Rome along the via Cassia. As it was excavated unscientifically during the exciting period of 1869-1870, we don't know the configuration of this floor, only that it had four emblemata, each representing one factio or team of charioteers in the Circus Maximus. This chap is driving for the factio albata, the Whites, as we can tell from his doublet which is made of closely woven white ribbons. He holds his roan horse by his reins, and faces us directly in his quadrigaria or short tunic. He holds a whip in one hand and wears a grey helmet. The horse is caparisoned with two ribands and looks well up to his task of winning races. These emblemata are made with extraordinary skill, a true high point of Roman mosaic work in the very difficult style of opus vermiculatum.

#MosaicMonday finds us looking at a masterpiece of #mosaic work from the area of #Rome, one of four #aurigae or charioteers in an #emblema from a cubiculum of the #Severan #imperial #villa at #Baccano just outside the urbs. The shading using the minimum of #tesserae is amazing. #AncientBluesky 🏺

LATRINE WALL FRESCO, C. 190-210 CE. VIA GARIBALDI The Sovrintendenza or Superintendency that has responsibility for Roman antiquities in situ has just announced the restoration of a quite unusual site, a frescoed latrine, which was buried in 1605 by the huge retaining wall holding up the terrace on which the church of S. Pietro in Montorio stands, a work paid for by money left for the purpose by the unfortunate Beatrice Cenci, who was buried in the church. In 1963 a partial collapse of the retaining wall brought this public latrine to light -or at least part of it, as one whole wall had disappeared under the building works for the terrace. It seems to have had wooden seats, which have naturally disappeared, and a black and white geometric mosaic on the floor. The surprise is the the simple but graceful fresco work on the surviving walls. It has a white background and simple but perfect frame lines in red, yellow, and blue, with figures occupying the centre of the larger panels. Some are human, some avian. And, this being a public latrine, it's covered in scratched-in graffiti: a big phallus and balls with the Greek word "Gole" can be spotted in the upper register.

#FrescoFriday this week celebrates the restoration, and, hopefully, the reopening of an interesting site of the #Janiculan hill: a #Severan #latrine decorated with delicate #fresco work. 📸 Sovrintendenza Capitolina. #AncientBluesky 🏺

MOSAIC OF JULIUS CARDIUS, C. 200 CE. BATHS OF THE SEVEN SAGES, OSTIA ANTICA This cheerful nude man is Iulius Cardius, caretaker of the Baths of the Seven Sages. The inscription above his head says "Here we see Julius Cardius". The mosaic is in an antechamber next to the apodyterium or change-room, presumably where Cardius presided. Was he naked on the job? Probably inside the baths, but less probably here at the entrance. He was likely not a slave, as he had a first and last name. Ostia has another mosaic portrait of a caretaker of baths, Epictetus Buticosus, in the baths that bear his name. Buticosus is also shown nude: this is not heroic nudity, so Cardius has a normal-sized phallus, and muscle gone to flab. He holds a short, dagger-like object in his left hand which I can't identify. He is a rather wonderful ordinary man, not a god, an emperor, or a landowner, but a man with a job.

For #MosaicMonday we have a nude man in black and white, from a #Severan renovation of the #Baths of the #SevenSages in #OstiaAntica, the port of #Rome. But this is not your usual nude man. He was probably the caretaker of the baths, so you knew who to complain to. #AncientBluesky 🏺

FUNERARY INSCRIPTION OF TUTILIA RUFA, C. 200 CE. EPISCOPIO, OSTIA ANTICA TVTILIA L(uci) F(ilia) RVFA SIBI ET L(ucio) TVTILIO PATRI ET SEIAE MATRI [---] [---] ARBITRATV L(uci) SCRIBONI CINNAE FABIAE PSYCHE H(oc) M(onumentum) H(eredem) N(on) S(equitur) This inscription, found along the via Ostiensis in 1822, says "Rutilia Rufa (made this) for herself, her father Lucius Tutilius, her mother Seia [and a name that has been chiselled away], through the arbitration of Lucius Scribonius Cinna and Fabia Psyche. This monument does not pass to the heirs." The inscription already suggests tension among the family, because arbitration via a lawyer (presumably Scribonius) and a woman (a family friend? Probably also a freedwoman) was necessary merely to produce the monument, and the initials H M H N S strips the family's heirs of any rights to move or add their names to the inscription. I would hazard that Rutilia Rufa argued with the person named in the erased part and had the initials added. This points to a brother, normally the legal heir, theoretically another Lucius Tutilius. Without knowing who was in the right, what remains with the reader is a story of familial hatred.

#EpigraphyTuesday finds us in front of the #bishop's palace or #Episcopio of #OstiaAntica, the port of #Rome, where a somewhat disturbing #tomb #inscription of the #Severan period hints at a family disagreement tilting into hatred and a private damnatio memoriae. #ClassicsBluesky 🏺 +ALT