Alba Fucens

On Tuesday, during our weekly day-long field trip, we went to visit Alba Fucens, a Roman Colony 68 (Roman) miles north-east from Rome. The colony sits at a stategic point along the Via Valeria and was built in 303 BC in order to help control the Aequi. About a century later, the colony was contributing about 2,000 men a year to fight against Hannibal in the Second Punic War.



That said, the colony and the surrounding area are beautiful. We were told that it would be very cold (possibly even with snow!), but it ended up being in the 50's, which was very nice (even though a snowball fight in a Roman amphitheater would have been fun).

Here's a picture of me standing at a rest stop. We were not far from Alba Fucens, it was just another short drive farther up into the mountains.

Here's a picture of Professor Serfass (Adam) and Louis. You can sort of make out the modern community behind them.

This is an amphiteater. There were many epic gladiatorial battles in this place, and we Centristi, myself included, had some excellent wrestling matches/footraces in the arena.

I apologize for this photograph. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get a picture of the whole colony. I hope that this gives you some idea of what it looked like.

A student attempts to read a Latin inscription, a daunting yet exciting task.

The remains of a bath house. Notice the hypocaust system. They would warm the bath by channeling hot air from a fire under the floor in the area with the brick pylons.

Here we are eating our cestini. Apparently playgrounds can also function as cafeterias.

Once we got back to Rome, we stopped by some important sites. This tomb, belonging to a man named Eurysaces, commemorates the life of a baker, contractor, and public servant. The presenter (the first student presenter), argued that he was a freed slave (on account of his Greek name, his profession, and the lack of a patronym). I am not so convinced. While he could have been a slave, he very well could also have been the son of a freedman, an orphan, the son of an immigrant, or an immigrant himself.
This is Porta Maggiore (in Latin, Porta Praenestina). Originally the terminal of the Aqua Claudia, this became incorporated into the Aurelian wall and was later refurbished by a pope. This marked the end of our long Tuesday; I was quite tired during this presentation yet somehow managed to pay attention. As much as I enjoy our site visits, I think that Tuesdays will be particularly difficult. I'll be sure to bring more snacks and things next time to help make the 10 hour days more manageable (we left at 8:00 a.m. and got back by 6:00 p.m.)

On a side note, at dinner, we got to celebrate Professor (Scott) Smith's birthday!