The Most Beautiful Ancient Sites in the City of Rome

The city of Rome, Italy, has been at the heart of history since the time of ancient Rome, when the city ruled over Europe and the Mediterranean. In other words, the entire world as it was known at the beginning of the Common Era. Over the course of many centuries, the various governments of Rome erected numerous monuments which survived throughout the ages and now bear testimony to the past. Today, Rome is truly an open-air museum, for the city has preserved its architectural and historical legacy, which it often emphasises. In Rome, we can travel through time. At the time, the Forum is the main square of ancient Rome, a place where citizens meet to deal with political, economical and religious matters. It is a meeting place that facilitates social life. The Forum was originally a swampy and inhospitable place of land that served as necropolis for the villages in the neighbouring hills. Around 600 BC, the site is drained and paved with beaten earth, to become the centre of the city life. Over the centuries, new constructions invade the square, some on top of older ruins. The Temple of Saturn is one of the oldest in Rome. During the worship of Saturnina each year, in the month of December, celebrations take place where the slaves are released from their duties. The festivities are an occasion to exchange gifts, a tradition that continues. The Temple of Vespasian only retains three of its 15-metre high Corinthian columns, which lead you to imagine the majesty of the building. In front of it, the Ark of Septimus Severus, built in 203 AD. It glorifies the emperor's military victories over the Parvians, the ancient people of Iran and Iraq. The Temple of Casta and Pollux is a Greek-style temple that's construction coincides with the birth of the Roman Republic in the 5th century BC. According to legend, the two heroes appeared as intrepid horsemen to help the Roman troops, and the original temple was built on the site where they watered their horses and announced the victory to the Roman people. The Basilica Julia is a public basilica that was built in the 1st century BC. It holds shops and government offices. Under its arches, they also practice banking and tribunal judges matter of inheritance. Four trials can take place simultaneously in the centurnave, which is divided with different rooms separated by movable partitions. The Sacred Road is the path that crosses the Roman Forum from east to west. Its origins, very ancient, seem to go back to the founding of Rome. It is plotted as Decemenus, one of the two traditional axes of every Roman city. The Via Sacra saw the parades of victorious generals and their soldiers during the celebration of their triumph returning from conquests. The Temple of Antonius and Faustina is located on the northern side of the Via Sacra at the entrance of the Roman Forum. It was constructed by the Emperor Antoninus Pius to honour his defied wife, the Empress Faustina, who died in 141. The temple stands on a large podium made of blocks of tuff and the Corinthian columns are made of marble. They are 17 metres high and 1.5 metres in diameter. The Arch of Titus was built by the Emperor Domitian to commemorate the taking of Jerusalem by his brother in 70 BC. So it's the Emperor Julius Caesar who is the first to depart from the Roman Forum to have his own Imperial Forum constructed. Originally the new site is meant to expand the old one and thus make it possible to transfer some of the activities that take place there. But very quickly the new Forum becomes a distinct monument which Caesar uses for ideological purposes. It forms a large rectangle that stretches to 160 metres long, closed at its extremity by the Temple of Venus, whose lineage Caesar claims in order to raise himself to the same level as the Roman nobility. At the dawn of our era, following the example of Julius Caesar, the Emperor Augustus had his own Forum built and depicts a temple there to Mars, the god of war. Thus Mars becomes the defender of Roman power and the Forum a place that legitimises the politics of Augustus by recalling his military victories, a model of Imperial propaganda. The Forum of Trajan is the latest of the Imperial Forums to have been built in Rome. It includes a famous column with a celebrated bar relief that enrolls in a spiral around its shaft. Built between 107 and 113 for the purposes of propaganda, it commemorates the victory of the Emperor Trajan over the Dacians, the people of present-day Romania. The inscribed story relates the unfolding of the two Dacian Wars. It begins with the crossing of the Danube River in the spring of 101 and ends with the deportation of the local population. The column is an integral part of the Trajan's Forum. After his triumph over the Dacians, the Emperor decides to have a forum built that will surpass all the others in its grandeur and richness. To these ends he uses a portion of the spoils that he collected at the end of the war, estimated at 163 tons of gold and twice as much silver. 300 metres long, the complex is entirely covered in marble and decorated with sculptures. It includes a basilica, two libraries, one Greek and the other Latin, and a conarded courtyard as a central square. But before building the monumental complex, they had to clear a large area in order to avoid the landslides that could be caused by the works that modified the slopes of the hills. A semi-circular, tiered structure known as Trajan's Market was built as a support. The Pantheon is a religious building commissioned by Agrippa in the first century BC. The name Pantheon means of all the gods because originally it was a temple dedicated to all the divinities of the ancient religion before it was converted into a Christian church in the 7th century. After nearly two millennia, this remarkable construction shows no signs of structural weakness despite repeated Tularic movements. Compared to its robustness, its aesthetics are not to be outdone as it's shown by the geometric effects, the choice of materials and the effort put into the interior lighting. On one of the walls, the Christian altar depicted to the Virgin Mary and the martyrs recalls the transformation of the site in 609. The building supports the largest dome in all of antiquity at 43 metres in diameter. It remains the largest in the world built with non-reinforced concrete. Later, this structure had an enormous influence on European and American architecture. In fact, many public buildings, universities and libraries copied its composition. The Piazza Colonna owes its name to the column of Marcus Aurelius which has stood here since antiquity. The column reaches a height of 29.617 metres, exactly 100 Roman feet. It was built by the Roman Senate in the 2nd century AD in honour of Marcus Aurelius' victory over the Germanic tribes north of the Dunab river. Many museums were created in Rome to stock and exhibit the numerous artworks found on the ancient sites. Among them, the Massimo alle Terme Palace, the 19th century edifice, was a Jesuit school that was converted into a museum in the late 20th century. Museum's collection spans the building's four storeys. One of the museum's attractions is without a doubt its collection of mosaics. The artworks hail from the sumptuous villas of the leaders of the Roman Empire, like the Villa Livia, the property of the third wife of Emperor Augustus, and the Villa Farnesina, the 16th century residence of rich bankers who appreciated ancient art. These mosaics were used in flooring and mural decorations. They were made using the technique of opus sectile, which means cut material. Plaques of marble or coloured stone, which sometimes included coloured glass, mother of pearl or metal, were cut and assembled in such a way as to constitute a geometric or figurative motif. These days this technique is called marble marquetry or stone marquetry. Mosaic art is Roman art par excellence. Classical Greeks never managed to grace its mosaics with such rich iconography. Under the Roman Empire, the technique spread through the Mediterranean region. Frescoes are another aspect of the luxurious decorations which almost entirely covered the walls of these sumptuous villas. Contrary to the mosaics, these works were not the fruit of Roman creativity. They originated from and were copied from Greek artworks. It was only from the time of Julius Caesar in the first century BC that a truly Roman pictorial tradition was created. These frescoes often had a narrative with historical characters and battle scenes painted on wooden panels that were displayed during military parades to commemorate military victories. These paintings then made their way into homes as we can see from remnants found in the villas of Pompeii buried under ash. These paintings then depicted domestic themes with scenes of daily life and representations of deities. The frescoes of the Villa Livia presented a typical example of Pompeian style in Rome. They depicted natural landscapes inhabited by the local fauna and an ancient yellow frieze, while the floor's mosaic represents mythical animals, just like the one in Villa de Beccano which belonged to the brother of Emperor Septimus Severus in the second and third century AD. Mythological characters, the muses of the seasons and the lovers of Jupiter grace the walls. A panel represents chariot drivers whose chariots are painted in the colours of the circus's four factions blue, red, green and white. Other frescoes represent fishing scenes and an allegory of justice. This villa also contained mosaics made in another genre with much bigger pieces revelatory of a different artistic trend. Sculpture is another form of art seen in Rome that hails from ancient Greece. Though it was often presented as a repetition, even a form of decline of ancient Greek sculpture, today Roman sculpture gets the recognition it fully deserves. Interestingly, it focuses more on reflecting the writ commissioners than the personality of the artists. Essentially slaves and freed slaves whose names are unknown. While Roman sculptures most often derived inspiration from the illustrious models of ancient Greece, it is not just a mere copy of Greek artworks. Sculptural models are declining in various ways, thereby creating original works based on old models. And, contrary to what the first archaeologicalists believed, Roman statues, just like the Greek statues before them, were polychromatic. Artists used either paints or a mix of materials in order to play with colour. Furthermore, Romans invented portrait, bust sculptures and generalised the art of portrait making. The collection of sacrography is another treasure of the museum. They were used to bury the deceased from the upper classes. In the second century BC, burial progressively came through a place incineration. Made of various materials, such as pythrine, tufa, marble and red potpourri, they are intricately decorative of low reliefs that depict a number of themes. The decorative motifs which are most commonly found are wreaths of flowers and fruit, and scenes illustrating the deceased public's and private life. In Roman times, tombs were located outside the sacred parameter of the city, and were established along the roads which departed from the city. One of the sarcophagi in particular draws attention. It was discovered only in 1931. It must have been the tomb of a general, engaged in battle against the Germanic barbarian tribes in the second century, during the time of Marcus Aurelius. Statues of the emperors dotted the countryside, for they served to perpetuate the cult of personality. For this reason, these figures were never represented as ageing. In ancient Rome, one of the demigods imported from the Greek pantheon is Dionysus, who is named Bacchus here. He is always followed by a cohort of characters, like Pan, Selenus, Orus, and a troop of nymphs and satyrs, the latter being a creature of half-man, half-goat. Dionysus was the god of wine, and also the god of fertility, vegetation, and the non-civilised world. Only women partook in the celebrations to Dionysus, which were called orgies. They dressed in goatskins and painted their faces with grape juice or blood. While the faces all share a certain resemblance, they have little expression. The bodies and poses, on the other hand, were very well depicted by the Roman sculptors. The bodies do not represent each individual character. They only represent beauty, grace, and elegance, as depicted by this discus thrower from the second century AD, a copy of a Greek statue from the fifth century BC. In this room stands the statue of the young girl from Anzio, which was found in the villa of Emperor Nero in the 19th century, after a wall collapsed. The young girl is a priestess wrapping in a beautiful drape. She is depicted holding a platter of votive objects, composed of an olive branch, a bandage, and a lion's foot, as an offering to Dionysus, represented here dressed in a goatskin. His half-brother Apollo, the god of light and the arts, has no reason to envy him. In another room stands the statue of the first Roman emperor, Augustus, who reigned around the year 0. At the time, the heads of statues were sculpted separately. This common practice allowed sculptors to make a series of portraits that were later adjusted to a given body, thereby depicting the commissioner in a variety of poses. The statue represents a wounded woman in a Greek artwork that was taken back to Italy in the 5th century BC after Roman conquests. Much like these wrestlers, it represents the artistic link between the two countries. This statue of a modest Venus marks the end of this collection. This museum is a must-see for those interested in history and art. The Colosseum is an immense elliptical amphitheatre located in the centre of the city. Contrary to many other amphitheatres located on the periphery of the city, the Colosseum was built in the heart of ancient Rome. It is the largest ever built in the Roman Empire, one of the largest works of Roman architecture and engineering. With a surface area of six hectares, it is an elliptical layout and measures 189 metres long and 156 metres wide. The height of the outer wall is 48 metres. It took more than 100,000 cubic metres of limestone block set without mortar but secured by 300 tons of iron clamps to build it. The north side of the perimeter wall is still standing. Brick ramps at each end were added in the 19th century to strengthen the wall. The surviving part of the monumental façade consists of three levels of superimposed arches topped by a very tall attic. The arches are framed by Doric, Ionic and Corinthian half-columns and each arch on the first and second level was decorated with statues honouring the gods and characters from classical mythology. The construction of the Colosseum began in 70 AD under the Emperor Vespasian and was finished in 80 AD under the Emperor Titus. According to an inscription found on the site, the Emperor Vespasian ordered that they built this new amphitheatre with his own portion of the bounty, part of the great quantity of treasures seized by the Romans after their victory in the First Jewish-Roman War in 70 AD. The Colosseum could possibly be interpreted as a great triumphal monument built in the Roman tradition of celebrations of major victories. Much like a large modern-day football stadium, it could hold between 50,000 and 75,000 spectators. So large passageways to facilitate movement were provided for this reason. The building was used for hunting wild animals, gladiator battles and other shows like public executions, re-enactment of famous battles and dramas based on Roman mythology. The spectators were seated in a hierarchical arrangement that reflected the nature of Roman society. The lower level reserved for the rich, the next level for the middle class and the last level for the poor, slaves and women. The central arena is an oval that is 86 metres long and 54 metres wide, surrounded by a wall that is four and a half metres high and rises up to the level of the first row of seats. The enormous capacity of the Colosseum made it necessary to have measures for rapid access and evacuation with 24 entries that led outside. The arena consisted of a wooden floor covered with sand above a vast underground structure called the Hippogium. It is a vast network of tunnels and cages located beneath the arena where gladiators and animals brace themselves before the show. The Colosseum, in ruins today because of earthquakes, is nevertheless one of the symbols of ancient Rome. In a city, the Baths of Doclusien are the greatest baths ever built in Rome. Undertaken in 298, the construction of the baths under the emperors Doclusien and Maximus took eight years. Occupying an area of nearly 14 hectares, these baths were also the greatest and most luxurious within the entire Roman Empire. They contained over 2,400 basins and the main building, which spanned a length of 250 metres, could welcome nearly 3,000 people. Today, its ruins are partially covered by a church and a museum. Like all similar buildings, the baths include a calederium for solar heating, a frigidarium where the water was cold, a tepidarium where it was tepid, a natacio to dive in the water, and many gymnasiums to relax. Everything covered in splendid mosaics. After the sack of Rome by the Goths in 410 and by the Vandals in 455, the baths ceased their activity. They suffered the same fate of all the great Roman monuments. Their stones were used over the course of many centuries to wreck other buildings. While the tepidarium was reconverted, then recovered by the churches of Saint Mary of the Angels. Today, the remaining rooms of Doclusien baths shelter one of the four annexes of the National Roman Museum. Here, for example, are the excavated finds from a forgotten tomb along the banks of the Tiber. It belonged to the Platorini family, who lived under the reign of Emperor Augustus in the 1st century BC. The collections exhibited under the magnificent vaults of the thermal baths include a more classical museal section. Among the exhibited frescoes, sculptures, and laurel leaves, many steles retrace the worship of Mithra. This Persian god, depicted here killing a bull in order to sow the land, was adopted by the Romans in the late 1st century AD. Thanks to this deity, monotheistic worship was born here in Rome prior to the advent of Christianity. On a scale model of this site, we can see that the church was built over the thermal baths. In the foreground, the great cloister was designed by Michelangelo around 1565. Its arcade, 80 metres long, contained a series of aligned stelts and sarcophagi, making for an outdoor viewing to the end of the museum's tour. The Palazzo Altemps is one of the four establishments that continue the National Roman Museum. Built around 1480 for one of the nephews of Pope Sixtus IV, it changed hands in 1568 when it was purchased by Cardinal Altemps, after whom it was named. It is one of the most beautiful residences of Rome. Inside, a very elegant courtyard contains many statues from the collection accumulated by this family throughout the ages. Converted into a museum in the late 20th century, it is devoted to ancient sculpture. The palace contains a great number of Roman copies of Greek statues, like this one, representing Demeter, sister of Zeus and goddess of agriculture, and this one, representing Pluto, the god of the underworld. Of course, Zeus stands out, just like the numerous busts of historical figures, like this one of Marcus Aurelius. And this one of a barbarian, Schiphthain, who is in the company of the great Greek orator, Demosthenes. Julius Caesar also had his place here, just like Julia, his aunt. In Rome, the first materials used in sculpture were terracotta and bronze, but artists quickly came to use another material that was easily accessible in the region, limestone tuffa, or travertine. This type of rock is what stalactites and stalagmites are made of. It was used in the construction of the Colosseum. Then, from the 2nd century AD onwards, Roman sculptors began using stones hailing from Greece, primarily marble. At the time of Julius Caesar, the opening of the marble quarries of Carrara changed the habits of the artists. From then on, the majority of the city's statues and monuments were made of marble. Today, the majority of the still-existing sculptures are made of stone, for most of the sculptures made of bronze and other precious metals like gold and silver were melted to reclaim the materials. Here, a sculptor's sarcophagus retraces the accomplishments of the god Dionysus, named Bacchus by the Romans, who conquered Asia Minor and India in order to protect Western civilisation from the so-called barbaric invasions. Roman sculptures regroups artwork hailing from very different geographic areas, ranging from the Atlantic coast to Asia. And these artworks span a long period of time, from the mythical foundations of Romans 753 AD to the start of the Byzantine Empire in the 4th century AD. While Roman sculpture is largely derived from the models of Greek sculpture, the Roman copies have enabled us to discover the original models which no longer exist today, which are mentioned in the ancient texts. The classical Greek period of the 5th and 4th century BC especially had a great influence on Roman statues. Nonetheless, Roman sculpture is not merely a simple repetition. The models are declined ad infinitum, thereby creating original works based on the ancient models, like this one here, another statue of Dionysus. The Egyptian period is also represented in the museum, with many rooms. The Altemps Museum presents a beautiful initiation to ancient history, thanks to these magnificent and skilful stone artworks. Along with sculptures, a number of Greek paintings also made their way to Italy. A number of painters had left decadence Greece, Syria, Alexandria and Egypt to establish themselves here at the heart of the ancient Roman Empire. In fact, Roman painting is one of the pictorial schools that best avoided the loss of ancient paintings. Among the wealth of Roman sculpture, busts and portraits constitute a new addition to this art form. Portraits of the aristocrats emphasise the ageing process and sought to depict their figures as extremely harsh and severe. These representations are in fact much like caricatures. They are to be contextualised with the moral idea of the aristocracy at the time, severity, responsibility and authority. They do not seek to depict the slightest emotion. One of the museum's rooms is devoted to the masterpieces which belonged to the Ludovici family from the 17th century onwards. Among the treasures it contains is a great Roman sarcophagus from the 3rd century AD, representing a battle between Romans and barbarians. After it was discovered, it was purchased by Ludovico Ludovici, the Pope's nephew. Another masterpiece, the Suicide of Galatia. This marble sculpture, a Roman copy based on a Greek bronze sculpture, depicts the suicide of a Gaelic king and his wife after his defeat against the armies of the civilised world. For the Greeks, the Galatians were milky white-skinned barbarians hailing from the north. Another low relief depicts the birth of the goddess Aphrodite when she emerged from the water. The pleated veils were sculpted with exceptional finesse. Just like those of this other funerary relief representing a Roman priest. In 1885, the area around the magnificent Villa Ludovici was rebuilt following the city's new urban design. It's for this reason that in 1901, the Italian state purchased 104 sculptures from the family in order to prevent the prestigious collection from being dispersed. Until then, it was kept in a small cloister. One of the statues depicts the god Pan teaching Daphne how to play the flute. The Altemps Villa was used to collect many works of art that had been dispersed following the events that many noble Italian families underwent through the centuries. The state managed to avoid losing a great part of these masterpieces to collections abroad, to the great joy of museum goers. Another statue of Aphrodite bathing reminds visitors that this deity was the Greek goddess of love. Here, she's represented with a child playing with a goose. A monumental portrait of Hera reveals that she was a sister and wife of Zeus. Another magnificent masterpiece, restored by Bernini, depicts Ares, the god of war, seated and relaxed, his arm around his knee. At his feet plays Eros, the son he had with Aphrodite. Representations of Greek heroes succeeded one another in room after room. Orestes, Electra, Hermes and many other reminders of the strong link between Roman culture and ancient Greece at the beginning of our era. The Roman pantheon literally based itself on the mythology of its neighbours and predecessors along the Mediterranean basin. While the names changed, the attributes of the deities remained the same. Zeus became Jupiter, Ares became Mars, Hera came to be named Juno and Aphrodite known as Venus. One could almost say within its artwork, ancient Rome completely plagiarised the Hellenistic culture which preceded it. The Circus Maximus is the greatest and oldest hippodrome of Rome. It was mainly devoted to chariot races but it was also used for other types of performances and during triumphal processions. On the edifice, that could welcome over 150,000 people. Today there remains only some elements of stonework and a small part of the stands in the southeastern corner. Built as early as the sixth century BC, it was used for performances for over a thousand years. The first Etruscan king of Rome used this space for public entertainment such as a harness races and for the first Roman games. The first permanent structures were developed only in the course of the second century BC. It was not until the works undertaken by Julius Caesar that the edifice took on its definitive shape as a Roman circus. If chariot races were very popular, combats between elephants and tigers against slave and prisoners of war were a source of joy for the public. The baths of the Caracalla, inaugurated in 216 AD, were the greatest and most luxurious thermal baths of the time. Their ruins still display its colossal dimensions. For these thermal baths were not centred merely on bathing. There was also a community centre with shops, tavernas, restaurants, even conference halls and work halls, as well as a library separated into two rooms, one containing Greek works and one for Latin works. This vast ensemble also included gardens, fountains and benches. Romans enjoyed gathering here in the late afternoon, in these rooms entirely covered with marble and richly decorated with frescoes, mosaics and bronze sculptures. After going to the changing rooms, customers went through a series of steps elaborated by doctors. First, they would engage in physical exercise in the gymnasium to warm the body. They would partake in ball games, running and weightlifting. Those who did not enjoy physical exercise would go directly to the calederium, which was made up of two areas, the warm baths and the saudatorium, a dry heat area made to make one sweat. They would then go to the tepidarium to enjoy a warm, relaxing bath. The tepidarium was meant to prepare one for the frigidarium, a cool vaulted room with cold baths. Upon leaving the baths, one could be massaged, waxed and perfumed. The warmest baths, like those of the calederium, could reach up to 30 degrees centigrade, whereas the sauderium would reach 60 degrees centigrade. Bathers had to wear wooden sandals in the sauderium to avoid burning their feet. The thermal complex included 64 cisterns of 80,000 litres each, and its water came from its very own aqueduct. Another must-see that reveals the ancient culture of Rome is the Borghese Gallery, located in the Eponius Park. This 80 hectare park, dotted with monuments, is planted with pines and adorned with fountains. The rich Borghese family acquired these lands north of the city, and once Camillo Borghese was elected Pope in 1605 under the name Paul V, decided to build a palace whose architecture was inspired by the Villa Medici. He stored all of his collected artwork here, with the help of his nephew, Sepione Borghese, a passionate collector whose method of collection were often illegal. The Grand Salon, which served as an entrance hall, leaves no doubt. Here, mediocrity does not have its place. Everything here is worth of superlatives. The most beautiful, the most expensive, the most original. Nothing was too beautiful for the Pope, then masters of the world and his family. On the floor, the 4th century mosaic depicting gladiator battles hails from the flooring of a Roman villa. Among the exhibited works, the head of monumental Greek deities stand around a satyr. Opposite them, Dionysus, or Bacchus, the god of wine and pleasure. On the ceiling, a fresco honouring Roman civilisation depicts the virtues of heroes. Justice, loyalty and honour triumph over time, over the vices such as slander, fraud and dishonesty. Courage and bravery are also honoured. The Empress Hall owes its name to the presence of the 12 busts of Caesar, most of the porphyry at Alabasta. In this decor made of mosaics and various assembled marble sculptures, classical Greek sculptures are placed in golden niches. On the walls, Galatea's love for a shepherd is depicted. The ceiling depicts the fall of Pantheon, the son of God, struck by Jupiter for he was incapable of driving his father's sun chariot. Museums room illustrate Rome's interest in ancient Greek and Roman culture during the Renaissance. Such as here, with scenes of the Trojan War depicting Aeneas, son of Venus. In another room stands a satyr that was restored for the occasion. On the ceiling, Selenus, the god of fertility and friend of Dionysus, is depicted surrounded by dancers paying tribute to Bacchus. The walls are marked here, as elsewhere within the building, with busts, statues and frescoes of the Roman era, representing satyrs among grapevines. The last room exhibits a rare piece, a satyr on a dolphin. This work was restored in the 16th century and influenced artists such as Michelangelo. Statues of Egyptian deities stand along the walls, between the columns. Here, the priestess Isis. And here, Ceres, the goddess of aquaculture. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was not forgotten, of course. As we can see, close ties with the ancient world were emphasised during the period of the Renaissance, when the museum was built by the Borghese family. The Castel Sant'Angelo is located on the right bank of the Tiber. It was commissioned by the emperor Hadrian in 125 to be his mausoleum. It is difficult to reconstruct the original appearance of the ancient tomb because it was turned into a fortress in the 5th century and an advanced bastion to protect Rome. The soldiers used the bronze statue that decorated it as projectiles. But of this Roman building, nearly unrecognisable now, the structures of the foundation survive, as well as the mercenary and the ramp that led upstairs. From the summit, you can enjoy a beautiful view of the Sant'Angelo Bridge. The bridge was built in 134. At the same time as the mausoleum of Hadrian. It provides a majestic approach to the imperial mausoleum. Once bordered by triumphs and victories, in the Renaissance it was transformed to symbolise the stations of the cross, decorated with the ten statues of angels carrying the instruments of the Passion. Rome, the eternal city, was not built in a day and its history, spanning 28 centuries, is very present within the city. While the Roman temples and amphitheatres are an integral part of the Italian capital's urban design, the vestige exhibited in the museum reveal the wealth of the world's capital at the beginning of the Common Era. We can see, of course, its close relationship with ancient Greece and its deities, which served as models, but also the emancipation of this city, which entered into modernity at the beginning of the first millennium. After 1,000 years of neglect, the city's ancient past, so dear to history, culture and art, was revived during the Renaissance.