Week Two day one

So, I just found out we have to daily journal entries, am hoping I can just print this all out!!! Thus it's going to get a bit more formal in explaning where I went, I hope anyway! So start taking notes people!

Today our lecture took place in campus Martius which actually was a flood plain up until the 1800s but because of expansion and crowding the Romans eventually had to figure out how to build there. My favorite part was going down into Romes first stone theater the theater of Pompey which now lies in the basement of a restaurant but is in its original state so you can dine in the very theater of Pompey. Some people didn't like it but I thought it was amazing to be surrounded by ancient stone walls unrestored and I would love to eat there!

Another great site was the portico of Octavia, she was Augustus' sister and it led to two temples one for Jupiter and one for Juno, the temple for Jupiter was the first marble temple in Rome!!!!

We also saw the remains of the temple of Apollo which only consist of three columns and an entablature, decorated with ox skulls as if it's a perpetual offering to apollo, which is a neat idea. Across was the theater of Marcellus which was amazingly huge but we didn't examine it very closely.

By 11:00 we settled down for a lecture right on the banks of the Tiber and learned about the progression from the state to focus on the individual which led up to Julius Caesar. We learned about his predeccesors Marius, Sulla, and Pompey who was his rival. All of this was in the late republic with Caesar finally declaring himself dictator.

Well everyone is heading out now I wish we had more time but today's walking assignment is substantial!