The roman forum was hard for me to navigate at first, since you are forced to enter from the Vie Dei Fori Imperiali, where as my mental map pictures the forum as entered by the colosseum. The expanive amount of ruins that you are automatically met with is more than a little overwhelming. The entrance point places you between the remains of the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina (which are under restoration) and the Basilica Amelia, facing the collections of stone that were once was the temple of Julius Caesar. From there you are allowed to proceed various ways along the ancient roads, with the ruins blocked off by gates. Since we can walk through the forum on the same routes that the ancient Romans once did, it makes the forum in Roman times easier to imagine. For our walk, we started near the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine, which one would pass if entering from the colosseum, allowing me to start up my mental map again.
There is definitely a feeling of layering in the Roman Forum. On higher up areas, ruins of structures such as the temple of Saturn and the curia watch over the others beneath them. Since the forum was worked and reworked for so many centuries, the ruins seem somewhat cluttered, and with out prior knowledge or a guide, it can be hard to identify where one ruin ends and another begins. Luckily, each structure is visible from the main ancient roads, and follows the ancient layout, so you can match it up. I figure that identification would have been much easier in ancient times, but I still believe the forum would have seemed both chaotic and organized at the same time.
I also feel like the forum has been arranged to cater towards tourists. Stray marble lies in corners and bends along the wider parts of the paths, allowing tourists to sit and observe, while feeling in some way a part of the ruins. Trees also line the roads and cover many empty areas. I wonder if those trees were always in the forum, or if they came later, once the forum was excavated and turned into a historic park. Either way, they provide a good amount of shade to rest in. I tried to imagine what it must have been like to be an ancient Roman bustling through, but no matter what I felt like a tourist. Visiting historical monuments does not seem to be a normal pastime of a typical Roman citizen, and it was impossible to ignore the crowds of people speaking a multitude of different languages. Traveling through the forum I felt like an outsider, but that was okay. I was happy to marvel at temple remains get a little lost along the way.
Ryoko,
ReplyDeleteThis is a fine S&P entry, which suffers only from some verbosity. It could be cleaner and leaner. Some things to consider cutting: opinion phrases "I feel like..." or "I feel as though," which can simply be omitted, while the sentence is retooled so that the thing you have feelings about becomes the new subject. (Intro phrases like "I wonder if..." or "I wonder whether..." are good to keep, because sometimes a writer needs to think out loud.)
There's a confusion of subjects: "I" am here, "you" are here, so are "we." Pick one perspective and stick to it.
Next time you write a Space and Place entry (in the Vatican Museums), try putting it in the present tense. This move will help you get to the next level. Right now the exercise reads both like a history lesson and a diary. Pick a point A and move to point B and describe the journey.
Some technical issues: "where as" is one word. Names of ancient sites like the Forum and the Colosseum are capitalized. (You do this with some but not with others.) Watch out for dangling participles: "...which one would pass if entering from the colosseum, allowing me to start up my mental map again." What does "allowing" modify? "One?" "Entering?" It's hard to say, and it feels awkward. Finally, there's something wrong with the last sentence: a missing "and," perhaps?
Great content, needs work on form. I appreciate yoru willingness to write more, rather than less.
8.5/10
*your
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