Notable videos of Roman misc

I really like this UC Davis AHI 173 Roman Art and Architecture course by a young, unusually non-Romanphobic California professor. I suppose it went to video due to wu-flu. Here is a sample (playlist above):

istanbulMuseum

On 7/18/2023 at 8:41 AM, caesar novus said:

list direct ways to check for their latest videos from time to time:

https://www.youtube.com/@AncientRomeLive/videos

https://www.youtube.com/@DariusArya/videos

https://www.youtube.com/@toldinstone/videos

These all are on quite a hot streak now but I wanted to comment on one from the middle channel (which confusingly has a somewhat different name when the "at" sign is used or not).

This tour of ongoing reconstruction amazes me for two reasons. One, the unassuming pile was once a bold, towering construct with spiral staircase and all, which even partial rebuilding will now give an idea of.

Two, this may bring NW Rome back to life for ancient enthusiasts. It was kind of sparse with mainly the emperor's prissy maybe hypocritical peace temple nearby. I'm not charmed by near highlights of Spanish steps, Borghese park and museum, and the Via del Corso shopping.

They plan to create a piazza down at original mausoleum ground level. This gives intimate views but may be a gamble. People are willing to walk up to a viewpoint then don't mind the easy walk down, like at the Capitoline Hill area. But will they meander down into a limited viewpoint, hang out, then trudge back up even when not entering the structure (with entrance fee)? It's sort of a dead end pedestrian flow that might become a hangout for graffiti writers and vagrants.

Wow, I thought visiting Venice was a guilty interlude of non-Roman pleasures, but it turns out much decor was physically looted from Constantinople. Looting being a rescue sometimes, since many of the source edifices in Constantinople demolished now (with that city full of it's own loot, er, rescues of foreign stuff).

On 8/14/2023 at 3:24 PM, caesar novus said:

panels of Romans getting tortured by enemy women, and Romans torturing enemy assassins in their Trajan column video

Here is more from a Romanian cast of the column. I guess the reason I get excited by column videos is that I thought I had seen it all in the cast museum outside of Rome. But for some reason that one is colored (shiny?) grey with weird fluorescent lighting that doesn't show shadow relief. My long savoring of it there doesn't compare to the ivory colored Romanian cast or the actual column distantly captured on zoom lenses, where relief jumps out:

Duplicate

Duplicate

Contrast these 2 videos: atmospheric celebration of (tourist) life in Rome vs death spiral of the country. While playing the 2nd video (1.1M views) display comments which are mostly from Italians in english confirming the economy and population decline passing the point of no return, due to benefits-sucking oldster voting block in charge permanently. Note comments saying only remaining jobs are for cleaning tourist toilets which won't pay rent or support children. My observation is that even the human waves of illegal immigration mainly pass thru Italy towards greener EU pastures.

Interesting mythbusting of library(s) of Alexandria, and how Julius Caesar couldn't have caused much fire damage with what was a modest library during his time. Never a dominant center of scholardom except for just over a century, which was about the lifespan of papyrus in the humid sea air of Alexandria.

Casting a net for more Roman content, I enabled a bunch of free streaming TV channels, mostly ranked in the article https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/best-free-tv-streaming-services/ . So far I have found zippo of Rome, but I do agree that the Tubi channel is one of the least annoying and worth a free account (which isn't normally required for any of them). Surprisingly sharp resolution with shorter and less woke ads, altho you can't avoid the ads like on CATV using fast forwarding.

So Youtube remains the motherlode for Roman video content for me, but maybe you can show otherwise. Here's part of hundreds of hours of Roman docs:

On 12/17/2023 at 1:55 PM, caesar novus said:

Casting a net for more Roman content, I enabled a bunch of free streaming TV channels

Actually the legacy CATV Smithsonian channel is showing 2 high quality series on Aerial Italy and Aerial Greece, playing Dec 27 am (here anyway). Better than earlier series with the same exact name or a close name, it seems to give a fresh look and has me often saying "wow, I didn't know that". Ancient architecture seems well covered along with beautiful settings, and remember some of the Greek monuments were commissioned by Rome.

The Greek series shows up on the internet (Paramount+), and I will post episode 1 from youtube which oddly is not scheduled for Dec 27, just 4 other episodes each. Rome has other online aerial view videos, but with spotty quality. For once the mandatory "platinum" level of CATV that I am forced to pay for reaps benefits re: Rome.

New York's wonderful lost tribute to baths of Caracalla is well summarized in first 5 minutes here:

To go beyond the simple sad narrative of Roman style monuments lost, take a look at one of the most engaging architect historian ever on a longer riff on that Penn Station. He ties it together with so many fascinating developments (fine art, engineering, finance) that makes it seem a miracle that the things worked out at least briefly.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?309730-1/history-york-citys-penn-station

That professor Barry Lewis can talk about most any architecture history in a way that gets exponentially more interesting as the clock moves on, and can be found not on youtube but at:

https://www.c-span.org/search/?searchtype=Videos&sort=Newest&personid[]=9278702

The Pantheon sometimes opens interesting back rooms in a structure that was meant to reinforce an area developing cracks early on. There are even a couple of external flying buttresses there. I speculate that the huge front portico must be pressing the drum structure to the rear (no cracks on it's sides). Anyway this vid shows exhibits there including nice decorative fragments:

By the way, here is how decorative elements can be robo-sculpted now in case you want some Corinthian topped columns: