Mikulov, Regional Museum

Tile with stamp of X Gemina from Mušov.

Mikulov is just north of the Austrian-Czech border. It is dominated by a beautiful castle on a mountain, in which you will find several museums, one of them dedicated to the archaeological evidence for the presence of Romans and Germans in southern Moravia. It is not a very large exhibition – in fact, it consists of only three rooms.

Still, it is worth a brief detour. Situated some seventy kilometer north of the Danube, this region never belonged to the Roman Empire, but it is undeniable that the people living here were dominated by their powerful southern neighbor. So, the numismatic display contains coins of almost every emperor, proving that trade between the Marcomanni and the Romans was very important.

Occasionally, the Germanic tribes living in Bohemia, the Marcomanni and the Quadi, attacked the Roman Empire. The emperor Marcus Aurelius was even forced to retaliate, and fought a long war in this area. The base of the Tenth Legion Gemina has been found near Mušov. There has been some debate about the question whether the Romans intended to create provinces north of the Danube, but the fact that locally made roof tiles have been found is, in my view, conclusive evidence that the Romans were not just having their winter quarters north of the river, but were building permanent barracks.

Mušov is also the place where a local Germanic chieftain was buried. In his tomb, a large treasure was found, which is now shown in the last room of the Mikulov museum. The objects themselves are not extremely special, but there are very many of them, proving that this man was really important.

I was glad to have visited the museum. Next to the castle is Mikulov’s central square, where we had lunch. After that, we went to the Oberleiserberg, a Celtic oppidum in northern Austria that was later reused by the Bavarians, and returned to Vienna. It had been a nice day.

Sremska Mitrovica, Archaeological Museum

Harpocrates

Situated on the North bank of the Sava, not far from the Danube, Sirmium was one of the most important cities in the Roman Empire. The Second Legion Adiutrix stayed here for a while, Trajan used it when he attacked Dacia, it was the place where Marcus Aurelius presided the trial of Herodes Atticus. No less than ten emperors were born in or near Sirmium, which became an imperial residence in the fourth century.

Today, it is a provincial town in northwestern Serbia, not far from the Croatian border. There is a beautiful church in the center, dedicated to Saint Demetrius. Next to it is the small archaeological museum. In the neighborhood, there are two excavations – the one in the northwest may have been a bathhouse, the other is a building next to the ancient hippodrome, which is now covered by a park.

The ancient imperial basilica – is this the place where Theodosius was presented as Gratian‘s coruler? – is now in a special hall, which I was not able to visit because it closed earlier than I had expected: at four o’ clock in the afternoon. Nevertheless, there were large windows, which allowed you to see quite a lot.

The museum is nice. Upstairs, there are several rooms with archaeological finds from the ancient city. You will see many objects from daily life, some small sculpture, weapons, a couple of frescos, a few inscriptions, and a bit of pottery. I liked the roof tile, made in 582, containing a prayer: Christ was asked to help the city halt the Avars, to protect the Roman Empire and the maker of the tile.

There’s also a courtyard with inscriptions. I saw records of II Adiutrix, XIII Gemina, I Minervia, and VIII Augusta, several nice reliefs, a couple of beautiful tombs, a mosaic, and – most of all – a wooden boat that lay almost unprotected. I was surprised to see a dedication to Neptune, so far from the sea. It is of course not the most beautiful museum in the world, but the people are friendly, and it is certainly worth a visit.

My article on ancient Sirmium is here, with many photos from the museum.

Happy Birthday, Rome!

Marcus Aurelius

Today, 21 April, the founding of Rome is commemorated, and it may be nice to tell the story behind the photo of Marcus Aurelius‘ equestrian statue.

The real statue has been removed from the Piazza del Campidoglio in 1981 or so; I don’t know exactly, but when I visited the city for the first time in ’82, it was already gone. The old piece of art had become too vulnerable, needed repairs, and is now in the Palazzo dei Conservatori. For many years, there was only an empty pedestal, but in 1997, a copy was ready, and so we went to the Capitol, to see what would happen. It was 21 April.

A white, plastic drapery covered the new statue, and the idea was that the mayors of several cities in the world called Rome would, together with mayor Francesco Rutelli, unveil the monument. However, the wind caught the drapery, and the emperor’s head was already visible when we arrived on the hill. Soon, an arm unveiled itself, and not much later, the horse started to shake off the cover from its head. Someone urged the people to leave, because the plastic drapery had to be reattached to the statue to allow the television cameras to have some nice footage. Many people protested. They had arrived early to see everything well, and were afraid to lose their front row positions.

At that moment, Mr Rutelli intervened. Clearly improvising his speech, he said that if the emperor himself decided to address his people, it was improper for lower officials to speak. He quoted from the Meditations, someone – perhaps the mayors, I could not see – took away the remaining piece of the plastic veil, and that was the end of the ceremony. I have some nice photos of the partly covered statue, but this one, with the backlighting, is one of my favorites.

Photos from Rome

Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius.

Today, I moved the entire photo section of ancient Rome. Even though it is not a fraction of what there is to be seen in the capital of the Mediterranean Empire, it was still thirty-one pages, and even though many were just small, it cost me one day:

• Arches: Arch of the Bankers, Arch of Dolabella, the so-called Arch of Drusus, Arch of Gallienus, Arch of Janus Quadrifrons, Arch of Septimius Severus (two pages);
• Baths: Baths of Agrippa, Baths of Caracalla (two pages);
• Bridges: Bridge of Aelius, Bridge of Agrippa (actually, nothing to be seen), Bridge of Fabricius, Bridge of Nero;
• Temples: Temple of Portunus, Temple of Elagabal;
• Circus of Maxentius; Clivus Scauri; Cloaca Maxima; Column of Marcus Aurelius; Curia Julia; Horologium Augusti; Lacus Curtius; Ludus Magnus; Mausoleum of Augustus; Mithraeum of San Clemente; Pantheon (two pages); Porta Maggiore; Pyramid of Cestius; Servian Wall; Tomb of Eurysaces.

Plus Delphi (in fact still to be written), and that’s it for today. Only 161 pages left…