Meet the Etruscans
Large mound-shaped tombs at Cerveteri’s Banditaccia necropolis are known by this term.
What is a tumulus?
According to Roman tradition, the construction of this hilltop settlement by Romulus in 753 BCE marks the founding of Rome.
What is the Palatine Hill?
The central reception space of many Pompeian houses, this room often features a roof opening and a shallow basin to collect rainwater.
What is the atrium?
These semi-divine twins were set adrift in a basket down the Tiber and nursed by a she-wolf.
Who are Romulus and Remus?
Marked by deep wrinkles, furrowed brows, and unidealized features, this Republican portrait style emphasized moral virtue and ancestral authority.
What is verism?
This terracotta sarcophagus showing a reclining man and woman together has been used as evidence that women held higher status in Etruria than in Greece.
What is the Couple's Sarcophagus (degli sposi)?
Recognizable by its deep porch, high podium, and pseudo-peripteral colonnade, this well-preserved Republican temple stands near the Tiber in the Forum Boarium.
What is the Temple of Portunus?
This distinctive style of Roman wall painting found at Pompeii creates the illusion of architectural depth with columns, vistas, and imaginary architecture.
What is the Second Style?
Associated with dolphins and the sea, this Roman goddess was believed to be a divine ancestor of the Julian family.
Who is Venus?
With its youthful, idealized features and calm expression, the Augustus of Prima Porta draws on this classical Greek sculptural tradition to project stability and divine favor.
What is the Classical (or Polykleitan) style?
Unlike Greek temples, Etruscan temples placed their sculptural decoration here rather than inside the pediment.
What is the roofline (or rooftop statuary)?
Dedicated by Augustus, this monument celebrated the return of peace to Rome with sculpted processions and mythological panels in high-quality marble relief.
What is the Ara Pacis Augustae?
One of Pompeii’s largest elite houses, this residence is renowned for its elaborate mosaic program, including the famous battle scene between Alexander and Darius.
What is the House of the Faun?
This mythological hero—claimed by Julius Caesar and Augustus as an ancestor—appears in numerous Augustan artworks, including the Ara Pacis and the Forum of Augustus.
Who is Aeneas?
Often depicted on carved funerary reliefs, these former enslaved individuals represented themselves in respectable dress and with symbols of their newly gained Roman citizenship.
Who are Freedmen?
This sculptor created the bronze akroteria for the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and may even have designed the temple itself.
Who is Vulca of Veii?
Built after the Great Fire of 64 CE, this sprawling palace complex radically transformed Rome’s urban landscape with its use of concrete vaulting, artificial lakes, and innovative architectural planning.
What is the Domus Aurea?
This famous fresco cycle in a suburban Pompeian villa depicts life-sized figures in a continuous frieze, often interpreted as scenes of a Dionysiac initiation ritual.
What are the frescoes of the Villa of the Mysteries?
Built into the hillside at Palestrina, this massive terraced sanctuary dedicated to a goddess of fate used innovative concrete architecture to create one of the most dramatic sacred landscapes of the Republican period.
What is the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia?
Romans believed that this part of the portrait statue conveyed the individual's personal characteristics and virtues.
What is the head (or face)?
This hollow-cast bronze portrait of a man demonstrates the growing influence of Rome over the Etruscans in the second and first centuries BCE.
What is the Arringatore? (or, who is Aule Metele?)
Rebuilt multiple times from the regal period through the Empire, this massive temple’s tripartite cella and Etruscan-inspired plan became a foundation for early Roman state architecture.
What is the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus (Capitolinus)?
Built around 70 BCE, this Pompeian structure is the earliest stone example of its type and is noted for its earth-supported seating and lack of interior substructure.
What is the Pompeii amphitheater?
Used in inscriptions and official dedications, this Latin term designated a deceased Roman ruler who had been formally deified by the Senate, granting him a place among the gods and legitimizing his successor’s authority.
What is divus?
On many freedmen portrait reliefs, individuals are shown wearing this garment, signaling their new legal and social identity as Roman citizens.
What is the toga?