It’s one of the most infamous crime scenes in history. Now, “Beware the Ides of March,” “Why this is force!” “Et tu, Brutae?” and all the other utterances can be enjoyed by you and your friends as Rome has opened to the public the spot where Julius Caesar was assassinated.
For decades, the “Sacred Area” at Argentina Square in the Eternal City sat silent as the bustling city was built up around it. The 4 temples and the walls of Pompey’s mansion the Curia, were frequented only by ghosts and cats.
Now, with the help of the luxury jewelry brand Bulgari, the Sacred Area is open to visitation from the public. Costing just €5 for non-residents, a series of elevated walkways can take visitors through the area where aggrieved senators stabbed the Roman dictator to death on the Ideas of March (15th).
The temples were first discovered when Benito Mussolini was demolishing Medieval-era structures as part of an urban renewal program. Rome’s top archaeologist, Claudio Parisi Presicce, told the AP that they are quite sure the area contains Pompey’s Curia because latrines were discovered on the wall near 2 of the temples.
Leave it to the Romans to be so litigious as to comment on the exact placement of Pompey’s latrines.
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The temples are believed to have honored female deities—like Fortuna, the goddess of chance and fertility. A colossal stone carving of a female head was found during excavations, furthering that hypothesis along.
Presicce called it one of the best-preserved ruins of Rome from the Republican period, and perhaps one day it can stage Shakespeare’s famous depiction of the life and times of the controversial figure.
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