Roman Sites in Northern Italy

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I think I'm going to be in Munich towards the end of October for a friend's wedding (the wedding is confirmed, it's my attendance which is still a bit uncertain). If I go, I'd also like to visit some friends in Innsbruck, and spend a few days in northern Italy as well. I'd particularly like to see the Grotte Di Catullo. I'm aware that it's not the actual house Catullus lived in, but I feel the pilgrimage would be worth it all the same. I've been to Rome a few times, but have never made it very far north and this seems like a good opportunity to do so.

While I'm there are there any other nearby sites I should make an effort to get to? The amphitheatre in Verona sounds worth a visit, but I have no idea what else is around that part of Italy. Padua and Mantua (the birthplaces of Livy and Vergil respectively) aren't too far away, but in my brief internet investigations it doesn't seem like there's actually much to make it worth going there.

Any recommendations?

Ocean

In Cicero's prosecution of Verres, the corrupt former governor of Sicily, he imagines that Verres' lawyers will try to argue that he should be spared because of his great service to the Republic in keeping Sicily free from rebel slaves. It's a tactic that worked in the case of Manius Aquilius, but to Cicero the idea of Verres as a heroic general is laughable and he thoroughly demolishes any claim he may have to be so (perhaps a little disingenuously). Part of his argument is that the rebel slaves (led by Spartacus) running around Italy at the time didn't have boats (something which Marcus Crassus had taken care to ensure), and so there was no danger at all of war crossing from Italy to Sicily.

Quid dicis? an bello fugitivorum Siciliam virtute tua liberatam? ... "At cum esset in Italia bellum tam prope a Sicilia, tamen in Sicilia non fuit." Quid mirum? ... Aditus omnis hominibus sine ulla facultate navium non modo disiunctus sed etiam clausus est, ut illis quibus Siciliam propinquam fuisse dicis facilius fuerit ad Oceanum pervenire quam ad Peloridem accedere.

What are you saying? Perhaps that Sicily was kept safe by your courage? "Even though there was war in Italy, so short a distance from Sicily, yet it did not cross in Sicily." What's so amazing about that? Every approach to Sicily is not only cut off, but even completely closed to those without access to boats, so that it would have been easier for those whom you say were close to Sicily, to reach Ocean than to approach Pelorus.

In Verrem V Word Cloud

Here's another word cloud, based on the prescribed lines from In Verrem V:

Catullus and Horace Word Cloud

Here are a couple more word clouds, first for Catullus (based on the prescribed poems for 2008-2010):



and simlilarly for Horace:

Aeneid X Word Cloud

Out of curiosity I've created (with the help of wordle) a word cloud from Aeneid X, using the lines prescribed for study in the HSC this year. Here is the result:

Aeneid X mind-map

Here's a basic mind-map I've created showing the relationships of the important characters from Aeneid Book X. Have I left anything off?

[Blue is for goodies, purple for baddies]

Birthplaces of Roman Emperors

I've posted a map here before showing the birthplaces of Roman authors - here's another one showing the birthplaces of some of the more famous Roman emperors. Again, surprisingly few of them were actually born within the city of Rome itself.



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Birthplaces of Roman Authors

Strangely, most of the Latin authors we read today were not actually born in the city of Rome, but moved there from the provinces. This is true of Virgil, Cicero, Livy, Catullus, Ovid, Horace and many more.

This map shows the birthplaces of some of the most famous Roman writers:



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