Inspired by the always excellent content of my friend and once upon a time colleague @understandrome for #ThrowbackThursday I’m going to tell my incredible but 100% true story of my experience at the Villa Wolkonsky. Buckle up for a wild ride! @wantedinrome
Ok, so first, I’m going to have to be somewhat vague about a few things to avoid getting anyone in trouble, but this is all more or less verifiable & to my knowledge completely true. Several years ago I was in Rome for the summer and needed a place to live. A friend of a friend…
was working for the British government and being housed in a very large apartment on the grounds of the villa, in one of the side buildings facing the Villa proper and built around the bit of the Neronian spur of the Aqua Claudia as seen here in @understandrome’s photo.
They ran a quick background check on me, but then I was allowed to live in this apartment for about a month and come and go as I please got to know the guards, who were all Italian, very quickly since they thought it was hilarious that I was a Romano-dialect speaking American.
I was told I could wander the grounds and even use the lovely pool (which had been added by the Nazis when this was headquarters of the SS during the Nazi occupation of Rome) as long as the Ambassador or his family weren’t using it. And did I! 😂 But I digress…
Being who I am with my interests, I was immediately captivated by 3 things, the aforementioned aqueduct, (of which there is a great view from the pool!), a scattered collection of marble fragments of various sizes, & finally some incredibly preserved, partially excavated tombs.
As I mentioned, the aqueduct is a branch of the Aqua Claudia which Nero added to feed the section of the Domus Aurea on the Caelian Hill. The Aqua Claudia is still well preserved both inside and outside of Rome. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqua_Clau…
The aqueduct also includes imbedded in it (added much later, supposedly by the original Russian princess owner) this giant head of Juno, that reminds me very much of this one added on to the body of a statue of a Muse and the largest Roman statue in North America at @mfaboston
Next, the marble fragments, of which there are many and which, at the time I was there, were haphazardly strewn about the grounds with perhaps only some remnants of what I imagine was an earlier, perhaps 19th century antiquarian type display, but with no real order and 0 care.
Among these was an incredible marble tauroctony, that is the central image from the cult of Mithras, beautifully carved and which still had some of its original bright red paint, but was just laying face up in the rain, covered with dirt! 😳😳
I had written a seminar paper in grad school on the Mithraeum in general & the tauroctony in specific as surprisingly static potential conveyors of the “theology” of Mithraism across long distances and for about 200 or more years, so this jumped out at me immediately.
Among the many almost universally present symbols are the Sun & the Moon in the upper right & upper left corners respectively. Also the snake & dog who come to drink the blood of the bull Mithras slays with his knife, & the Scorpion, mostly obscured, who snips the bull’s testes.
On either side are Cautes & Cautopates, the torch bearers who as Mithras himself wear the smurf-like Phrygian cap & cloak. Cautes upward torch is usually thought to show the rising sun, life, or spring equinox, opposed to Cautopates downward being setting, death, or fall equinox.
I could talk all day about Mithras, and this was for me, the most spectacular piece, but I must continue my story! But before we move on, here are some other outstanding works, including a family tombstone, several mostly complete statues including these Venus & Minerva bodies.
What *really* grabbed my attention though were these nearly perfectly preserved roadside tombs that once stood along the ancient Roman Via Statilia. The guards happily gave me the key to go down into these which, they told me, had been excavated by the Nazis, but since ignored.
Some other tombs along this road have been excavated and are visible from the modern street down the road a bit from the Villa. turismoroma.it/en/places/repu…
Anyway, my photographer Emmanuele & I get the key and go down into the tombs. I kid you not, the cinerary urns are still in situ, with what appear to be still ash and bone fragments inside one of the slightly broken ones (as though someone had broken it open to look!) @mirkolanu
Sadly it was too dark to get any photos and at the time our phones didn’t have cameras with lights and we didn’t want to use a flash, so you’ll just have to trust me on this. Anyway, while we are coming out a British woman comes over and starts speaking to us. Polite but guarded.
She didn’t introduce herself beyond her first name but I am like a child, sharing all my excitement with her. She now seems intrigued as well, especially since I seem to know so much. She asks me to take her over to the pile of marble and tell her about those things too, so I do.
After about 30 minutes, she says goodbye and heads back to the main Villa. The next day my friend calls me and says we need to talk. It turns out the woman was the ambassador’s wife and he had gotten in some trouble for letting his guest wander the property unsupervised. HOWEVER!
About a week or so later, a crew of archeologists showed up at the Villa & began working for days, gathering the fragments, putting them under tarps. I headed back to the states, but shortly after that, in the fall, my friend told me that they announced plans for a museum.
And Prince William himself would dedicate the museum when finished as commemorated in the plaque from @understandrome’s photo! I, sadly, wasn’t invited, but from what my friend & the guards said, there was 100% no plan for a museum before I arrived. wantedinrome.com/news/villa-wol…
So while I’m a bit insulted that it is not the Gregory P. Stringer Archeological Museum at Villa Wolkonsky, and that I get no mention in the “official” story, I have my own incredible, but completely (as far as I know) true story to keep me warm instead! wantedinrome.com/news/villa-wol…
The end.
I said William, obviously I meant Harry. Doh!

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