ROME WAR CEMETERY

ROME WAR CEMETERY

Via Nicola Zabaglia 50

It is located between Monte Testaccio to the north and the Aurelian Walls to the south

The area has been given for free by the Italian government to the Commonwealth after the Second World War for the burial of 426 mainly British soldiers (350) but also of other Commonwealth countries such as Canada (22), South Africa (28), Australia (4), New Zealand (10) and India (2)

Four burials are unidentified soldiers

Throughout World War II, about 42,000 Commonwealth soldiers died in Italy, so the soldiers buried in this cemetery are only about 1% of all the dead

The maintenance of the cemetery is entrusted to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission established in 1917

The cemetery retains a fragment of Hadrian's Wall brought here by the will of the citizens of the city of Carlisle in England to commemorate the Cumbrian soldiers who died in the Italian campaign

ANCIENT BOATHOUSE

NAVALIA

Lungotevere Testaccio

In 193 BC the censors Lucius Aemilius Lepidus and Lucius Aemilius Paulus built the new port, the EMPORIUM near the Tiber River to the south of the Aventine Hill in the area of the Testaccio district with a long porch of 487 x 8 m (1600 x 26 feet) consisting of fifty communicating rooms

The censors of 174 BC Fulvius Flaccus and Albinus Postumius paved it, subdivided with barriers and built stairs down to the Tiber

Behind the Emporium there is a huge rectangular building measuring 487 x 60 m (1,600 x 200 feet) believed to be the “Portico of Aemilia” but, more probably, corresponding to the NAVALIA, a building mentioned by Cicero, built by Hermodoros of Salamis in 149/146 BC during the Third Punic War, considering the the building technique

It was used to house the Roman warships: fifty quinqueremes, ship with five men on each oar, as long as 60 m (196 feet) each

When, during the imperial period, there was no reason anymore to have a military port, it was used as a warehouse

The remains were found in the years 1868/70 and explored again in 1952

Some structures that date back to a rebuilding of the Trajan's period (98/117) are still visible and were embedded into the wall of Lungotevere Testaccio

MOUNT TESTACCIO

MONTE TESTACCIO

Via di Monte Testaccio

Artificial hill also known as Monte dei Cocci, Mons Testaceum

It was an ancient Roman specialized landfill consisting of many layers of neatly broken oil amphorae

About 30 m (98 feet) high on the surrounding area and about 54 m (177 feet) above sea level

It has a circumference of 1 km (0.62 miles), covering a total area of 20,000 m² (5 acres), forming a sort of irregular triangle

The amphorae (testae in Latin, hence the name of the mountain) were landed in the nearby river port on the Tiber, and destined to be sold in Rome

It is estimated that there are about 40 million pieces of amphorae

A ramp, probably old, was traveled by wagon, and then bifurcated on the northeast corner

The hill was used for about 300 years, from the late republic to the mid-third century AD but the dating of amphorae found to date ranges between 140 and the third century AD

It is estimated that every inhabitant of Rome consumed on average about 22 kg (48.5 pounds) of oil a year, especially for lighting

In later centuries along the base of the hill caves were dug, used as cellars for the wine of the Castelli Romani (Roman Hills) and stables as well (the so-called grottini), on which houses were built renovated today as restaurants and nightclubs

Still in medieval times carnival was celebrated here, with the cruel and bloody games always dear to the Romans. In fact, bullfighting was held here as well as the popular favorite "Ruzzica de li porci": carts of live pigs were thrown down the hill and when they were dashed to pieces at the bottom, people would hunt the stunned animals

From the fifteenth century when the carnival was moved to the Via Lata by the will of Pope Paul II Barbo (1464/71), the hill became the arrival point for the Via Crucis, the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, becoming a veritable Golgotha, as shown in the cross still stuck on top. Later it became a favorite destination for the Ottobrate, the typical October Roman feasts, when festively decorated carts were brought to the taverns and wine cellars of Testaccio

In 1931 Raffaele De Vico (1881/1969) structured Monte Testaccio as a public park

The amphorae found during excavations were only the most superficial, mainly from Betica (now Andalusia) and also from Africa with a nearly spherical shape and the trademark on one of the two loops. They are called Dressel 20. The name of the exporter was written with a brush as well as the consular date, and the log of the various controls from start to finish

The deposit was not accidental, it was rather neatly constructed, and it was periodically sprayed with lime to sanitize the decomposition of the organic remains contained in the pieces

From the study of the amphorae in this hill it would be possible to write an economic history of the ancient city of Rome