PALACE OF THE MANUFACTURE OF TOBACCO

PALAZZO DELLA MANIFATTURA DEI TABACCHI

Piazza Mastai

1859/63 Antonio Sarti (1797/1880) for Pius IX Mastai-Ferretti (1846/78)

Restored in 1927 by Pier Luigi Nervi (1891/1979) for the transformation of the building in the seat of the State Monopolies. A roof for the large room of the selection of tobacco was built

Renovated again in 1958 by Cesare Pascoletti (1898/1986) who demolished the original wings of the building

It is now the seat of the AMMINISTRAZIONE AUTONOMA DEI MONOPOLI DI STATO (Indipendent Administration of the State Monopolies) that, according to the official definition, “controls the public gaming sector in Italy through a constant check on the work of dealers and a targeted action against irregularities. It has in addition the faculty to control the production, distribution and sale of tobacco products and the collection and payment of taxes that burden it”

Just like the popes who speculated in the past on the deadly habit of tobacco, so today the Italian state profit handsomely from the same vice, albeit without monopoly, and gorges itself obscenely of the proceeds of gambling that causes havoc for many families

NAUMACHIA OF AUGUSTUS

NAUMACHIA DI AUGUSTO

Piazza S. Cosimato/Piazza Mastai

2 BC for Augustus (27 BC/14) near the Horti of Caesar (Gardens of Julius Caesar)

The area covered was 552 x 355 m (1,800 x 1,200 feet), about three times larger than the Colosseum

It was used for performances of naval battles that are commonly believed to have taken place in the Colosseum

If naval battles really took place in the Colosseum as reported by Martial and Cassius Dio, and suggested by some archaeological evidence, they must have lasted only for the few years before the construction of the large underground level under the floor of the arena

The main building where these shows would regularly take place was this one and, about 100 years later, the Vatican Naumachia, which maybe took the place of Augustus' Naumachia

No trace remains but the exact location is shown by the Forma Urbis (monumental map of Rome of the beginning of the third century AD) and by the discovery of a section of the aqueduct that used to fed the Naumachia, the Alsietino Aqueduct coming with underground conduits from the lakes of Bracciano and Martignano at a distance of 33 km (20.5 miles)

It was probably built just to fill up the Naumachia with water because water was not drinkable

In the Naumachia there was room for thirty ships among triremes and biremes (in the Colosseum three at the most) plus other smaller ships with 3,000 soldiers, not to mention thousands of rowers

At the center of the lake there was an artificial island

Here it was celebrated with naval battles the inauguration of the Temple of Mars Ultor in the Forum of Augustus

It is mind-blowing for our mentality today to think that 2,000 years ago the Romans had built a giant stadium and a 33 km aqueduct to fill it with water just because they loved to see men killing each other on boats