Get Ready for Rome
Get Ready for Rome
Wayne Ambler
Get Ready for Rome helps the thoughtful traveler prepare to visit the Eternal City by introducing the city’s main monuments and the sometimes acrimonious dialogue they imply. Add value to your visit to Rome by getting to know in advance the ideas and history that stand behind St. Peter’s Basilica, the Colosseum, the Sistine Chapel and other familiar but put poorly understood sites of one of the world’s greatest cities.
2.8 Introducing the Sistine Chapel
We today make a first visit to the Sistine Chapel and look generally at the three different waves of Renaissance frescoes that decorated it. Two of these are by Michelangelo.
Jun 30, 2022
21 min
2.7 Lanciani and the Disappearance of Ancient Rome
The difficulty of seeing Ancient Rome is that not much of it exists. The distinguished archeologist Rodolfo Lanciani documents this, and today we compare his ways of explaining its disappearance with those of Edward Gibbon.
Jun 16, 2022
22 min
2.6: D-Day and the Liberation of Rome, June 1944
American troops liberated Rome from German occupation just 2 days before D-Day. What made it possible, and why did the liberation occur when it did?
Jun 7, 2022
24 min
2.5 The Destruction of Ancient Rome (Part I Gibbon)
We have taken an introductory look at the reasons Paganism was replaced Christianity, but why have so many of the magnificent buildings the pagans built simply disappeared? Was it simply the work of time?  We begin today with Gibbon's answer to this question.
Jun 2, 2022
21 min
II.4 Gibbon on the Destruction of Paganism
We today consider Gibbon’s explanation of how the Christians of Constantine’s century advanced their faith by taking active measures against paganism. As he makes his case, Gibbon also extends his unflattering portrait of the followers of the new faith, perhaps to weaken their successors in his own day.
May 19, 2022
22 min
II 3 Edward Gibbon on the Christianization of Rome
Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire advances five causes for the early Christians' triumph over their pagan and Hebrew rivals.  This podcast discusses them.
May 5, 2022
25 min
II.2 Constantine and the Christianization of Rome
After noting the contradictory ways Constantine is remembered in Roman art and architecture, we turn to the main policies of this first Christian Emperor.
Apr 21, 2022
24 min
1 Trailer: Season 2 of Get Ready for Rome
This short podcast reviews our goals and announces the beginning of our second season on April 21. The subject will be Rome, Constantine, and the Christianization of the Roman Empire.
Mar 31, 2022
16 min
Looking Ahead at Get Ready for Rome
I today announce that I've begun taking a break that I hope will also help me get ready for a new season of podcasts, and I summarize the topics and issues that lie ahead.
Nov 12, 2021
22 min
A Lesson from Venice
Travel can be educational, as our many study abroad programs affirm, but my recent return to Venice got me wondering whether it can also be misleading.
Oct 26, 2021
21 min
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