Darryl A. Phillips

The new issue of College of Charleston Magazine  features a profile of recent Classics graduate Melissa Huber.  A great story.  Melissa is heading off to pursue a Master’s at the University of Reading in their unique program on the history of the city of Rome.  The program includes several months of work in Rome, based at the British School.  Would that we were all heading off to England and Italy!!

Quite a story out yesterday about a large stash of antiquities that was recovered from looters in a warehouse in Switzerland.  Some 337 objects were recovered by the Italian police and displayed for the press in the Colosseum in Rome.  How fitting to display looted items in the Colosseum — the Romans themselves did quite a bit of that!  Click on the picture to read the story in The Independent.

I just returned home from a trip to Rome.  I’m always surprised by how many new things there are to see in the city.  One of the high points of this trip was a special exhibit that is on-going in the Forum tracing the history and decorations of the Basilica Aemilia.  The fragments of the friezes depicting various episodes of Roman History (including the Rape of the Sabine Women shown here) are now on display inside the Curia.

I came across an interesting story about the effects of budget cuts on the preservation of ancient Roman sites. As I sit here in Charleston, at last being able to look out my office window after six months of renovations to 200-year old Randolph Hall, it is overwhelming to think about all of the work that is needed to maintain and preserve Roman sites. We should all keep that in mind the next time we pay high entrance fees to a site or museum!

A portion of the Domus Aurea, Nero’s palace in Rome, reportedly collapsed today due to water damage.  The story appeared on the NYTimes website.   When I visited the Domus Aurea years ago we were all required to wear hard-hats.  Good thing!   The collapse seems to be in a part of the building site that has not been open to visitors.  No reports on whether the rest of the site remains open.