How did my Grand Father meet my Grandmother?   There is a family legend.

"Thisbe" by John William Waterhouse (1909 oil on canvass)

Grandma Cain was living in a boarding house in Chicago with her sister Aunt Kate.  Grandfather was ‘courting’ her and sent Grandma Cain a piano.  A piano was quite the gift for its day, even though it was nothing but a small upright.  The landlady who ran the place got the wrong idea: “Any woman that would accept a gift like that must be of a questionable nature.”  Well, what do you want?  It was 1914 at least.   The uptight landlady throws both my grandmother and my aunt out onto the street.   Aunt Kate picks up a phone and calls grandma’s boyfriend, soon to be Grandpa Cain.  She is angry: “What have you done, you dumb mick? Now we are homeless.”   Grandpa Cain meets them on the front stairs of the boarding house and has a solution:

“Well, I guess then Mary will have to marry me.”

He then takes them both to live in his Father’s house until the wedding can be arranged.

Is it true? 

“As true as the strength of the belief and the nerve it hits,” I say in my best Irish brogue.

Two lovers meet on a bridge called the Ponte Milvio.   This bridge attracted lovers in Roman times, documented by Tacitus, visited by Nero to meet nameless lovers.   The hero tells a false legend which lovers wrapped a chin around the third lamp post on the bridge’s northern side, locked it, and threw the key into the Tiber.   He then tells her that they will never leave each other…on the strength of a lock.

Is it true?

 As true as the strength of the belief and the nerve that it hits.

Well, it’s not true.  It’s an invention from a novel by Federico Moccia called in English: “I Want  You.” Since the publication of the story many locks have appeared on the bridge, locked to posts and chains.  Many with the lovers names written on the locks.   It has become an issue in city politics.  One party wants the locks removed, the other accuses the other party of being ‘anti-love’.  What started as a city lore, a ‘Roman’ thing, has now turned into something for the ‘tourist trade’ with locks being sold by road side vendors.  

The question is…what is a legend?  How much of any legend is true?  Are there other stories that grab our imagination?

What of Pyramus and Thisbe?  These were  two lovers separated by a wall built by their families to keep them apart.  One day they agree to meet in a secret hiding place, and Thisbe is frightened away by a lion and drops her cloak.  Pyramus arrives and believes that his lover has been eaten takes his own life.  Later Thisbe finds her boyfriend in the family crypt and takes her life as well.  Both families in one final act have the lovers burned on the same funeral pyre and buried together with their ashes mixed for eternity.

This seems familiar.  Where have I heard this before?  Think, man…THINK!

Got it!

“For never was a story of more woe. Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. …” 

So what about my family legend? 

Is it true? 

“As true as the strength of the belief and the nerve it hits,” I say in my best Irish brogue.

Want to see some Roman Art?  Why wait for a museum to have a showing?  It’s all there on ebay.  Just put the following words into the search engine:  

Roman Antiques.

 This on-line auction house  is truly the ‘peoples museum.’  Where else can such a collection be brought together at a touch of a key?

 Roman marble head of bearded man  Starting bid $700.

Roman Iron Knife with Bronzed handle  Starting bid $24.

 And where else can you find a 3^rd Century Phallic Symbol for a starting bid of $1.50?

 It’s like opening up a Roman shopping mall that has been sealed up for thousand of years.  Let’s go deeper…got your explorer’s hat on?

 My favorite items are the fibulas.  These are pins to keep your cloak pinned to your tunic.  They come in all shapes and sizes.  The one I have my eye on and it comes up once in a while is a fibula of a roman galley.   You can also get one in the form of a sea monster, but they also come in various other designs. 

 Looking to worship at the feet of a god or goddess that had actually was part of a Roman’s household gods?  You can get it here…for a price.

 A bronze Mercury, museum quality $5, 495 starting bid. 

 If you can’t afford the more popular gods, JUNO is a lot cheaper.

 In the ebay museum are rings of all makes and sizes, bronze and gold, amethyst and stones of various hues.  There are rings that are keys, rings for archers that protect the finger that grips the string of the bow.   A Roman gold military carnelian intaglio of a roman eagle design is yours for a mere starting bid of $740.  

 Do you have a thing for an official Roman nail?  This is affordable and certainly doable for most:  A starting bid of $30.

 Looking for coins?  This is the place.  For a reasonable price pick up a cache of coins that looks like they have sat in a hole for the last thousand years.  Starting bid $30 maybe?   This means you can hit the jackpot if you come up with anything that is valuable.  You can guess what goes up in price.  Got something with Brutus on it, with the two daggers on the back with the freeman’s hat?  You are looking at serious money.  If the coin is silver it may be worth $500 to $600, but if its gold then you are looking at a couple of grand. 

 Looking for sewing pins?  Got it.

 Spear and arrow heads can be yours.  And from the more recent roman era…Byzantium crosses can be had. 

Need glass beads, and an oil lamp that sat on a poet’s table?  It’s there.

 You may even find a broach, in the shape of a fish, that may have been an adornment of an early Christian in England?  Maybe.

 This is like exploring an ancient refuse pile.  Or opening up a drawer in a house that has been sealed up for a VERY long time.  The past presented through nibs, nobs, and thingy- ma- bobs.  You have to sort, and judge if you are actually looking at something that has value.  But what does value mean?  Doesn’t gold have a true and intrinsic value or is it something we rate high because of man’s fascination with it?  Once there was a stock market for tulips in Holland.  The value dropped over night.  Sort through the ebay Museum and you’ll have to judge.  What does owning a statue of Mercury mean to you?  What does owning a coin that bears the image of Vespasian say about you, or your interests?  Something that you buy from that period could have sat on a table of a philosopher, an Emperor, or someone that saw the turmoil in the streets during the Sulla proscriptions.  There is no way to prove any of that, but depending on when it was made there is a chance.  A slim chance, but a chance just the same.  Owning such a thing connects you to the past.  

 It is your own personal time machine.

 I own a quarter with the date 1945 on it.  My Father was a veteran of World War II.  It makes me feel good to own it, a year where a horrible war ended and my father returned to the U.S. alive and in one piece.   Others did not, but 1945 was a year of new beginnings for the winners and the losers.

 The value is in my eyes.      

 Warning: If something is classified Roman style its a copy.  That’s OK if you want to own the art or design style and not puncture a hole in your pocketbook.  

 However, what is the owner offering something up as a starting bid?  If its in the hundreds or thousands it seems to speak of authenticity.  But a coin of Augustus with a starting bid of $2.00 makes me wonder if someone is trying to con me.   Coins with the image of Augustus are hot, images of Brutus or Caesar…hotter.

A 'traditional' Museum -- The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The drawer of Roman nibs, nobs, and thinga- ma- bobs seems more true to life than an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.    It reminds me of something, yes…I remember now, its my own personal nibs, nobs, and thinga- ma- bobs drawer.    You have one too, admit it.  It’s the things we keep because we love them, an official boyscout knife, a button from an election, a button from a favorite sweater, a stub from a theater ticket for the movie STAR WARS.  Some may have an action figure, or even a pressed flower in a book. I have a Tibetan ink well, and the god Ganesha dancing through obstacles (who I occasionally display on a shelf at work out of respect).  The ebay museum may remind you of an ancient junk drawer – pins, rings, statues of favorite gods brought together for you to enjoy.  You can see this on ebay, but you have something like this at home.  YOUR junk drawer may make it on ebay when it celebrates its 150th anniversary.  Note* The word ‘junk’ is a bad word to describe what it REALLY is, for they are actually treasures.  You have to believe that their treasures  for why would you hide it away like that?  Why would you save it?  I’ll tell you why.  It’s your personal museum.   I can only show you my museum if you come to visit, but the ebay museum is open daily to the viewing public. 

 No entrance fee is required, but you might be tempted to make a bid.

Imagine this on ebay 2201. What curious artifact from that pre-computer civilization. Some say it is called "The Slide Rule." Starting bid: $2000

Justin McDonald is a contributor to the blog, and can be found on the Ancient Rome Refocused Facebook Page.  He was kind enough to send us some photos of his travels. 

Do you have any photos of an ancient spot of antiquity that you may have visited? Send Ancient Rome Refocused your photos and tell us what your thoughts were at the time.

Let us see the ancient world through your EYES!

Remember? 

History for the Brave!

(Instructions:  Just send us your digital photos (low resolution) with captions of what we are looking at.  If you want to write a blog post on your journey just send photos and your commentary to: rob@ ancientromerefocused.org)