The 14 rooms of historical sections tell the complete story of the history of Rome, from its origins to the VIth century AD; following on from this is the section devoted to Christianity. The numbering of the rooms presented here is not progressive, but reflects the current visit route; also in this case the listed materials are only a choice of the many present.
The works contained in the rooms are made up of reproductions: casts of works of sculpture, inscriptions, parts of buildings, copied at full scale, and objects in daily use; reconstruction models of the monuments and architectural complexes of Rome and the provinces of the Roman Empire; reconstructions of situations and instruments of every type, based on archaeological finds, figured representations and the descriptions of the ancient authors.
The materials on display have great documentary and didactic worth, particularly so in the case of those materials whose originals have been lost or destroyed and in the re-composition of ancient works whose composite parts are separated among various museums.
Room 5-6:
Roman legends and primitive culture – the origins of Rome
In these two rooms the documentation of the culture of Lazio and Italy at the time of the foundation of Rome, is presented alongside evidence of the most ancient history of the city and the legends of its mythical origins, shown on monuments of the Republican and Imperial periods.
Cippo del Foro (575-550 BC)
Capestrano warrior (6th century BC)
Bas-relief depicting the escape of Aeneas from Troy (2nd century AD)
Base with Inscription dedicated to Ascanio (III-II century BC)
Praise of Romulus
Bas-relief with the so-called Laurentian sow (1st century AD)
Marble group with sow suckling piglets
Mattei Sarcophagus (about 220 AD)
Room 7:
The conquest of the Mediterranean
This room shows the period from the Vth to the Ist centuries BC, following the progressive expansion of Rome into Italy and all the Mediterranean basin. The works on display tell us about the protagonists of the events in these centuries, particularly through inscriptions and through monuments dedicated to them.
Portrait of Brutus Seniore (4th-3rd century BC)
Ara di Domizio Enobarbo (detail) (late Hellenistic age: 100 BC)
Portrait of Marco Tullio Cicerone (mid 1st century BC)
Plastic of Ponte Fabricio (62 BC)
Bronze crater of Mithridates (120-63 BC)
Portrait of Pyrrhus (1st century AD)
Room 8:
Caesar
The deeds of this famous person are the subject of these rooms, including the scale reconstructions of important battles and the machines of war, which are precisely described in his De Bello Gallico. Many images record his appearance.
Loricated statue of Julius Caesar (Trajan age)
Catapult model
Tortoise: reconstructive model
1:10 scale mobile tower model with ram
Reconstructive model (scale 1:20) of the Arco di Orange (49 BC)
Room 9:
Augustus
This room is dominated by the powerful reconstruction, at life-size, of the pronaos of the temple of Augustus at Ancyra (Ankara), including the text of the emperor’s achievements, the Res gestae Divi Augusti, inscribed on its walls. The iconography of Augustus at various points of his life is documented in numerous portraits; the models of monuments created by his heirs complete the picture.
Statue of Augustus as maximum pontiff (early 1st century AD)
Reconstructive model (1:20 scale) of the Alpine Trophy (Tropaeum Alpium or Tropaeum Augusti) (7-6 BC)
Reconstructive model (scale 1: 200) of the Gard bridge of the aqueduct of Nîmes (around 19 BC)
Reconstructive model of the Teatro di Marcello (17 BC)
Armored statue (lorica) of a character of the imperial family, possibly Gaius Caesar, grandson of Augustus (Augustan age: 27 BC-14 AD)
Portrait of Augustus as maximum pontiff (early 1st century AD)
Bronze portrait of Augustus (25 BC)
Bronze portrait of Augustus, from Meroe (between 27 and 25 BC)
Room 10:
Augustus’ family and the Julio-Claudian emperors
This room gathers together the most important portraits and epigraphical monuments concerning the various members of Augustus’ family. The family tree of the Julio-Claudian tribe on the right wall illustrates the relationship between its various members, which included four emperors: Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero.
Portrait of Marco Vipsanio Agrippa (25-24 BC)
Reconstructive model (scale 1:20) of the Arch of Drusus and Germanicus in Spoleto (23 AD)
Colossal portrait of Augustus, represented as a divus (around 23-31 AD)
Statue of Seated Livia (first quarter of the 1st century AD)
Portrait of Nero (17th century)
Room 11:
The Flavians
This room is dedicated to the emperors Flavius, Vespasian, and his sons Titus and Domitian. A relief showing the triumph of the emperor on the arch of Titus and the inscription which celebrates the conquest of Judea record the capture of Jerusalem.
Relief with the Jewish triumph from the Arch of Titus (81 AD)
Portrait of Vespasian (late 1st century AD)
Reconstructive model (scale 1: 100) of the Domitian Stadium (around 86 AD)
Bronze statue of Vittoria Alata (second half of the 1st century AD)
Room 12:
Trajan and Hadrian
The walls display a lef-size reconstruction of part of the base of the Tropeum Traiani at Adamclisi (Romania), and the reliefs of the Arch of Trajan at Benevento. In the center of the room is a model of Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli.
Portrait of Antinous (Hadrianic age: 117-138 AD)
Fragmentary statue of captive Dace (Trajanic age: 98–117 AD)
Fragmentary statue of captive Dace – from the Boboli Gardens in Florence (Trajanic age: 98–117 AD)
Reconstructive model of the Tropaeum Traiani (109 AD)
Room 13:
The emperors from Antonius Pius to the Severans
In this room are collected, as well as portraits of the emperors and empresses of this long period, life-size reliefs of the Arch of Marcus Aurelius in Tripoli and that of Severus at Leptis Magna.
Reconstructive model of the Arch of Septimius Severus (about 205-209 AD)
Relief with the representation of two barbarians prisoners before Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD)
Portrait of Lucio Vero (around 169 AD)
Portrait of Elio Vero (Antonin age: 138-180 AD)
Room 14:
The emperors from Macrinus to Justinian
This room contains reproductions of the most important monuments of this period: the Arch of Galerius in Salonica and that of Constantine in Rome.
Reconstructive model of the base of the Decennalia column (303 AD)
Reconstructive model of the Circus of Maxentius (around 311 AD)
Portrait of Constantine (324–337 AD)
Portrait of Maxentius
Room 15:
Christianity
The design of this room, which is dedicated to the life of Christianity during the empire, is based on that of a church: it is divided into three naves and on the far wall, next to a reproduction of the great porphry sarcophagus of Constantine, is a large cross.
Sarcophagus of Constantine, daughter of Emperor Constantine (mid 4th century AD)
Sarcophagus of Giunio Basso (359 AD)
Tomb slab of the apostle Paul (4th century AD)
Room 16:
The army
Only a part of this room is currently open to the public: it contains reconstructions of machines of war and weapons.
Room 17:
Model of archaic Rome
This model, recently made on the basis of analysis comparing various historical sources and archaeological discoveries, reproduces at a scale of 1:1000 the urban area of Rome and its surrounding territory in the archaic period, midway between the monarchy and the republic. Particular attention has been given to the rendering of the countryside, notably the appearance of the ancient hills, which were much steeper and higher than they are now, and the courses of water along the valley basins, from the pools where they originated.
Museum of Roman Civilization
The Museum of Roman Culture unites in its halls and extraordinary and rich display of various aspects of ancient Rome, documented in their entirety, through the combination of casts, models and reconstructions of works conserved in museums throughout the world and of monuments from all over the Roman Empire.
The Museum of Roman Civilization is located in Rome, in the EUR district. It documents the various aspects of Roman civilization, including habits and customs, through a very rich collection of copies of statues, casts of bas – reliefs, architectural models of individual works and monumental complexes, including large plastic models; all artifacts are made with an accuracy that makes them real works of art. Among the works on display, two stand out: the complete series of the casts of the Trajan ‘s Column and the large model of imperial Rome, made by Italo Gismondi. It is part of the “Shared museums” system of the municipality of Rome.
The course is divided into two sectors, one chronological and one thematic. The first, which is divided into twelve rooms, offers a historical summary of Rome from its origins to the 6th century AD; the thematic sector runs along twelve other rooms and documents the various aspects of daily life and material culture. The series of casts of the Trajan ‘s Column is exhibited within the thematic sector and at the end of it there is the large model of imperial Rome.
The visit to the museum is complementary to the observation of the ancient monuments of the capital, given that thanks to the very accurate models on display, the visitor can better understand their structure and original appearance. In addition, the museum excellently completes the visit to the city also because it allows you to get to know the most important works of the lands in which Roman civilization has spread and to know its many aspects of daily life. For these reasons, despite the almost total absence of original finds, the museum has a great didactic and documentary value.