Glorious Sunday in the Piazza Navona

Glenda and I shared a delicious breakfast here at the hotel early on this Sunday morning, and then started walking to the Piazza Navona. The air was cool. Church bells rang a joyous cacophony reminding everyone within miles that Christ is risen. We passed the open doorways of churches and overheard the sweet voices of nuns singing mysterious music, and we joined other tourists snapping photos in front of the large fountains. We had a good time here this morning in the Piazza Navona. We always do.
This popular tourist site is usually filled with smiling visitors, diners in fashionable restaurants and happy vacationers sipping a cup of espresso. However the name of this place hints at its former purpose. Modern Italian makes it hard to realize what Piazza Navona was originally called.
A clue to the original use of this site maybe found in the piazza’s shape. It is shaped like a hippodrome, a horse racing track. Chariot races could be held here. Another hint is on the street sign that marks it’s location. The street name carved in a granite plaque on the side of a building says, as one would expect, “Piazza Navona.” But in small type underneath it says, “Il Stadio di Domiziano,”—the Stadium of Domitian. Most of us remember this Roman Emperor as the ruthless persecutor of Christians. But his persecution of believers was just a part of his overall plan to keep the masses happy. We all know the cliché that the Roman Empire kept the rabble entertained with “bread and circuses.” There is some truth in this. Roman spectacular entertainment always had involved brutality. Christians actually were fed to lions. Gladiators actually did kill each other in front of huge crowds of spectators. However, by the time of Domitian, the normal bloodshed in the arena had become, well, normal. The crowds wanted more—more brutality, more bloodshed more terror. We see equally horrific things in movies today, but back then there were no special effects. So Domitian built a new stadium, staged larger, bloodier shows than any that Rome had ever seen. Hundreds of warriors fought against each other to guarantee that there would be enough gore to satisfy the crowds. Shiploads of animals fought against other animals. Thousands of the best trained athletes in the world came to this place for the last struggle of their lives. Domitian’s new stadium won the name “the Place of Agony,” or “Piazza Agona.”
So now tourists sip espresso, kids munch their pizza and buskers blow bubbles—all at the Piazza Navona.Read more