"A fine piece of work. My compliments."--Dr. Harry Turtledove (Byzantinologist; acclaimed and prolific author of historical fiction and alternate history novels).

"A nice introduction to ancient Rome for a general audience. Overall, quite accurate and certainly better than the majority of historical documentaries about Rome that one sees frequently on TV today."--Dr. Greg Aldrete, Professor of History and Humanistic Studies, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, author of books including Daily Life in the Roman City: Rome, Pompeii and Ostia (Univ. of Oklahoma, 2009).

"This is the guide book Baedeker would have written if he had been alive two thousand years ago. Anyone who reads it will feel that ancient Rome--with its slaves and Senators, its temples and palaces, its slums and brothels, its sounds and smells--is only an air flight away."--Best-selling author Anthony Everitt, whose books include Cicero: A Biography; Augustus; Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome.

"What a marvel! The guide book we've all been waiting for. It is SO accessible. I certainly hope a video follows."--Dr. Rose Mary Sheldon, Ph.D., Chair and Professor of History, Virginia Military Institute, author whose books include Intelligence Activities in Ancient Rome: Trust the Gods, but Verify (Taylor & Francis, 2004).

"A real treasure, A Walk in Ancient Rome is accessible and readable. It offers a complete virtual tour of ancient Rome. Readers gain access to every corner of the ancient capital. Along the way, they learn surprising and interesting facts generally known only to experts. I recommend it for schools and personal enjoyment."--Simcha Jacobovici, film director, producer, free-lance journalist, and author. Narrator of The Naked Archeologist, seen on VisionTV in Canada and The History Channel in USA.

Our walk in ancient Rome takes us through two vibrant and history-rich districts of the Imperial capital. We will see some real live gladiators (honest!) and meet a whole host of other interesting people and see fascinating structures of all types. District 3 contains the Colosseum, among other things. District 4 is most famous for its bookshops, its Temple of Peace, and the giant statue of Sol Invictus, 120 feet tall and gleaming with a halo of seven gilded rays.

Regio III: Isis et Serapis is named after the temples of two imported deities (Isis from Egypt; Serapis, a Greco-Egyptian hybrid of Osiris and Apis). These temple are near one another, in a district called ab Isis et Serapis, in the depression between the Caelian Hill and the Oppian slope of the Esquiline Hill . The district includes the Colosseum and some of the structures around it, like the Ludus Magnum (Great Gladiator School). It includes the Baths of Trajan and the Baths of Titus on the Esquiline slope overlooking the Colosseum, and other interesting structures.

In a dramatized part of our walk, we visit the Colosseum to see the gruesome games in progress. Our spines tingle as we watch the slow, eerie walk of psychopomp, wearing a silver mask and all dressed in black, when he comes with attendants wielding hooks to remove the dead for transport to the Underworld. The winners are showered in gold and the screams of an adoring crowd. The dead, meanwhile, end up in the tunnels below, to be stripped of their armor in the Spoliarium outside, and then left in the Carnarium until their corpses can be carted to the city dump. Also at the Carnarium gather the cooks of the city's palaces before noon (there are reasons why the animal games or venationes are in the early morning), to buy choice cuts of freshly killed giraffe, ostrich, tiger, and other exotic animals from distant lands.

Regio IV: Templum Pacis (Temple of Peace) is named after Vespasian's great temple and forum, built after he restored peace to Rome in the Year of Four Emperors. The short-lived Flavian dynasty (Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, total years in power from 69 to 96) were prolific builders. Vespasian built the Colosseum in District 3, as well as his forum containing the Temple of Peace, some granaries in the Upper Sacra Via, and more. West of Trajan's baths, on the Esquiline, is the large Urban Prefecture, an increasingly powerful office dating back to the Monarchy. The Praefectus Urbanus is the Emperor's next in command in and around Rome.

Cover Image of the Article: Afternoon at the Baths (Ettore Forti, Italian, late 1800s). In the Thermae of Trajan are many rooms for lounging and polite conversation. We can just imagine the literary allusions, double entendres, and clever witticisms as these senators or older businessmen seek to impress the young ladies of good family.

For these men, it's an hour or two of lunch and relaxation before they must return to the law courts and business conferences of the basilicas.

For these young women, it's a moment free from the constant supervision of their male relatives and the spying of the slaves who wait on them.

The world of patrician Rome is a small one. The slightest hint of scandal will be out in every dinner party by night and on every poet's pen by morning--so there is a cautious formality here on both sides, even as charm and ease wrap themselves around the steamy glow of the baths' vast halls.

Nearby, in the smaller Thermae of Titus, similar scenes take place. Rome has nearly 1,000 baths, from the small neighborhood balneum to the huge imperial thermae, of which the largest are bigger than St. Peter's Basilica in modern Rome.