 Today is June 20th, 2023, Largo, Argentina as a site is open officially today. You're allowed to come down now on these new walkways that have been inserted, which is financed by Bulgari, and we have four temples of Largo, Argentina finally once again accessible to the public. We'll take a quick tour through, and of course the tourists are here, and of course there's a museum space as well. Right next to the archaeological park, our tour starts here at Torre del Papito, which is a nickname after the Antipope Anacletus II of the 12th century, and it's right here you get your ticket and you can get a new site publication. It's a wonderful place to start your tour. Here are the remains from the decoration of the church of the 15th century that stood on top of Temple A. We descend down this nice narrow staircase, but if you need help with a stroller or wheelchair, there's also a nice elevator. Hey, this is Darius Aria for Ancient Rome Live. We are here in Largo, Argentina. We are all around Ancient Rome. We are all around the Roman Empire. It's an opportunity for you to learn so many new things about Ancient Rome, the Roman world around the Mediterranean, come and follow us and subscribe. First thing we should do is admire this incredible walkway, floating above the original ground level, giving us plenty of access to the archaeological park. But you might be wondering, where are the cats? The opening is extraordinary because we have access to these four temples. The cat sanctuary in the corner still exists. The cats are still here. Let's start off with the plan of the campus marshes. We have our four temples of Largo, Argentina hemmed in by many other structures. To the east, we have the Porticus Manucha, place for grain distribution. To the west, the mighty remains of the theater of Pompey, including the courier of Pompey where Julius Caesar was assassinated. Here's a reconstruction of those four temples. The Porticus of Manucha, you can even see the theater of Balbus. It's a crowded neighborhood. The oldest temple in the sanctuary is Temple C, and it's attributed to the goddess Faronia, a Savine deity, dedicated by Manlius Curius Dentatus in 290 BC. It was followed shortly thereafter by Temple A. This is attributed to the goddess Gerturna, dedicated by Gaius Lutatius Caculis. Temple A, like Temple C, was dedicated as a result of a victory, and you use the spoils of war, the Minubii, to build a victory temple. The next temple is Temple D. It's the largest in the sanctuary, possibly dedicated to the Lades. It dates to the early 2nd century BC. The last temple is squeezed in between temples A and C. It's the temple of Fortuna on this day, vowed after the battle of Versailles in 101 BC by Quintus Lutatius Caculis. But what really captures the imagination is the structure behind Temple B. These are the remains of the courier Pompeyana, where Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March, 44 BC. The remains behind Temple B are poorly preserved, but we can see on this map it's number 3, and it gets erased in antiquity, replaced by latrines number 4 and number 5. So public latrines replace the courier of Pompey and behind here Temple A, we can actually see just how large that public latrine actually was. To the east of the sanctuary, we have these pillars made of tuffe, faced still with plaster that belonged to the Porticus Manucha. We have the remains of the colonnade of the Hecostylon, to the north of the 4 temples of Larga Argentina, beautifully preserved, dating to the imperial period. Then you have the devastating fire of ADAD that goes through the campus marshes. We're going to have as a result the laying of new pavement. So you have the original pavement in tuffe, and now on top of it is laid in the reign of Domitian, pavers of Travertine stone. This is the remains of a residence of the 8th to 9th centuries AD, and then you have the creation in Temple A of a church, and it's dedicated to Saint Nicola, at least by 1132. And here we have some of the remains of later frescoes of the church. Next the archaeological site of course is Torre del Papito, a nickname of the Antipope and Eclatus of the Pirleone family, so it's their tower that eventually passes into the property of the Cesareni family. And of course, along with this tower, it's the Cesareni church of Saint Nicola, which is then demolished in the excavations between 1926 and 1929. This is when the great discovery was made of the archaeological park of the temples. All these ruins that we can explore today, and it's not just the architectural remains, it's also incredible sculpture, like this colossal acrolithic statue of Fortuna that comes from Temple B now in Montemartini Museum. Now let's take a tour. A quick walk through this site, some medieval structures on one side of the walkway, but I'm walking past the oldest temple, Temple A, which becomes the church of Saint Nicola, and you have a lot of different routes that you can take. Shops are inserted here in the imperial period, and then we get to Round Temple B, which is the youngest of the four temples here in Larva Argentina. You can see it's spacious, you can see you've got a plenty of opportunity to explore and wander around, look at the various artifacts. In the hustle and bustle of Rome, Temple B to Fortuna of this day, here's Temple C, it's the oldest, along maybe to the Temple of Fortuna, along with Temple A maybe to dedicated to Giotorni, and finally Temple D, the biggest temple that's actually partially underneath the road, there's Temple D, or we can also go right inside. I'm here in front of Temple D, it's the largest of the four temples in the Larva Argentina area, and this is a place that was forever inaccessible. Today it's part of the experience in the Larva Argentina Archaeological Park, and you can see the rest of the staircase, what's up on top of us, it's the sidewalk, and it's the road, but now we get a sense of just how massive this temple actually was, probably dedicated to the lares, possibly dedicated to the nymphs, and next to it is the Temenos Wall, telling us it's the end of the sacred precinct. Temple D is also where you have the cat sanctuary, it sits on top of the podium in the back, it still exists today. Now here you just don't have the archaeological site, you also have in this very long corridor a new museum space, and it's going to give you insights into the history of the site, from antiquity all the way through to the Middle Ages, and it truly is an extraordinary experience, and this has to be on your list of places to go, if you really want to understand the layers of history, we're in the epicenter of the campus marshes, we're down the street from the Pantheon, and we have of course on the backside of the archaeological site, this site where Julius Caesar was assassinated in the Coria of Pompey. The Pantheon contains several statues, this might be one of the goddesses of the temples, this one has been linked to the goddess Faronia of temple C, we have many other statues, many other dedications here, we're able to see just how this storeroom area has become an extraordinary museum, there's lots of decoration of the temples on display, also lots of dedications like this one to Vespasian, and finally the Middle Ages is well documented even the reuse of marble for a pavement of the medieval church. It's like a dream folks, we've been documenting this for years, and Largantina is now open, I'm here at temple A which also becomes a church to San Nicola, it's marvelous to be here, it's marvelous to explore these locations, these four temples, and more, the museum space, it does not disappoint. So come and get it, come to Rome, come and explore Republican Rome, come and explore the pavement that's laid after the fire of AD, AD, and get to know another section of the campus marshes. 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