The City as Text:
Exploring Roman Culture in VRoma

Barbara F. McManus

The College of New Rochelle

The physical city of Rome was central to the culture of the Roman people. In the words of Catharine Edwards, "For the ancient inhabitant or visitor, the buildings of Rome, the public spaces of the city, were crowded with meanings and associations.  These meanings were generated partly through activities associated with particular places, but Rome also took on meanings from literature written about the city. . . . Ancient writers made use of the city to explore the complexities of Roman history, power and identity" (Writing Rome: Textual Approaches to the City, Cambridge 1996).  Understanding the physical structure of Rome provides invaluable insights into the literature, the society, the politics, and the fabric of Roman daily life.

The VRoma Project (www.vroma.org) has created a virtual simulation of the city of Rome ca 150 CE through a multi-user networked environment (MOO/web server) where synchronous and asynchronous activities can be conducted. Visitors can virtually walk through the fourteen regions of Rome, learn about the various buildings and how they were used, and converse with other visitors or with "bots" with preprogrammed dialogue (some of it in Latin). The VRoma MOO aims to offer an immersive, emotionally engaging "virtual field trip" to ancient Rome.  Locations in VRoma have been designed to create a sense of their lived reality, not just their appearance, through the provision of rich cultural information, literary texts, lots of images, and imaginative activities.

In this presentation I will use PowerPoint to simulate a live connection to VRoma's virtual city in order to illustrate how VRoma can be used to help students perceive the interconnection of architecture and culture.  This interconnection was dynamic and mutual, with literature influencing the city as well as vice versa.  For example, visits to the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine and the Forum of Augustus in VRoma can enrich students' understanding of the Aeneid.  There are recognizable allusions to the temple in the epic, and it is plausible to suggest that Vergil was influenced by this structure and its iconography as he crafted the second part of his epic.  On the other hand, the Forum of Augustus was so deeply influenced by the Aeneid that it can be said to embody Vergil's symbolic vision, which thus continued to affect Roman life and politics through the important functions that were regularly conducted in this site.  Both Latin students and students in civilization and culture courses can enrich their understanding and appreciation of Roman culture through exploring VRoma's virtual city, and I will present sample assignments and activities for both types of students.