VilaWeb - Diari escola: Tàrraco Viva

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> Games, Just As Roman Children Played Them

> Tarraco: History...

> ... and Monuments

dimarts, 18 de maig de 2004

From the 18th to the 30th of May, Tarragona is holding the sixth edition of the Annual Festival of Roman History, better known as Tàrraco Viva, which is organised by the Dissemination Service of the Tarragona Museum of History. For almost two weeks, a whole range of events will commemorate the city's Roman past.

And the events are indeed many and varied: cavalry parades, gladiator fights, musical and theatrical performances, fairs of various products, lectures, areas at which to taste the cooking of the time, guided walks to learn about the myths and beliefs of the Ancient Romans… And all this in the unique context of a city that preserves excellent examples of the rich architectural and sculptural heritage of ancient Tarraco.

Some of these events require prior booking or invitation; others do not; some are free and some are not; and many of them are held at monuments that have been declared a UNESCO world heritage site.

As well as submerging the visitor in the atmosphere of the Ancient Roman city, Tàrraco Viva also lets him get closer to Ancient Roman times in general, providing information on museums, monuments and archaeological sites in different European countries.

+ Webs relacionades dins Nosaltres.Com: Època romana

Games, Just As Roman Children Played Them

+ Kids played a wide variety of games.

Among the many activities in Tàrraco Viva, there is one, to be held on the 28th of May, on Roman games. Because the Romans, as well as devoting themselves to politics and to the organization of a vast territory, also had fun, of course. In terms of the games and the kids' way of amusing themselves (ludi minores), it did depend on their social condition to some extent. Kids from humble families played at hide-and-seek and sandcastles and made up games with stones and little bones…, they resorted to inventiveness; while the children from 'good' families had a whole range of very varied games: dolls, miniatures, hoops...

Tarraco: History...

+ The Roman Emperor Augustus lived in Tarraco for some time.

At Tarragona, the Roman trail is of utmost importance, and not by accident. The Romans headed for the Iberian Peninsula in 218 B.C., disembarking at the ancient Greek colony of Emporion (today Empúries), and that same year they founded Tarraco, setting up a military camp there that, over time, became the most important one in the Roman conquest of Hispania. From then on, Tarraco grew and grew, thanks to the influx of traders and all sorts of people, until it became the capital of Hispania Tarraconensis. But the biggest boom period began with the two-year stay (26-25 B.C) of the Roman Emperor Augustus, and it continued through to the middle of the third century A.D.

... and Monuments

+ The Amphitheatre is located just outside the walled city.

So it is not in the least surprising that the monumental complex of Tarraco was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 2000. It preserves a range of architectural pieces of the first order, starting with the city walls that, in the past, had a perimeter of four thousand metres. Of this impressive construction, the oldest of all, over eight hundred metres still remain. Aside from the walls, some of the most outstanding places in the centre or the outskirts of today's Tarragona are the amphitheatre, the circus, the theatre, the provincial and colonial forums, the aqueduct, Bera's arch, the Scipios' tower and the Centcelles mausoleum.

MATERIALS

Tàrraco Viva
Format:Web
El programa de les Jornades Internacionals de Divulgació Històrica Romana.
Museu d'Història de Tarragona
Format:Web
Web oficial del Museu d'Història de Tarragona: història de la ciutat, monuments, itineraris, activitats...
Museu Nacional Arqueològic de Tarragona
Format:Web
Pàgina d'aquest museu que comprèn, entre més coses, informació d'itineraris temàtics i temporals diversos i de monuments de la Tàrraco romana.
The Romans
Format:Web
Espai interactiu de la BBC dedicat a l'antiguitat romana.
Recursos
Format:Web
Una selecció de vincles sobre Roma.

QUE HO SABIES?

The important position that Tarraco held is proven by the fact that, of all the towns that existed in what is today the Catalan territories, it was the only one to have specific places for the great public events of the Roman era: circus, theatre and amphitheatre.
'Tarraco Escipionum opus' (Tarraco was the work of the Scipios): with this sentence the Latin writer Pliny noted that the city had been founded by the Scipios. These were the brothers Gnaeus and Publius Cornelius Scipio, leaders of the Roman army that had arrived on the Iberian peninsula to fight the Carthaginians commanded by Hannibal.
Tarraco was the first city in the Roman Empire to pay a cult of divinity to Augustus, the first Roman Emperor who, as we said, lived in the city for some time.