When in Rome 6: Show Your True Colors
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Ancient Rome is known to modern people for its ruins and sculptures. Over the centuries, the grand buildings and monuments have crumbled through the forces of man and nature. Sculptures and other works of art have been buried, pillaged and damaged.
The daily life of the people has been lost except for what survives through their remaining writing and what pieces of daily life we can find amongst the ruins. Pottery, personal care items, household items, objects used for making manual labor easier all add a little bit to what we know about these Romans.
While today we live surrounded objects designed to be thrown away, the labor put into making these items long ago meant they were built to last. Because of the craftsmanship and materials used, we can see what life in Ancient Rome was like. We get to see what the Romans liked.
And, they liked being surrounded by colors!
While we typically think of the white columns and ruins we see today, but they are more accurately described as Alabaster. Walking among these structures, the sheer magnitude of their construction – without modern machinery – is awe inspiring. What we are missing is the colors that anointed these structures as well as the shops, markets and homes you would pass in the streets.
The Romans are famous for their elaborate and colorful wall paintings, like these examples. When creating wall paintings, ground-up pigment was applied directly onto the wet plaster of the walls. The fragments here likely decorated the walls of a private house.
Fresco depicting an urban view from a room in the Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale, Italy. Late Republic, ca. 50–40 BCE. Note the brightly colored buildings and altars, the painted column, and the golden statue on a tall column.
While we think of Romans as toga wearing people – white or Royal Purple they loved to adorn all their clothing with different colors and they loved to accessorize!
Roman bag with red dyed thread
Vermillion was one of the most sought-after colors in the ancient Roman world. It was made from cinnabar and traded throughout the Mediterranean world and beyond. Red was a popular color, so much so that even headstones in cemeteries had red highlights in the engraving so make things easier to read.
Blue was a popular color as well. Common people often used a dye derived from the woad plant common in Europe. More expensive and sought after was the bright blue created using indigo. Not only clothing was dyed blue. Wood easily absorbed the blue, or other, dyes and led to decorative wooden utensils for use around the home.
Orange was also a color used to brighten life in the Ancient Roman world. Whether it was made from realgar and transported to Rome or created through the process of heating white lead into red lead (a highly toxic material and process) this bright color was considered to be worth the cost and danger to produce.
Consider this the next time you see Roman ruins online or in a museum. What we see today is a pale representation of what an Ancient Roman would have experienced. Why would their lives be surrounded dull white?
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This cache brought to you by the students enrolled in the Ancient European and Art History Departments of Midstate Travel Bug University.
Part of the "When in Rome" series of mystery caches.
When in Rome 1: Do as the Romans Do
When in Rome 2: Chickens Rule
When in Rome 3: Ancient Rome!
When in Rome 4: #AMA
When in Rome 5: Roman Tic Tac Toe!
When in Rome 6: Show Your True Colors!
When in Rome 7: Seek Power!
When in Rome 8: Arm Yourself
When in Rome 9: Find a Nice Quiet Place to Retire
When in Rome 10: Relax and Read a Good Book
When in Rome: The Conquest of Rome