made to the grandeur and magnificence of the lighthouse of Portus, which shone out to sea
right to the horizon. In the Vatican Gallery of Maps there is a fresco of the hexagonal shaped Portus
area, painted in 1582 by Antonio Danti after cartoons of Ignazio Danti; but the more recent
utilisation of more sophisticated satellite imagery techniques as well as Lidar has led to the
discovery of evidence of a much larger hexagonal shaped central harbour, catering for approximately
50 ships, at the core of a larger complex of port facilities, including an amphitheatre capable of
seating and entertaining a mob of 50,000 people,
a mob packed in as a giant communal celebration of conquest utilising slaves brought in from
defeated armies and occupied provinces and then slaughtered for the entertainment, again and again and again, of the citizens of Rome.
for the coming together of perfect order on one hand and terrible violence on the other; a powerful
combination which helped in the process of bringing the empire together. Portus was constructed as THE Port of Rome, connected directly by a grand canal rather than the
meandering river Tiber, and provided an icon of mind-melding control over access to the entirety
of its million square mile Empire of 60 million people; as well as inspiring an awe of Empirical
Existence, in the hearts and souls of those approaching Rome for the first time from the
extremities of the empire by way of the Mediterranean Sea. It is now known that the port was
constructed of a specially developed Roman Concrete, which strengthened with age, regardless
of whether submerged in water or not. The concrete domed roof of the Parthenon in Rome is
assumed to have been constructed of a similar material, and remains to this day the oldest
concrete roof structure on earth. All of this, in conjunction with a road network of 25,000 miles,
connected the entirety of EVERYTHING and EVERYONE in 'The Empire' together.
I have slept on this thought overnight and am preparing a piece which will focus [y]our
project on the juxtaposition of the NATURAL democracy of Athens and the MIND GAMES CONTROL
of Rome and its Empire. Any thoughts on this would be welcome.
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