Professor Rita Volpe, Roma Tre University On January 14 1506 the statue group of the Laocoon was discovered in a vineyard on the Esquiline Hill in Rome. It was almost intact and recognized at once as the same work of art which Pliny the Elder considered one of the most beautiful creations of...

Speaker: Anthony Corbeill, University of Virginia In 56 BCE Cicero, orator and statesman, was enjoying his first Roman spring since returning from exile. April brought terrestrial rumblings north of Rome. The senate chose to investigate, enlisting Etruscan diviners to determine their...