The Roman emperor, Diocletian, retired to his palace in Split, Croatia in 305 CE, living alongside his own mausoleum until his death in 312. In my study, I examined the architectural form of Diocletian’s mausoleum in comparison with imperial mausolea in Rome. I then conducted a museology experiment on how best to present this information and cultural heritage to the public.
The first phase of the project was an examination of how the emperor’s final resting place changed when the seat of power moved from Rome to the provinces. While analyzing the main square of the palace, which locals call the Peristyle, I found that the area encompassing the mausoleum, the emperor’s private living quarters, and the Temple of Jupiter was deliberately separated from the rest of the palace. A free-standing colonnade may serve as a temenos, or boundary line for a religious sanctuary. While it was the tradition for Roman emperors to be deified after death, the creation of a religious sanctuary among imperial tombs was not done in the city of Rome. Furthermore, while the architectural footprint of Diocletian’s mausoleum is similar to the mausoleum of the emperor, Augustus, Diocletian’s mausoleum has the aesthetic of a Roman temple, not a burial monument.
One of the most pressing issues museums and archaeological sites face today is how to properly present information and cultural heritage to the public. In the second phase of my project I examined whether the public would better absorb information through a creative narrative rather than a compilation of facts. I presented my findings about Diocletian’s mausoleum to different groups of people in these two ways. The first group read a piece that described the study in a traditional, academic fashion, while the second group was presented the same information in narrative form. Each participant was asked to talk about how they related to the piece he or she was given to read.
Temple to Jupiter, late 3rd c. CE; Became a baptistry dedicated to St. John the Baptist in the ca. 7th c. CE.
Black granite sphinx from the age of Thutmose III, imported to Diocletian’s Palace from Egypt at the end of the 3rd c. CE. Like Diocletian's statues and buildings (mausoleum and temple) that were either destroyed or Christianized, the sphinxes were destroyed for the same reason. People thought that looking at a sphinx in the eyes would blind them. Only two sphinxes remain out of the original twelve.
Entrance to Diocletian’s Mausoleum, late 3rd c, CE; Bell tower added when the mausoleum became a cathedral in the ca. 7th c. CE.
At a conference in Washington, D.C., five F&M students discussed their papers on aspects of ancient...
Author and social entrepreneur Wes Moore, whose book, “The Other Wes Moore,” reached the bestseller lists for its unvarnished examination of the fine line between success and failure, posed questions Sept. 13 about the post-graduate future of Franklin & Marshall College students.
“What exactly does it mean to be talented and what exactly are we doing with those talents?” Moore said at Common Hour, a community conversation conducted every Thursday classes are in session during the academic year.
Moore, a combat veteran and head of one of the largest anti-poverty forces in the nation, was invited to speak on campus as a part of The Mehlman Talent Initiative at F&M, which identifies teaching and mentoring techniques that help students who prevailed over challenging life circumstances to thrive in college and beyond.
"The most important question you are going to be asked is ‘who did you choose to fight for? Who did you choose to stand up for when it wasn’t easy?" Author Wes Moore tells the Common Hour audience. Image Credit: Deb Grove
As he looked around a packed Mayser Gym, Moore told the students, “You all wouldn’t be here if you weren’t talented. The truth is that F&M has accepted you not for what you’ve already accomplished, but for what you’re going to accomplish in the future.”
From his early college years – the Baltimore-born, Bronx-raised Moore studied international relations and economics at Johns Hopkins University and, as a Rhodes scholar, Oxford University – Moore recalled the persistent question about what he was majoring in.
“I got asked this question so many times that it started to feel like it was going to be the most important question I would ever be asked in my life. I got asked that question so many times I thought no other question even mattered,” he said. “In fact, I literally started getting asked that question so many times I started making stuff up to see where the conversation would go.”
Seventeen years after finishing his undergraduate experience, no one asks him what his major was in college. He realized long ago, he said, the question didn’t matter, but his education, and what he would do with it, did.
“The weight of those questions will eventually fade,” Moore said, and advised, “I’m not telling you don’t do well in school. … What I’m saying is this: The most important question you are going to be asked is ‘Who did you choose to fight for? Who did you choose to stand up for when it wasn’t easy? When it wasn’t simple? When it wasn’t politically convenient? When it wasn’t trendy?’”
More said he hoped the students’ answer would be, “You did it because it was the right thing to do. That’s how our talent is going to be defined. It’s not necessarily your GPA. Your talent will be defined by your GPS – by the direction you choose to take your life and the impact you want your life to make. And who it is that you stand for when it’s not simple.”
Moore said that the hope of the Mehlman Initiative, launched by social entrepreneur, businessman and F&M trustee Ken Mehlman ’88, and the hope of the College, “is that you will choose to fight for the others—the people who are often left out of the conversation.”
As a political analyst who appears as a guest on the MSNBC program, “Morning Joe,” Moore illustrated his point by discussing a segment a few years ago when he interviewed acclaimed singer and actor Harry Belafonte. He asked the entertainer, now 91, why he risked his career as a social activist.
“I said, ‘Why did you always speak out … when you didn’t have to?’” Moore recalled. “He said, ‘Because it’s more fun to live that way.’ And he said, ‘Some people wake up in the morning and call their accountant. I wake up in the morning and call Nelson Mandela. Who do you think has the more interesting life?’”