Rome Antics

David Macaulay, Rome Antics

David Macaulay’s 1997 picturebook love-letter to Rome has been reissued! In Rome Antics Macaulay follows the flight of a messenger pigeon from the outskirts of the city to an apartment inside it. Luckily for us, the pigeon decides against a straight route, weaving instead through Rome’s streets and monuments. Though Macaulay provides some sentences of narration, the images, in Macaulay’s black-and-white signature style, take pride of place. Sometimes we are positioned as street-level onlookers, and we see the pigeon’s aerial acrobatics traced in red; other times we are positioned as the bird herself, and we view the city’s architecture from dizzying, unusual, and striking perspectives. There is a basic plotline, but it’s hardly necessary: the journey is sufficient unto itself. Macaulay’s book bears witness to Rome’s layers and juxtapositions as the pigeon’s path crosses ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and modern buildings and mixes monumental encounters with everyday scenes. Materials at the back of the book include a map of the bird’s flight and brief profiles of the places depicted. Readers interested in antiquity will find information about the Appian Way, Aurelian Wall, Porta Ostiense, pyramid of Caius Cestius, Arch of Constantine, Colosseum, Forum, Temple of Hercules, Pantheon, and Ponte Fabricio. For readers who have travelled to Rome, Rome Antics is an opportunity to pay it a joyful armchair revisit. For those who haven’t, Macaulay offers a whirling introduction to the city and its sights.