ROMANS

THE HOUSE OF FORTUNE

“The house of Fortune” is in Cartagena, under the “Plaza del Risueño”. The house has this name because archaeologists found an inscription at the courtyard. This inscription says: “Fortuna Propitia” that means “good luck”.

It’s located in a real Roman Street. A builder discovered these remains in 1971, while he was working to start building a bank.

This discovery was very important because some parts of the house –f.e. the pictures on the walls- were well preserved. Also, the financial entity decided to change the place where to build the bank and to call to an archaeological company to start excavating the house.

Archaeologists discovered that the house date from the 1^st century B.C. It’s a “domus” house. In Ancient Rome there were two types of houses: “domus” house – big houses where rich people lived in- and “insulae” house – flats or small houses where poor lived in-.

When you get into the house, you can see the courtyard, and next to the entry is the inscription
“Fortuna Propitia”.

Entry to "The House of Fortune"

Courtyard

Inscription “Fortuna Propitia” at the courtyard.

All the rooms of the house are around the courtyard. You can see the dining room, the bedroom and the office.

The dining room is on the right side of courtyard. You can see mosaic floor well preserved. There is a table

and a basket with fruit to decorate and imagine the room in the Ancient Carthago Nova.

Dining room

Mosaics on the dining room’s floor

Bedroom

You can see the bedroom on the left
side the courtyard.
Here, there are mosaics on the floor
and some clothes to imagine the room
in the Ancient Carthago Nova.

Mosaic floor from the bedroom

Opposite to the entry, at the end of the courtyard, is the office. You can see the walls very well preseved walls with pictures of birds and flowers.

Office

Pictures in the office

There were some objects in the house. For example, there was a coin, an oil lamp and an amphora. The coin was used for buying, the oil lamp was used for lighting the house at night and the amphora was used for keeping food and drinks.

  Oil lamp

Coin

Amphora

House of the Tragic Poet

There are more well preserved Roman houses in other countries. For example, “The house of the Tragic Poet” in Pompeii, –Italy-. In this house, you can see some parts that aren’t in the “Fortune House”, such us the kitchen or the garden. Moreover, in the courtyard there are is a curious warning sign that says

Courtyard

“Cave canem” that means “Be aware of the dog”

Dining Room

Kitchen

Kitchen: the oven

Pictures

Garden at the back of the house.

The Roman Theatre of Cartagena

“The Roman Theatre of Cartagena” is next to the “Conception Castle”. The discovery of this theatre was in 1988. It was a surprise, because in the place where is the theatre is, there were houses with people living in them. Moreover, there it was, the “Old Cathedral” of the city, made with stones from the Theatre.

The “Old Cathedral” is a part of the theatre on the top of the stands. This makes this theatre unique in the world.

Archaeologists discovered that the Roman Theatre dates from the 1^st century B.C. It has a capacity of 7,000 spectators. This means that “Cartago Nova” was an important Roman city in the Mediterranean Sea.

The theatre is a semi-circle. In this semi-circle are the stands where people sat to see the performance. There are 5 stairs to access to the stands and there are 2 entries to the theatre. You can see the “Old Cathedral” at the top of the stands.

At the top of the stands is the church “Catedral vieja”. The church is made with theatre’s pieces.

Opposite to the stands is the stage with the background behind it. In the background there are pink marble columns from Mula and white marble from Rome.

Background. Detail of pink marble columns.

Material de Roma el marmol blanco y de Mula el rosa.

There were some objects in the theatre. For example, there was a mask, a coin and a fibula. The mask was used for performance, the coin was used for buying the tickets to see the performance, and the fibula was used for holding the cloak on the shoulder

Roman Coin

Roman fibula

Roman Theatre of Merida

There are more well preserved Roman Theatres in other parts of Spain. For example, “The Roman Teatre of Merida” –Extremadura-. In this theatre you can see performances and imagine that you are in Ancient Rome. Moreover, there are beautiful marble statues of Roman gods ,such us god Apollo-god of the sun- and god Ceres-Goddess of agriculture-.

Apollo

Ceres

Roman Baths of Cartagena

“The Roman Baths of Cartagena” are in Molinete Archaeological Park. Archaeologists discovered them in an excavation next to “Calle Honda” in 1982.

The place where archaeologists found this remains was a private property, so the “Ayuntamiento de Cartagena” had to buy the property to include the baths in the Archaeological Park.

“The Roman Baths” date from 1^st century B.C. They are a part of the “Roman Forum”-the centre of the city of “Cartago Nova”-. In this place there were some of the most important religious, political and social buildings –for example: some temples and baths-.

The baths are in one of the main roads of the city: the “decumanus maximus”-it was an east-west oriented road.

When you get into the Roman Baths, you can see a big courtyard that was used for doing exercise before having a bath. As you can see the floor is made by bricks and there are pink marble columns –from Mula- and white marble columns –from Italy- around the courtyard.

Courtyard

Next to the courtyard, there is a cold pool with marble floor.

Cold pool.

Warm Pool

Next to cold pool, you can see a warm pool. To maintain warm the water, there was a system of underfloor heating to heat the water with hot air. Here you can see the remains of this system.

Finally, there is a hot pool next to the warm pool. The oven is very near of this pool to heat the water very hot.

There were some objects in the baths. For example, there was a coin, a strigil and a fibula.

The coin was used for buying the tickets to the baths, the strigil was used for having a bath and the fibula was used for holding the cloak on the shoulder.