There’s no place like Rome

The will of the world is bent to shape the needs and whims of its most powerful and technically advanced nation whose massive armies are sent beyond its boundaries to impose its will. Meanwhile, its increasingly urbanized and polarized population is lulled by violent spectator sports and other staged spectacles.

We’re talking about Rome, of course, and it’s about to conquer South Carolina.

“Julius Caesar: Roman Military Might and Machines” is a touring exhibition opening next Saturday at the S.C. State Museum, in Columbia.

It is one of several shows developed and curated by a consortium in Italy that for 15 years has crafted high-caliber shows that spotlight key parts of Italian history with enduring appeal: the Roman Empire, artist Michelangelo and all-around Renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci.

Stoking the Columbia show is the “Rome” series shown on HBO and, in a general sense, such catapault-crazed productions as “Game of Thrones.”

Caesar (100 BC-44 BC) was the general and populist politician whose military conquests made him the hero of Rome at the time the republic’s success created its self-destruction. The ruling Senate was split into heated factions. Civil war broke out and Caesar returned to Rome to take charge. The old guard feared his agenda, and assassinated him on the Senate floor. The faction headed by Caesar’s adopted heir eventually triumphed, with its leader becoming the first Roman emperor. Under good emperors and bad, it lasted until AD 476 in Rome and close to 1,000 years more in Constantinople.

The exposition opening in Columbia covers military genius, logistics and measurement, civil technology, entertainment and lifestyle, the Colosseum and gladiators through replicas, recreated scaled artifacts, digital images, computer animations and more. At hands-on areas, you can construct a Roman mosaic, play ancient Roman games and be in a Roman legion’s formation.

More than 30 inventions used during the height of the empire – intricately designed – are offered, including sundials and water clocks, grinding mills, pottery wheels, arches and cranes.

Your choice of photo ops: in front of the Colosseum or inside a gladiatorial combat arena.

The show runs through May 22; seeing it requires an additional fee.

Members of an S.C. group that does Roman reenactments – Legio VI Ferrata Fidelas Constans ( “Constant and Faithful 6th Legion”) – will be decked in Roman-style military garb and do living-history demos as part of the opening day program. They will return Dec. 5 (celebrating an ancient Roman festival) and March 12 for the Ides of March – the Roman date in 44 BC that, according to Shakespeare, a fortune teller told Caesar to beware. He didn’t listen, of course, and was stabbed to death.

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 7:00 AM with the headline "There’s no place like Rome."