Dr. Bernie Frischer
Director of the Virtual Heritage Track, and Professor of Informatics at the School of Informatics, Computing, & Engineering at Indiana University Bloomington
Director of the Rome Reborn Project

What Can You Do with a 3D Reconstruction of Ancient Rome? The Solarium Augusti, the Roman Forum, and the city as a whole.
The Rome Reborn project is an international initiative, launched in 1996, to create a 3D reconstruction of ancient Rome in AD 320, shortly before the capital of the empire was moved to Constantinople. This year was chosen because it represents the peak of the urban development of the ancient city. The model took 22 years to complete. In August 2018, it was finally made available to scholars and to the general public through the VR publisher Flyover Zone Productions (see: www.romereborn.org).

This talk will illustrate the validity of the claim with three case studies at different scales and from three different perspectives or vantage points: the alignment of two monuments seen from a fixed position (the relationship of the Montecitorio Obelisk to the Ara Pacis); the dynamically changing viewsheds available to the visitor in the densely-packed Roman Forum (the visit of Constantius II to Rome in AD 357); and, as noticeable in a series of bird’s eye views, the application of organic, as opposed to geometric, urban planning and land use in the entire cityscape.