a.k.a. V.J.

Central New York place names are chock full of allusions to Classical Antiquity. We’ve got Homer, Cato, Cicero, and Brutus. You’ll also find municipalities named for Ithaca, Carthage, Syracuse, Marathon, and Utica. With all that, it should go without saying that our region contains a city named Rome.

It is said that 19th-century travelers on the Erie Canal, some of whom were cosmopolitan types who had visited the great capitals of Europe, enjoyed a good laugh at seeing the muddy, rustic, frontier outposts along the canal that dared to invite comparison to august gems of the Greco-Roman world. Those wags might have thought that the Rome on the Mohawk River was unworthy to be mentioned in the same breath as the one on the Tiber, but apparently the Italian people of the 20th century didn’t feel that way. In 1958, a group in Italy gifted Rome, N.Y. a statue to celebrate the connection between that city and their capital.

The Capitoline Wolf is a famous sculpture depicting the twins Romulus and Remus – the legendary founders of Rome – suckling from a she-wolf. The original is a well-known landmark in Rome, Italy. The version in Rome, N.Y. is one of many copies donated by Italy to places all around the world.

I encountered the local version of the Capitoline Wolf last week while attending an event at the property where the statue is currently displayed — Rome’s Beeches Manor. Some visitors are reportedly a little weirded out by the imagery, but as a history dork, I found the statue to be a classy addition to a classy venue.