{"id":1650,"date":"2015-06-13T14:21:08","date_gmt":"2015-06-13T13:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/engagement-and-impact\/?p=1650"},"modified":"2025-03-27T12:47:42","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T12:47:42","slug":"virtual-rome-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/engagement-and-impact\/virtual-rome-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual Rome (2018)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Rome: Bringing the Eternal City to life<\/h2>\n

Dr Matthew Nicholls\u2019 fascination with the Roman Empire began when he was just eight years old. Little did he know that his childhood passion for colouring in pictures of Romans in his Latin class would lead to the creation of a unique, award-winning digital model of Ancient Rome. Now, though, Nicholls\u2019 3D model of the Eternal City provides a view of the entire city, from any angle, at any time of day.<\/p>\n

3D constructions illustrating the past<\/h3>\n

\u201cMy doctoral research was on books, libraries and intellectual culture in the Roman Empire,\u201d says Dr Nicholls, who is Reading\u2019s Associate Professor of Classics. \u201cMy research kept bringing me back to buildings, and I realised their importance in the ancient world.\u201d And so Nicholls began to focus more on the ruins of the ancient world, creating 3D constructions to tell their stories and illustrate the past.<\/p>\n

First came models of Rome\u2019s libraries, and then, after a decade of intensive work,\u00a0the world\u2019s most detailed digital model of Rome itself. Nicholls\u2019 model of\u00a0Rome is dated c. AD 315 and is rooted in archaeological evidence, making it at close to the original as possible. The model contains thousands of buildings, including reconstructions of all the major monuments (such as the Colosseum, Palatine hill and the Forum) as well as the many square miles of ordinary housing, tombs, and commercial buildings.<\/p>\n

Growing popularity worldwide<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Virtual Rome<\/a>,\u00a0a digital modelling project involving undergraduate and postgraduate students, is now a popular optional module in the University\u2019s Classics department. The\u00a0historically accurate 3D digital model can be used to generate animations and 360-degree panoramic images, or viewed alongside contemporary images of Rome\u2019s archaeological sites.<\/p>\n

Virtual Rome was popularised by an innovative free, five-week MOOC on the FutureLearn platform. It is the world\u2019s first live deployment of 3D content that can be manipulated by the user within a MOOC, and had attracted 23000 learners globally, by March 2018. \u00a0The course was named by ClassCentral as one of the top ten most popular MOOCs worldwide in March 2017. It is anticipated that the MOOC will be repeated two to three times a year.<\/p>\n

Promoting Virtual Rome \u2013 and a new project closer to home<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Dr Nicholls has used blogs, workshops, videos, media appearances, commercial licensing and books to promote Virtual Rome, helping to popularise Classics, illustrate the educative benefits of knowledge of the ancient world, contribute to pedagogical innovation and provide humanities students with transferable skills.<\/p>\n

Now he is also turning his attention to Silchester, working with third-year undergraduate students to create a 3D model of the Roman town in Hampshire, just 10 miles south of Reading.<\/p>\n

Fast Facts<\/h3>\n