Walter Muzzy posted numerous times to a popular travel site's web forum under the handle of ParadiseLost and later, Rostra. These posts, written in a forum where only text was permitted, were extremely informative and quite extensive. They were valued greatly by the members of the forum, and often used as reference material during their tours of Rome. Walter found me on the internet because of my Tourist in Rome web site and we conversed extensively about the Roman Forum. During our conversations he referred me to those postings. Walter told me his main purpose in creating those posts was "for tourists, history buffs, etc to get the most out of a visit and find major sites and little tidbits that normally are just bypassed. I have spent 3.5 months in Rome over 9 trips (1996-2006) and countless days (if you add up the hours) just sitting in the Roman Forum (especially when it was free) and have watched thousands of tourists walk right by some of the greatest things in the Forum by just using a guidebook with a couple of pages devoted to the Forum."
In the interest of preserving those valuable posts and making them accessible to a wider audience, I have captured the posts, corrected typographical errors, reformatted them, and made them available here. I have tried to be minimally invasive in my editing, leaving the vast majority of Walter's original words intact. I've replaced links to photos which are no longer on the web to those on my own web site which I hope will be available for a long time to come. Walter appreciated me doing this for him, and gave me permission to use his words and my edits to them in whatever way I wished. He said "'Copy & Paste' anything you want, re-write or edit anything as I said my main concern is for tourists, history buffs, etc to get the most out of a visit and find major sites and little tid-bits that normally are just by-passed."
I hope you enjoy Walter's style of writing and appreciate the depth of the information he presents, as I do. His frequent comparisons to today's world show that we and the ancient Romans are not all that different from each other. His skill in storytelling really brings the Roman Forum to life for me, as he weaves the sites, the legends, and the people of Ancient Rome into a fascinating history lesson that's fun to read.
On May 3, 2015 I learned that Walter passed away on April 22, 2015. Rest in Peace, Walter, and thanks for all the knowledge you passed along, and your down-to-earth skill in communicating it.
-- Jeff Bondono, editor (from here on, just Jeff)