ROMA
Italy.
The Origins
The key to Rome's early importance and
predominance is its geographic position on the Tiber, the
largest river of central Italy. At a distance of ca. 20 km
from its mouth, an island in the Tiber provides the easiest
place to cross the river between Rome and the sea; and
there is no other crossing place for many miles upstream.
The left bank opposite the island became the natural
halting place for the general overhand traffic from N to S
of the Italian peninsula as well as for the salt trade route
which came from the salt marshes N of the mouth of the
Tiber. The river was crossed at the island by bridges or
by ferry, and the salt route continued over the Vicus
Iugarius, the Argiletum and the Via Salaria towards the
mountainous regions of the Sabines, whereas the traffic
from the N of Italy into Latium and Campania took its
way through the valley of the Forum along the Sacra Via
towards the Alban hills. The earliest traces of settlements
within the boundaries of later Rome have been found in
the immediate vicinity of the Tiber island S of the Vicus
Iugarius. Excavations in the Area Sacra of S. Omobono,
begun in 1937, point to pre-urban settlements from ca.
1500-1400 B.C. Early religious traditions like the festival
of the Septimontium, which included the Palatium, Cermalus, Velia, Fagutal, Caelius (with Succusa), Oppius,
and Cispius, show that the development of Rome as an
organized township was based on the hills as natural
strongholds. Owing to this geographic position there was
uninterrupted habitation on the site of Rome from the
second millennium B.C. on. In the Iron Age, an archaic
city emerged on the left bank of the river enclosing the
four regions: Suburana (Caelius), Esquilina, Collina
(Quirinal and Viminal), and Palatina. The Capitoline,
always regarded as the citadel of the united city, was not
included in one of the regions. The archaeological evidence of Iron Age tombs and hut foundations is, however, not limited to the Palatine, Quirinal, Esquiline, and Velia; it also appears to a large extent in the valley of
the later Forum Romanum although the legend describes
this as a marsh made habitable only by the draining by
the Cloaca Maxima, attributed to the engineering skill of
the Etruscans. The fact that a hut settlement was found
at the lowest point of the valley at the Equus Domitiani
5 m below the first Imperial pavement of the Forum
is ample evidence that the open brook coming from the
valley between Quirinal and Viminal, crossing the valleys
of the Forum and the Velabrum and emptying into the
Tiber, provided sufficient drainage to make the valley
habitable and to keep the old road open for traffic. The
spring-fed brooks that drained the valleys provided at the
same time fresh water for the early dwellers. Through
the Campus Martius flowed the Petronia Amnis, the only
watercourse whose ancient name is known to us; it came
from a spring, Fons Cati, on the slope of the Quirinal.
The brook that drained the valley of the Circus Maximus (Vallis Murcia) between the Palatine and Aventine
originated from two branches, one coming from the
Oppius, crossing the site of the Colosseum and continuing between Palatine and Caelian; at the SE corner of
the Palatine it joined another watercourse coming out of
the valley S of the Caelian. After crossing the circus
valley and the Forum Boarium it flowed into the Tiber
ca. 100 m below the mouth of the Cloaca Maxima. It
was not the marshy ground that made settling in the valleys difficult—there is no evidence that the settlements
on the hillsides were populated more densely or earlier
than those in the valleys—but the violent inundations of
the Tiber which plagued the city until the beginning of
the 20th c. The winter floods, many of them recorded
by ancient writers, must often have destroyed the hut
settlements in the valleys. Usually the flood exhausted
itself in three to five days, and the inhabitants could
easily repair the damage to their huts without giving up
the place of habitation.
Forum Romanum
The archaic sepulcretum E of the
Temple of Antoninus and Faustina and an extension towards the W below the Regia and the Temple of Divus
Iulius with tombs from the 9th c. to about 700 B.C. was
abandoned by the middle of the 7th c. At the same time
the hut settlements disappeared to make room for a general common square. From the beginning the Forum
Romanum was a market place with market booths on its
long sides—later called Tabernae Veteres on the S and
Tabernae Novae on the opposite side. The E and W sides
were bordered by religious structures. At the spot where
the Sacra Via, descending from the Velia, entered the
Forum stood the hut-shaped Temple of Vesta which contained the sacred fire of the community. Across the street,
the E boundary of the square was first formed by a stone
platform which probably carried a religious monument;
it was succeeded by an archaic temple by the first
quarter of the 6th c. At the very beginning of the Roman
republic, i.e. during the last decade of the 6th c., the
temple was replaced by the Regia, the sanctuary of the
Rex Sacrorum where he performed the official sacrifices
of the state. The opposite, W side of the Forum was
bordered by the sacred precinct of Vulcan, the Volcanal,
whose ancient pre-urban, rock-hewn altar is still extant.
It lay about 5 m above the Comitium, the assembly place
of the comitia curiata, and from it the assembled people
could be addressed before a speakers platform was built.
The area of the Comitium was laid out together with the
Forum; both squares received their first pavement around
575 B.C. On the highest point of its N side stood the
senate house, the Curia Hostilia, named after the third
king Tullus Hostilius. On the S side facing the Curia,
orators addressed the people from a tribune which, from
338 B.C., took the name of Rostra from the beaks of
captured ships with which it was decorated. To the left
of the Rostra stood a group of archaic monuments: a
four-sided stele that carries the oldest Latin inscription,
the stump of a conical column, and the foundation of a
sacellum with tufa bases for statues of recumbent lions.
When these monuments were covered in the 1st c. B.C.
with a black marble pavement, the so-called Lapis Niger,
their original meaning was already unknown; they were
believed to belong to a tomb of Romulus or his foster
father Faustulus or of Hostus Hostilius, the father of
King Tullus. There are other early monuments in the
Forum connected with the legendary history of the
Roman kings: e.g., the Lacus Curtius, the plinth of a
puteal marking the spot where, during the battle between
Latins and Sabines, the horse of the Sabine leader Mettius Curtius stumbled into a swamp and thus brought the
fight to a halt. On the same occasion Romulus is said
to have vowed a temple to Iupiter Stator, which he built
on the Velia. The remains immediately SE of the Arch
of Titus belong to a reconstruction of the temple by the
consul M. Atilius Regulus in 294 B.C.
After centuries of primitive village civilization, Rome,
from the 6th c. B.C., developed rapidly into a town assimilating building types that were introduced from
Etruria. There is no doubt that in the 6th c. the kings of
Rome were of Etruscan origin, and the archaeological
evidence from the towns and cemeteries around Rome
confirms the priority of Etruscan culture. Thus the Forum
Romanum, after having been established as the civic
center of the town, soon became an architecturally closed
space. In 497 B.C. the Temple of Saturn was dedicated at
the SW corner of the square replacing an earlier Fanum
Saturni which, together with the Volcanal, had closed
the W side before. At the SE corner a temple was consecrated, in 484 B.C., to Castor and Pollux after the
Dioscuri in 496 B.C. had brought news of the victory at
Lake Regillus to Rome and had watered their horses at
the Lacus Iuturnae immediately SE of where the temple
was to stand. On the N side where the street of the
Argiletum entered the Forum stood the Shrine of Janus
Geminus, a small rectangular structure with doors at
each end which were closed only when general peace
was achieved. In front of the Tabernae Novae, first occupied by dealers in provisions and by butchers and later
by money changers, stood the small round Shrine of
Cloacina, the divinity of the Cloaca Maxima a branch of
which entered the Forum at this point. On the W side
above the Volcanal a Temple of Concord was erected in
366 B.C. after the conflict between Patricians and Plebs
had been settled. It was rebuilt by L. Opimius in 121 B.C.,
restored by Tiberius, and dedicated as Aedes Concordiae
Augustae in A.D. 10.
From the beginning of the 2d c. B.C. the building of
basilicas emphasized the monumental character of the
Forum. Nothing is left of the Basilica Porcia erected in
184 B.C. next to the Curia Hostilia and burned down together with it in 52 B.C. at the funeral of Clodius. The
Basilica Opimia, built in 121 B.C. next to the Temple of
Concord, has also entirely disappeared. On the S side
behind the Tabernae Veteres, the censor Ti. Sempronius
Gracchus erected in 170 the Basilica Sempronia on the
site previously occupied by the house of Scipio Africanus,
remains of which have been discovered under the Basilica
Iulia. On the opposite long side of the Forum, the Basilica
Aemilia was erected in 179 B.C., enclosing the Tabernae
Novae within its portico.
The great town-planning schemes of Iulius Caesar included a new orientation of the buildings of the Comitium and the Forum. The Rostra was removed from the S border of the Comitium and given a new collocation
at the W side of the Forum with the whole free area of
the square in front of it. At the S end of the Rostra,
Augustus erected in 20 B.C. the Milliarium Aureum, the
Golden Milestone, which recorded the distances to the
chief cities of the empire. At the N end stood the Umbilicus Romae, which marked the center of Rome and of
the Roman world. The Curia Hostilia, rebuilt after the
fire of 52 B.C. by Faustus Sulla, was torn down and with
it disappeared the NS orientation of the Comitium, which
was reduced to a small square in front of the new Curia
Iulia, begun by Caesar and completed by Augustus. On
the S side, the Basilica Sempronia was replaced by the
Basilica Iulia, begun in 54 B.C. For its construction the
Tabernae Veteres were removed. Augustus, who completed Caesar's plans and buildings, transformed the
whole SE corner of the Forum into a building complex
in honor of Caesar and of the gens Iulia. In front of the
Regia on the spot where Caesar's body was burned, he
erected the Temple of Divus Iulius. It was dedicated in
29 B.C., and the senate at the same time decreed a triumphal arch to him next to the temple for his victory
over Antony and Cleopatra at Actium. An arcaded
portico which surrounded the temple was named Porticus
Iulia for the members of the gens Iulia and, across the
street at the SE end of the Basilica Aemilia, a Porticus
Gai et Luci was dedicated to Augustus' grandsons Gaius
and Lucius Caesar. The Temple of Divus Iulius replaced
a platform of tufa blocks, the site of the Tribunal Aurelium and the Gradus Aurelii, where trials were conducted
from ca. 75 B.C.; it is no longer mentioned after the time
of Cicero. Many other tribunals in the Forum were no
more than wooden platforms like the Tribunal Praetorium of the praetor urbanus or that of L. Naevius
Surdinus, “praetor inter cives et peregrinos” as he calls
himself in an inscription on the pavement, next to the
statue of Marsyas in the center of the square.
The view to the W had been closed ever since 78 B.C.
when Q. Lutatius Catulus built the Tabularium, the state
archives of the Roman republic, between the two summits of the Capitoline. In front of its facade facing the
Forum stood, to the S, the Porticus Deorum Consentium,
dedicated to the twelve Olympian gods and originally
built in the 3d or 2d c. B.C. and restored for a last time
in A.D. 367. Between the portico and the Temple of Concord, Titus and Domitian erected a temple to their deified father Vespasian.
The splendor of the Forum was enhanced by triumphal
and other arches. The Sacra Via entered the Forum
through the Fornix Fabianus, built in 121 B.C. by A.
Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus, remains of which have
been found at the SE corner of the Regia. The street
then passed through the Arch of Augustus erected in 29
which was replaced by a triple arch decreed in 19 B.C.,
after the standards captured by the Parthians had been
returned; on the piers of this arch the Fasti consulares
and triumphales were engraved. The W side of the Forum
was adorned by the single Arch of Tiberius erected in
A.D. 16 and a triple arch dedicated to Septimius Severus
and his sons Caracalla and Geta in A.D. 203. The two
main streets at the W end, the Vicus Iugarius and the
Argiletum, also entered the Forum through street arches
(Iani). The sites of three equestrian statues on the area
of the Forum can be identified as the Equus Domitiani
(A.D. 91), the Equus Constantini (A.D. 334) and the
Equus Constantii (A.D. 352).
In A.D. 303 a monument of five columns was erected
immediately behind the Rostra for the Vicennalia of
Diocletian and Maximian and the Decennalia of the
Caesars Constantius Chlorus and Galerius. This monument of Diocletian's tetrarchy is represented in relief on
the N side of the Arch of Constantine. One of the column
bases decorated with reliefs is still extant and the foundations of all five columns were excavated in 1959. The
last monument to be erected in the Forum Romanum
was the column in front of the Rostra dedicated to the
Byzantine Emperor Phocas in 608.
Sacra Via
The region between the Forum and the top
of the Velia was called the Sacra Via. After leaving the
Forum area through the Arch of Augustus, the street
passes on the S the precinct of Vesta with the temple
and the Atrium Vestae, the dwelling of the Vestal Virgins. Their sumptuous residence with a large court decorated with three water basins, the remains of which are still to be seen, was built after the Neronian fire of A.D.
64. Just as Caesar changed the orientation of the Forum,
so Nero changed the orientation of the Sacra Via and the
buildings bordering it. The pre-Neronian Atrium Vestae
followed the course of the original street parallel to the
Regia and to the Domus Publica. This, the official residence of the Pontifex Maximus, became part of the
Atrium Vestae when, in 12 B.C., Augustus, after his election as Pontifex Maximus, gave up the official residence
in favor of his house on the Palatine. After passing
through the Fornix Fabianus, the Sacra Via joins a second branch running N of the Regia and entering the
Forum between the Temple of Divus Iulius and the Porticus Gai et Luci. On the N side of this street stands the
temple which, in A.D. 141, Antoninus Pius erected to the
memory of his deceased wife Faustina. After his death,
in 161, it was dedicated to him as well.
Going E towards the Velia, one sees on the right a
semicircular podium recognizable as the platform of a
Sanctuary to Bacchus, which is known from a coin of
the man who restored it, Antoninus Pius. Literary sources
reveal the existence of a Temple of the Lares and a
Tholos of Magna Mater on the Velia where the Clivus
Palatinus meets the Sacra Via; of these temples no traces
have been found.
From the early times of the hut settlements the Sacra
Via was a densely populated residential quarter. The
inhabitants were called sacravienses. Numerous remains
of private buildings of the Republican and early Imperial
period have been found and, according to tradition, some
of the kings and many patrician families had their dwellings on the Sacra Via and on the height of the Velia
(“in Summa Sacra Via”). Stone foundations of archaic
houses from the first half of the 6th c. B.C. have been
found over the tombs of the sepulcretum E of the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina. Next to it are basement
rooms of a private house on both sides of a narrow
corridor, dating from about the middle of the 1st c. B.C.,
which its excavator once erroneously called a “carcer.”
Higher up, about 30 m W of the Arch of Titus, are the
remains of a rooming house of more than 35 rooms with
a common bathing establishment dating from about 80
to 50 B.C. All these buildings were destroyed by the
Neronian fire in A.D. 64, or they were sacrificed for the
construction of the portico that Nero built leading to
the vestibule of his new palace, The Golden House. The
foundations of its colonnades cut through the curves of
the Sacra Via and run in a straight line from the vestibule
on the height of the Velia to the site of the Fornix Fabianus, flanking an avenue 30 m wide. Domitian soon
transformed the N side of the portico into the Horrea
Piperataria, a bazaar for eastern goods, pepper and
spices; the jewellers' shops that existed on the S side were
converted into the Porticus Margaritaria in the second
quarter of the 2d c. In A.D. 81 Domitian erected at the
summit of the Velia the arch in honor of his deceased
brother Titus, commemorating his triumph for the conquest of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. At the beginning of the
4th c. the Horrea Piperataria disappeared under the new
building of the Basilica of Constantine, which was begun
by Maxentius under the name of Basilica Nova and
completed by Constantine after A.D. 313. To the same
period belongs the so-called Temple of Romulus between
the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina and the Basilica
of Constantine, which Maxentius—according to a conjecture based on coins showing a circular temple—built
in memory of his son M. Valerius Romulus, who died
in A.D. 309. On the site of the vestibule of Nero's Domus
Aurea, Hadrian erected the Temple of Venus and Roma,
consecrated in 136 or A.D. 137. The colossal statue of
Nero in the midst of the vestibule was removed to a site
opposite the Colosseum, where the last remains of its
base were destroyed in 1936.
Palatine
The Sacra Via was the principal means of
communication between the Forum and the Palatine. At
the Arch of Titus there branched off from it the Clivus
Palatinus which, passing through an arch probably built
by Domitian, reached the summit of the Palatium, the
S elevation of the Mons Palatinus. At the beginning of
the Clivus Palatinus once stood the Porta Mugonia, one
of the three gates of the early Palatine town (the others
being the Porta Romana, somewhere on the Clivus Victoriae, and a nameless gate at the Scalae Caci). According to tradition the Palatine, where Romulus founded the town in the middle of the 8th c. B.C., was the first of
the hills to be inhabited. A hut with a thatched roof
which was believed to be the house of Romulus was
regarded with great veneration, always restored and preserved until the 4th c. A.D. The foundations of three huts
excavated in 1948 between the Temple of the Magna
Mater and the Scalae Caci, a narrow path leading from
the Palatine to the valley of the Circus Maximus, suggest
the shape of Romulus' dwelling. The Temple of Magna
Mater at the W corner of the Palatine was built sometime after 203 B.C. to house the sacred black stone of
the goddess, which had been brought to Rome from
Pessinus in Asia Minor. Some other early monuments
that escaped being buried by the construction of the
imperial palaces have been preserved on this corner of
the hill: two archaic cisterns from the 6th c. B.C., situated between the temple and the house of Augustus, and
the foundations of the Auguratorium, which may have
marked the place where later ages thought that Romulus
took the auspices for the foundation of his new town.
Very early in Rome's architectural history the Palatine
had become a typical residential quarter. In the 1st c.
B.C., it was the choicest residential area, where people
like Lutatius Catulus, L. Crassus, Clodius, Cicero, Catilina, Mark Antony and Germanicus, the father of Caligula, lived. Augustus himself was born on the Palatine. Almost all these houses have disappeared. Under the
“Lararium” of the Domus Flavia a private house, dating
from about the middle of the 1st c. B.C., was excavated,
the so-called Casa dei Grifi; and under the basilica of the
same building was uncovered an “Aula Isiaca” which
shows Egyptian-style wall paintings from the end of the
1st c. B.C. Only one private dwelling from the time of
the Republic survived the palatial buildings on the Palatine erected by Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Domitian, and
Septimius Severus. This was the house of Augustus,
which he had bought ca. 36 B.C. from the orator Hortensius and which became the first imperial residence. This house has been identified with the so-called “Casa di Livia” excavated in 1869. Like the hut of Romulus,
the house was spared destruction and remodeling and
although it became surrounded by splendid palaces on a
much higher level, lived on unaltered to the end of the
principate. It was enlarged and extended towards the
valley of the Circus Maximus; here, immediately W of
the Temple of Apollo, rows of terraced rooms, partly
decorated with wall paintings, have recently been excavated. The enlarged house must have been completed
at about the time when the Temple of Apollo Palatinus
was dedicated in 28 B.C. The temple is now generally
identified with the podium and long flight of steps to the
W of the Domus Flavia, formerly attributed to Iuppiter
Victor. The library of the temple, Bibliotheca Apollinis
Palatini, built and dedicated at the same time as the
temple, has been unearthed SW of the triclinium of the
Domus Flavia.
The NW part of the Palatine was covered by the palace of Tiberius. Very little is known of the original building. Caligula extended the palace towards the Roman Forum and enclosed the Temple of Castor in its precinct.
After the fire in A.D. 80 Domitian reconstructed the whole
building complex which, to the S, almost touches the
house of Augustus and on the E borders the Area Palatina. A balcony with stuccoed arcades runs the whole
length of the N facade overlooking the Forum, and to the
N a great reception hall (formerly wrongly identified as
Temple of Augustus) was added, thus making the palace
accessible from the Vicus Tuscus. Next to the hall on the
same street a warehouse has come to light; the inscription on an altar identifies it as the Horrea Agrippiana.
The SE corner of the hill was first occupied by Nero
Domus Transitoria, the palace which connected the imperial dwelling on the Palatine with the gardens of
Maecenas on the Esquiline. After having been destroyed
by the fire of A.D. 64, its burned ruins were covered by
the Domus Aurea. All these structures disappeared less
than a generation later under Domitian's Domus Augustiana, which occupied the whole of the SE half of the
hill, the Palatium. Above the Area Palatina stood the
colonnaded facade of the Domus Flavia behind which
were the state rooms of the palace, namely a basilica (or
courtroom), a reception hall, and a lararium. In the
center of the domus was a peristyle garden and on the
S of it the triclinium flanked by a nymphaeum on each
side. East of this building is the Domus Augustiana itself
with a peristyle surrounding a pool on the same level
with the Domus Flavia. On a lower level is a courtyard
with a fountain surrounded by the residential quarters
and boasting a semicircular flicade on the S slope of the
hill towards the Circus Maximus. Still farther E the so-called Stadium of Domitian or Hippodromus Palatii,
leads to the constructions of Septimius Severus consisting
mainly of bathing establishments supported by huge
vaults of masonry. A monumental freestanding facade
erected in A.D. 203, the Septizonium, which faced the Via
Appia, screened the SE corner of the imperial palace.
Halfway down the S slope of the Palatine is a row of
small rooms which were perhaps servants' quarters. On
the basis of graffiti scratched on the walls the building
has been called the Paedagogium. Still lower down on
the Via dei Cerchi is a private house that also may have
belonged to the imperial palace. Its modern name,
Domus Praeconum, results from wall paintings that show
heralds and slaves receiving guests.
A temple area surrounded by porticos covered the NE
corner of the Palatine. In its center the remains of a
large temple (ca. 65 x 40 m) have been unearthed. The
area may be the site of a sanctuary erected by Livia to
Augustus, later used for the cult of all emperors under
the name of Aedes Caesarum. The excavated ruins probably belong to the temple which Elagabalus (A.D. 218-22)
erected to the Syrian sun god, Sol Invictus Elagabalus,
and which was transformed into the Temple of Iuppiter
Ultor by his successor, Alexander Severus. The temple
area was accessible from the Clivus Palatinus through a
monumental gateway, the Pentapylum, of which the remains are to be seen in the Via di S. Bonaventura.
Imperial Fora
The fora of the emperors formed the
NW limit of the monumental center of ancient Rome.
The new orientation that Caesar gave to the Forum
Romanum—by removing the Rostra from the Comitium
to the W end of the forum's area, by replacing the Curia
Iulia, and by practically abandoning the Comitium in
shape and function—was closely related to the construction of his new Forum Iulium. The back wall of the Curia
Iulia stood in line with an uninterrupted row of shops
which formed the long S side of the Forum Iulium, thus
being at its SE corner. In 46 B.C. Caesar dedicated the
still unfinished forum and the Temple of Venus Genetrix,
the ancestress of the gens Iulia; both were completed by
Augustus. Trajan extended Caesar's forum towards the
Capitol and erected at the SW end the building called
Basilica Argentaria. With the “insula Argentaria” on a
higher level, the Forum Iulium bordered the Clivus Argentarius, the only direct connection between the Forum
Romanum and the Campus Martius. At its beginning
below the Arx of the Capitol was the Carcer Mamertinus,
the old Roman state prison; it then passed along the W
side of the Forum Iulium, leaving the tomb of C. Poplicius Bibulus on the right, to join the Via Flaminia.
Adjoining the Forum Iulium Augustus built his own
Forum Augustum to provide additional room for the
courts and to demonstrate, by a splendid architectural
achievement as well as by a carefully chosen program of
sculptural decoration, the continuity of Early Roman history down to his own rule as princeps. In its center stood
the Temple of Mars Ultor, which was vowed during the
battle of Philippi in 42 and consecrated in 2 B.C. On
either side of the temple were porticos and behind these
were exedrae with statues of the mythical ancestors of
the gens Iulia, of triumphatores, and other distinguished
citizens. A large part of the inscriptions, the Elogia, have
been found. In A.D. 19 Tiberius erected triumphal arches
in honor of his son Drusus and his nephew Germanicus
on either side of the Temple of Mars Ultor.
In A.D. 71, after the capture of Jerusalem, Vespasian
began the construction of the Temple of Peace, which
was dedicated in A.D. 75. It stood at the SE side of the
Forum Pacis, a spacious area decorated with flower beds
and surrounded by a wall. Almost the whole space of the
forum is now covered by the modern streets Via dei Fori
Imperiali and Via Cavour. The only extant architectural
remains is a building on the SE side, into which the
church of SS. Cosma and Damiano was subsequently
built. It probably was the library of the Forum, and the
marble plan of Septimius Severus (Forma Urbis Romae)
was later attached to its NE wall where the dowel holes
for holding the slabs of the plan are still visible.
Between Vespasian's forum and the Forum Augustum
passed the Argiletum, which was the street joining the
Forum Romanum and the Subura, a populous quarter
between Viminal and Esquiline. Vespasian had intended
to develop this unused space into another forum. His
architectural concept was carried out by Domitian, who
erected in the N part a Temple of Minerva. After the
death of Domitian the forum and the temple were dedicated by Nerva in A.D. 97, and the forum was called
Forum Nervae or Forum Transitorium. The colonnaded
perimeter walls transformed the Argiletum into a monumental avenue; after leaving the forum at the E side of
the temple, the street passed through a semicircular
portico, the Porticus Absidata. This has been known since
the 16th c. from a fragment of the Severan marble plan.
Excavations in 1940 revealed the curved foundation that
adjoins the perimeter wall of the Forum Augustum to the
W and the Forum Pacis to the E.
With the last and largest of the imperial fora Trajan
completed Caesar's original plan of connecting the Forum
Romanum and the Campus Martius. The Forum Traiani,
built by the architect Apollodorus of Damascus, was
dedicated in A.D. 112. From the side of the Forum Augustum it was entered by a large triumphal arch. The main
building, the Basilica Ulpia, constituted the NW boundary
of the forum area, which on the two other sides was
surrounded by porticos and apses. Behind the basilica
stands the Column of Trajan, the pedestal of which
served as tomb for himself and his wife Plotina, flanked
by two libraries. Hadrian completed the forum by erecting at its NW end a Temple of Trajan and Plotina surrounded by a colonnade. This part of the forum has never been excavated.
Trajan's Market
Parallel to the NE apse of Trajan's
Forum a complex of buildings constructed in brick-faced
concrete rises against the slope of the Quirinal. It served
as a market for general trading and probably also for the
public distribution of grain and other provisions. The
market buildings were erected in the first decade of the
2d c. A.D. and were finished before the Forum was dedicated. As a result of the excavation of 1929-30 more
than 150 individual tabernae are now accessible. Toward
the modern Via Quattro Novembre is a great two-storied
hall, and on a higher level there are shops with water
tanks for the sale of fish, and others with drains in the
pavement for the sale of oil and wine. Larger rooms with
niches in the walls were probably offices for administration. On three different levels streets provided access to
the buildings: on the lowest level the shops of the hemicycle faced a street that skirted the perimeter wall of the
forum. On a higher level a street with the mediaeval
name of Via Biberatica led through the shops of the
third story. The upper street running beside the modern
Salita del Grillo gave access to the shops facing the Quirinal.
Capitol and Servian Wall
The Mons Capitolinus was
the natural fortress for the hills and valleys united in the
early city of Rome on the left bank of the Tiber. It was
composed of two distinct elevations on N and S and a
depression between them, and on all sides it was surrounded by steep cliffs. The N elevation was occupied by
the citadel or arx; it is the only site in Rome where early
fortification walls preceding the so-called Servian Wall
have survived. A temple dedicated in 344 B.C. to Iuno
Moneta stood on the part of the hill where the church
of S. Maria in Aracoeli now stands. On the S elevation,
the Capitolium proper, stood the Temple of Iuppiter
Optimus Maximus, dedicated in 509 B.C., the first year of
the Roman republic. The original name of this part of
the Capitol was Mons Tarpeius. This ancient name in
the form of Saxum Tarpeium or Rupes Tarpeia continued
to be used for the precipice from which criminals were
hurled. This Tarpeian rock rises on the SE corner of the
hill overhanging the present-day Piazza della Consolazione. According to literary tradition more than ten other
temples and altars stood in the Area Capitolina, of which
only the podium of the Temple of Iuppiter Custos has
been excavated and partly destroyed when the modern
Via del Tempio di Giove was laid out. From the side of
the Forum the Capitol was reached by the Clivus Capitolinus. The depression between the elevations was the
Asylum, where, according to tradition, Romulus accepted
refugees from other towns. In 192 B.C. Q. Marcius Ralla
dedicated here a Temple of Veiovis, which was discovered under the SW corner of the Palazzo Senatorio in
1939. The remains date from a restoration coinciding
with the construction of the Tabularium in 78 B.C., which
closed the entire E side of the Asylum. Private houses
extended from below up the slopes of the Capitolium and
the arx. When, in 1927, the N side of the Capitol was
being cleared, beside the steps leading to S. Maria in
Aracoeli a six-story apartment house (insula) was discovered and excavated. When in 387 B.C. the Gauls entered and burned the undefended city, the arx withstood a siege of seven months, until the Gauls left. Only after
their departure was the so-called Servian Wall which
tradition attributes to the sixth king of Rome Servius
Tullius (578-534 B.C.) constructed. This defense line of
Republican Rome, still visible in many places, enclosed
Rome's traditional seven Hills: Capitoline, Palatine,
Aventine, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, and Caelian. The
wall followed the line of the Pomerium, the symbolic
boundary between city and countryside, with the exception of the Aventine which remained outside until the extension of the Pomerium by Claudius in A.D. 49.
Campus Martius
The enceinte of the Republican
fortification left a large part of the city outside the walls:
the Campus Martius, the Tiber with the area of docks
and warehouses, the Tiber Island, the Transtiberine quarter and the Ianiculum. From the beginning of the Republic the Campus Martius was state property. It was used when the people met in the comitia centuriata for assembly and voting, which took place in an enclosed space
called the “saepta,” and for the military and athletic
training of the Roman youth. As early as 435 B.C. the
Villa Publica was built in the S part of the Campus to
serve as headquarters for taking the census or levying
troops. At about the same time, in 431 B.C., a Temple
of Apollo was dedicated; it stood immediately N of
where later rose the Theater of Marcellus. The temple
stood outside the Pomerium because it was dedicated to
a foreign deity. There were other early cult centers besides a temple and altar of Mars to whom the Campus was consecrated: the Ara Ditis et Proserpinae in the Tarentum at the last stretch of the Corso Vittorio
Emanuele near the Tiber, and the Temple of Bellona,
built in 296 B.C next to the Temple of Apollo. In the
S part of the Campus Martius numerous other temples
were erected which, after the construction of the Circus
Flaminius in 221 n.e., were either called “in Circo Flaminio” or “in Campo Martis” according to their location. Fragments of the Forma Urbis Romae indicated the location of the Circus Flaminius between the Porticus of Octavia and the Tiber. Within the Porticus of
Octavia stood the Temples of Iuno Regina and Iuppiter
Stator, and, immediately to the W was the Porticus Philippi enclosing the Temple of Hercules Musarum. The
Temple of the Lares Permarini, dedicated in 179 B.C. and
discovered in 1938 m Via delle Botteghe Oscure, was
surrounded by the Porticus Minucia. The construction of
the Theater of Pompey in 55 B.C. started a new trend in
filling the Campus Martius with public buildings. Caesar
planned the construction of a theater between the Forum
Holitorium and the Circus Flaminius. It was built by
Augustus and dedicated in 13 B.C. to the memory of his
nephew Marcellus. At the same time L. Cornelius Balbus
erected a theater with a porticus, the Crypta Balbi, the
remains of which are under the Palazzo Mattei di Paganica. On the Via Flaminia, which ran through the Campus Martius from S to N, the Ara Pacis was dedicated
to the Pax-Augusta in 9 B.C.; even earlier in 28 B.C., in
the N part, Augustus had built a ustrinum (crematory)
and the mausoleum for himself and his family. At about
the same time his son-in-law Agrippa erected the
Pantheon and began the construction of public baths just
N of a square with four Republican temples (Area Sacra
del Largo Argentina) so far unidentified. Between the
Pantheon and the baths he built the Basilica Neptuni and,
immediately to the E of this building complex, he completed the great voting precinct started by Caesar, the
Saepta Iulia. Some 85 years later Nero built Rome's
second public baths and a gymnasium to the NW of the
Pantheon. To the SE of it Domitian restored a Temple
of Isis and Serapis and built next to it, in memory of his
father Vespasian and brother Titus, the Templum and
Porticus Divorum; between the two structures he erected
a small round temple of Minerva Chalcidica. He also
built a stadium whose outline is preserved in the Piazza
Navona and immediately S of it an Odeum, a theater for
musical performances. Agrippa's Pantheon was entirely
rebuilt by Hadrian and consecrated between A.D. 125 and
128. Next to it he erected a temple in honor of his
mother-in-law Matidia and, immediately W of this temple stood the Hadrianeum built to his memory by Antoninus Pius, of which eleven marble columns and the wall of the cella are still standing on the Piazza di Pietra. The
Antonines concentrated their building activities in the
zone of the Campus Martius N of the Hadrianeum. On
the Piazza Colonna the Column of Marcus Aurelius still
stands, and the ustrina of Antoninus Pius and Marcus
Aurelius have been found near Piazza Montecitorio and
Piazza del Parlamento. The column of Antoninus Pius,
excavated in front of the ustrinum in 1703, did not survive except for the sculptured pedestal now in the Cortile
della Pigna in the Vatican. Meanwhile, the Via Flaminia
whose intramural part was later called Via Lata, had
become the main thoroughfare of the Campus Martius.
It was spanned by three triumphal arches, one for
Claudius, the Arcus Novus for Diocletian, and the “Arco
di Portogallo” the attribution of which is uncertain. On
the E side of the street traces of shops and private dwellings have been discovered. On the same side, between
Piazza S. Silvestro and Via Borgognona, Aurelian built
a Temple of the Sun (Templum Solis) after his return
from the east in A.D. 273.
Markets and Warehouses
Immediately S of the Campus Martius the left bank of the Tiber was entirely occupied by open and covered markets and by warehouses. The vegetable market—Forum Holitorium—had been greatly reduced in size by the encroachment of the
Theater of Marcellus. The remaining space was taken
up by the Temples of Ianus, Spes, and Iuno Sospita, the
remains of which exist beneath and beside the church of
S. Nicola in Carcere. The E boundary against the slope
of the Capitoline was formed by a portico; the ruins are
still extant N of the Vicus Iugarius. South of it is the
cattle market—Forum Boarium—bounded on the SE by
the Circus Maximus and by the Tiber on the W. It was
filled with temples, monuments, and other buildings dating from the beginning of the city to the period of the
late empire. The twin temples of Fortuna and Mater
Matuta were first built at the end of the 6th c. B.C., together with the archaic altars in front of them. Nearby
stand two well-preserved temples, a round one of marble
from the beginning of the 1st c. B.C. and an Ionic rectangular temple; one of these may have been dedicated to Portunus. In A.D. 204 at the entrance from the Velabrum a gate was erected to Septimius Severus and his
family; a four-sided marble arch, Ianus Quadrifrons,
stands next to it over the course of the Cloaca Maxima.
Under the church of S. Maria in Cosmedin was the ancient Republican Temple of Ceres; along its NW side a
hall for the headquarters of the Praefectus Annonae was
built in the 4th c. A.D. The columns of this Statio Annonae are still visible in the church.
From the Forum Boarium extended for ca. 350 m a
narrow street under the steep cliff of the Aventine along
the Tiber. Here, remains of the landing stage and warehouses of the Emporium have been found which extended
for ca. 1 km. It handled goods coming up the river from
Ostia and served for 450 years the needs of the city's
population. The covered market hall alone, the Porticus
Aemilia, of which the remains in opus incertum date
from a restoration in 174 B.C., measured 487 m in length.
In front of it on the river bank and also in back were
shops and warehouses, of which the Horrea Galbae have
recently been uncovered. Testimony to the busy commercial traffic is the Mons Testaceus, an artificial hill
some 50 m high made entirely from broken amphorae
discarded after the transfer of their contents.
Tiber and Transtiberim
The Emporium embraced the
city's river port, which from the beginning of the 2d c.
B.C. to the 2d c. A.D. was equipped with harbor facilities
such as wharves, mooring-rings, loading ramps, and
warehouses. Before arriving at the Tiber island from the
S, the river was first bridged at the Forum Boarium by
the wooden Pons Sublicius, perhaps only a footpath. For
religious reasons it was preserved until the late empire
although after 179 B.C. it was replaced, for all practical
purposes, by the Pons Aemilius, the first stone bridge.
The island in the Tiber “inter duos pontes,” was probably always connected with the banks of the river by
some kind of wooden bridges. The still extant Pons Fabricius dates from 62 B.C. and the Pons Cestius, which
leads to the right bank, is also of ancient origin. The
island was dedicated to Aesculapios, whose temple stood
at the S end from the beginning of the 3d c. B.C. To the
N of the island, the left bank of the Tiber was occupied
by the Navalia, the arsenal and shipyards of the Roman
navy. The Pons Aurelius and Pons Agrippae crossed the
river just inside of the Transtiberine section of the Aurelian Wall. The Pons Neronianus led the Via Recta, which
branched from the Via Flaminia to cross the Campus
Martius towards the gardens of Agrippina on the right
bank; here, since the time of Caligula, stood the Circus
Gai et Neronis with the Obelisk, which now stands in
Piazza S. Pietro. When Hadrian built his Mausoleum
on the right bank he connected it with the Campus Martius by the Pons Aelius completed in A.D. 134. In the N,
the Via Flaminia, built in 220 B.C., crossed the Tiber by
the Pons Milvius. Although the transtiberine quarter became a densely populated part of the city, only a few
ancient remains have been identified. Under the church
of S. Cecilia a private house including a tannery, the
Coraria Septimiana, came to light and, near the Viale
Trastevere, barracks of a cohors vigilum (police and fireguard) were excavated in 1866. On the slope of the
Ianiculum next to the holy grove of the Nymph Furrina,
Lucus Furrinae, a sanctuary of Syrian gods was unearthed; it was dedicated to Iuppiter Optimus Maximus
Heliopolitanus. When in 1878-80 the Tiber was widened,
a storehouse for imperial wine and a luxurious villa were
discovered in the grounds of the Villa Farnesina. Nothing
is left of a Naumachia of Augustus for which he built
a new aqueduct, the Aqua Alsietina, from the lacus
Alsietinus (Lago di
Martignano).
The Aventine and the Baths of Caracalla
The valley
between the Palatine and the Aventine was occupied by
the Circus Maximus which, according to legend, was
founded in the time of the kings. The extant remains of
the SE curve belong to the Imperial period. On the Aventine the oldest temple was the Temple of Diana Aventina
founded as a common sanctuary of the Latin league.
Nothing remains of the temple nor of several others
known only from literary sources. In 1935 a temple to
the Syrian Bal under his Roman name of Iuppiter Dolichenus was found under the Via San Domenico. The
Aventine was public property until 456 B.C. when it was
given to the plebs for settlement; it remained a plebeian
quarter to the end of the Republic. During the Empire,
however, the rich settled here. Licinius Sura, a friend of
Trajan, built his house on the side of the Circus Maximus
the baths of which, Thermae Suranae, came to light in
1943. Next to it, under the church of S. Prisca, a Mithraeum was excavated in a large Roman house that could
have been the Privata Traiani, the house in which Trajan
lived before his adoption by Nerva. On a second elevation (Aventinus Minor), SE of the main hill, stood a
famous Temple of the Bona Dea Subsaxana, of which
no remains have ever been found. Just above, in the
former convent of S. Balbina, walls are still visible of the
house which Septimius Severus gave to his friend L.
Fabius Cilo. Below this house are the ruins of the Baths
of Caracalla, dedicated in A.D. 216. In the subterranean
service corridors a Mithraeum was found in 1912, the
largest so far discovered in Rome.
Caelius
Branching off the road between the Colosseum
and Circus Maximus, the Clivus Scauri leads to the
Caelian hill. It passes the Domus Johannis et Pauli, two
Roman houses from the 2d and 3d c. A.D., with a common facade, which is now the S side of the church of
SS. Giovanni e Paolo. Under its campanile and convent
are remains of the Temple of Claudius, begun by his
widow Agrippina, almost destroyed by Nero and completed by Vespasian. The E buttress wall of the temple
terrace was transformed into a nymphaeum in the park
of Nero's Golden House. Through the Arch of Dolabella
et Silanus of A.D. 10 the Clivus Scauri leads out of the
enclosure of the Servian Wall. To the left, between the
Via Celimontana and Via S. Stefano Rotondo, a building
dedicated to the cult of the Magna Mater was discovered
in 1889, identified through an inscription as the Basilica
Hilariana. The street then passes between two barracks,
the Castra Peregrina to the left, for soldiers detached
for special service in Rome from provincial legions, and
to the right the Statio V of the cohortes vigilum (police
and firemen).
At the beginning of the Empire, the E part of the hill
became a favorite place for the residences of the affluent.
When, in 1959-60, a new wing of the hospital S. Giovanni
was being constructed, a whole group of palaces with
gardens and terraced garden architecture came to light.
Northwest of the Via Amba Aradam were the gardens
of Domitia Lucilla, mother of Marcus Aurelius, and the
house of Annius Verus in which Marcus Aurelius grew
up. On the other side of the street, remains of the houses
of Calpurnius Piso and of the Laterani were found.
Where the Via Amba Aradam enters Piazza S. Giovanni
in Laterano, stands the frigidarium of the Thermae
Lateranenses, which dates from the beginning of the 3d
c. A.D. This bathing establishment perhaps served the
barracks of the Equites Singulares, the mounted guards
of the emperor, which were discovered and excavated
under S. Giovanni in Laterano in 1934-38. On the extreme E part of the Caelian, Heliogabalus (A.D. 218-222)
built a villa which in size and type was comparable with
Nero's Golden House or Hadrian's villa at Tivoli. The
Amphitheatrum Castrense, the Circus Varianus, and the
Thermae Helenae belonged to it. The palace, Palatium
Sessorianum, became the residence of the empress Helena
and was later converted into the church of S. Croce in
Gerusalemme. Running from the Porta Maggiore along
the whole Caelian ridge, the Aqua Claudia supplied the
water for the Caelian, Palatine, and Aventine. The arches
of this branch of the aqueduct were known as the Arcus
Neroniani or Caelimontani.
The valley of the Colosseum and the Esquiline
On
the way from the Lateran towards the Colosseum on the
right side of the Via S. Giovanni in Laterano stands the
church of S. Clemente, which was built over two Roman
buildings, one a market hall or warehouse and the other
a private house from the end of the 1st c. A.D. At the
beginning of the 3d c. a Mithraeum was built into it.
Before arriving at the Colosseum, about 60 m to the E,
are the remains of the Ludus Magnus, the principal training school for gladiators. Of two other schools known to
have been E of the Colosseum, the Ludus Matutinus and
Ludus Dacicus, no traces have been found. Immediately
N of the Ludi and the modern Via Labicana stood the
Castra Misenatium, the barracks for sailors from the
naval base at Misenum, who were detailed for service in
the amphitheater to handle the awnings (velaria) which
shielded spectators from the sun. The construction of the
Amphitheatrum Flavium (Colosseum), at the site previously occupied by a lake in the grounds of Nero's
Golden House, was begun by Vespasian and dedicated
by Titus in A.D. 80. Southeast of the amphitheater stands
the arch erected in honor of Constantine to commemorate his victory over Maxentius, completed in A.D. 315.
In front of its N side stood the Meta Sudans, a monumental fountain built in the reign of Domitian; it was
destroyed in 1936. Together with the Colosseum Titus
inaugurated his baths, the Thermae Titi on the slope of
the Esquiline (Oppian hill). Immediately NE of them
Trajan, in A.D. 109, built another, larger bathing establishment over the ruins of the main palace of the Golden
House which was burned down in A.D. 104. The Thermae
Traiani, built by Apollodoros of Damascus, became the
architectural model for all the later public baths in
Rome. West of the Thermae was a Temple of Tellus,
and next to it the seat of the Praefectus Urbi with the
Secretarium Tellurense, a courthouse for closed proceedings. Immediately N of the Thermae Traiani stood the
Porticus Liviae, built by Augustus and dedicated to his
wife Livia in 7 B.C. No remains of any of these buildings
have ever come to light. Below in the valley, in the general direction of the modern Via Cavour, the Clivus
Suburanus continued the street of the Argiletum toward
the Porta Esquilina of the Servian Wall which, in 262
A.D., was transformed into an arch dedicated to Gallienus
and his wife Salonina. A large portion of the Esquiline
was occupied by parks, the Horti Maecenatis, Lamiani,
Liciniani, Lolliani, Tauriani, Pallantiani, and others. The
so-called Auditorium Maecenatis, a semi-interred nymphaeum, was excavated in the grounds of the Horti Maecenatis in 1874. Another nymphaeum near Rome's Termini station, erroneously called “Templum Minervae Medicae,” belonged to the Horti Liciniani and, on the Piazza
Vittorio Emanuele, stand the ruins of a monumental
fountain, the terminal of a branch of the Aqua Iulia. The
remains of the Basilica of Iunius Bassus, who was consul
in A.D. 331, were excavated and then destroyed in 1930
when the Oriental Seminary (Russicum) was built on the
site.
Viminal, Quirinal, Collis Hortorum
North of the Esquiline was the Viminal, bordered on the SE by the Vicus Patricius which ran to the Porta Viminalis of the Servian Wall; the remains of this gate are still visible near the
Termini railroad station. On the N side of the Vicus
Patricius, under the church of S. Pudenziana, houses of
the late Republic and early Empire have been found.
Above these houses, by the middle of the 2d c. A.D., the
Thermae Novatianae sive Timotheanae were built. Less
than 0.8 km N of them are the Baths of Diocletian, dedicated in A.D. 305 or 306, now occupied by the church of
S. Maria degli Angeli and the Roman National Museum.
On the extreme E part of the hill, between the Via
Nomentana and the Via Tiburtina, Tiberius erected the
barracks for the praetorian guard, the Castra Praetoria,
built after the pattern of a legionary camp. Aurelian incorporated the camp into his city wall. The Quirinal from
the time of the kings onward, was the seat of many early
religious cults. Of the numerous temples known from
literary sources almost nothing is preserved. The main
temple dedicated to Quirinus in 293 B.C. stood on the N
side of the ancient street Alta Semita (corresponding to
the modern Via del Quirinale) in the E part of the modern Quirinal gardens. On the W edge of the hill stood
the Temple of Serapis built by Caracalla; a monumental
stairway led from it to the Campus Martius. Considerable remains of the temple, its terraces facing the Campus Martius, and the walls of the stairway lie in the gardens of Palazzo Colonna and in the Università Gregoriana. In front of the temple, on the other side of the
street, Constantine erected public baths in ca. A.D. 315.
The site is now occupied by the Palazzo della Consulta
and the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi. In the valley between the Quirinal and the Collis Hortulorum (Pincio)
the Horti Sallustiani were laid out in ca. B.C. 40. After
the death of Sallust they became imperial property and a
favorite resort of the Roman emperors. Remains of the
palace are still visible in the center of Piazza Sallustio.
Bordering the Horti Sallustiani to the N as one ascends
the Pincio were the Horti Luculliani from ca. 60 B C
which also became imperial property. They were regarded as the most beautiful of the imperial gardens.
Recently a piece of terraced garden architecture came to
light under the building of the Bibliotheca Hertziana.
The Horti Aciliorum, belonging to the Acilii Glabriones
in the 2d c. A.D., occupied the whole N part of the Collis
Hortulorum.
Aurelian Wall and tombs
For centuries Rome had
been secure from hostile aggression, and the fortifications
of the Servian Wall were neglected or no longer existed.
By the end of the 3d c. A.D., however, the situation had
changed and, in anticipation of a sudden barbarian invasion, Aurelian began, between 270 and 272, the construction of a new wall which was completed by Probus (A.D. 276-82). This wall enclosed not only the city of
the seven hills but also the Campus Martius with the left
bank of the Tiber, transtiberim, and part of the Ianiculum—areas which had been left outside the Servian
fortification. The new imperial wall frequently incorporated already existing structures such as the Castra
Praetoria, the Amphitheatrum Castrense, the Pyramid of
Cestius, the retaining walls of the Horti Aciliorum (Muro
Torto), and private houses. Since the general course of
the wall was determined by defensive strategy, it abandoned the religious boundary of the Pomerium. Thus,
many of the tombs once erected outside the gates of the
Servian Wall were now inside the imperial enceinte or
were covered by the new gates and fortifications. Next to
the Porta Ostiensis stood, as part of the wall, the pyramid
tomb of C. Cestius. On the Via Appia, inside the gate,
was the family tomb of the Scipios and, next to the
Porta Latina, the columbarium of Pomponius Hylas. On
the Via Labicana inside the Porta Praenestina, the monumental tomb of the Arruntii has disappeared, but the
tombs of the Statilii were unearthed in 1875. The tomb
of the baker Eurysaces came to light when the towers
of the gate were torn down in 1834. The tomb of Q.
Haterius was incorporated in the Porta Nomentana, and
under the towers of the Porta Salaria, demolished in
1871, were found the tomb of Q. Sulpicius Maximus and
the remains of a tomb of Cornelia. On the Campus Martius the Mausoleum of Augustus and the tombs of C.
Vibius Pansa and A. Hirtius (under the Palazzo della
Cancelleria) fell within the enclosure of the wall and
also, on the right bank of the river, the tomb of the
Sulpicii Platorini.
The greater part of the Aurelian Wall is still preserved.
It continued to be the defense of Rome until 20 September 1870 when the army of the king of Italy breached it with modern artillery NW of Porta Pin, and entered the city.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
For the monuments and sites of Ancient
Rome a complete bibliography up to 1928 is offered by
S. B. Platner and T. Ashby,
A Topographical Dictionary
of Ancient Rome (1929) (
P-A) and up to 1967 by E.
Nash,
Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome (2d ed.,
1968) (
PDAR). Both works list them in alphabetical
order. The names of monuments and sites mentioned in
this article correspond to those used in the two dictionaries. For topographical features and buildings no longer
visible see
P-A; for remains still visible or graphically
documented see
PDAR. Only additional and more recent
bibliography is cited below. For literature published after
1967 the following additional abbreviations are used:
Dial = Dialoghi di Archeologia, rivista quadrimestrale,
Milano 1967- ;
StudTopRom = Studi di Topografia Romana, Quaderni dello Istituto di Topografia Antica, Univ. di Roma V, 1968.
The Origins. P-A: Esquiline, Quirinalis, Velia; S. M.
Puglisi,
MonAnt 41 (1951) 3-98; P. Romanelli, ibid.
101-24; A. Davico, ibid. 125-34; E. Gjerstad,
Early Rome,
Acta Inst Sueciae XVII, 1 (1953); XVII, 2 (1956); XVII, 3
(1960); XVII, 4 (1966); H. Müller Karpe,
Vom Anfang
Roms (1959); id.,
Zur Stadtwerdung Roms (1962); R.
Bloch,
The Origins of Rome (1960); M. Pallottino,
ArchCl 12 (1960) 1-36; F. E. Brown, Fondation Hardt,
entretiens XIII (1967) 45-60;
PDAR, Forum Boarium
(area sacra di S. Omobono), Forum Romanum (prehistory), Sepulcretum; P. Somella,
StudTopRom, p. 65, n.
5; H. Riemann, G.G.A. 222 (1970) 25-66; 223 (1971)
33-86 (review of Gjerstad,
Early Rome, III).
Forum Romanum and Sacra Via: G. Carettoni & L.
Fabbrini,
RendLinc 16 (1961) 53-60; G. Lugli,
Itin. di
Roma Antica (1970) 251 (Bas. Sempronia); M. Grant,
The Roman Forum (1970); F. Zevi,
RendLinc 26 (1971)
1-15 (Chalcidicum); P. Zanker,
Forum Romanum
(1972); G. Lugli,
Mon.Minori del Foro Rom. (1947)
157-64 (rooming house).
Palatine: G. Carettoni,
NSc (1967) 287-319 (Domus
Augusti); M. L. Morricone Matini,
Mosaiche Antiche in
Italia, Roma reg. X, Palatium (1967); H. Finsen,
Anal.
Romani Instituti Danici V, Suppl. 1969 (Domus Augustiana); P. Castrén & H. Lilius,
Graffiti del Palatino, II
Domus Tiberiana, Acta Inst.Rom. Finlandine IV, 1970.
Imperial Fora, Trajan's Market: G. Fiorani,
StudTopRom (1968) 91-103 (Forum Iulium); P. Zanker,
Forum
Augustum (1969); id., “Das Trajansforum als Monument imperialer Selbstdarstellung,”
AA (1970) 499-544;
C. F. Leon,
Die Banornamentik des Trajansforums
(1971); L. Rossi,
Trajan's Column and the Dacian Wars
(1971); M. E. Blake,
Roman construction in Italy, III
(1972) 10-29 (Trajan's Market), in
Memoirs of the
American Philosophical Association, Vol. 96.
Capitol and Servian Wall: H. Riemann,
RömMitt 76
(1969) 110-21 (Iuppiter Capitolinus); 103-10 (Servian
Wall); J. Packer,
BullComm 81 (1968-69) 127-49 (insula); H. Lyngby & G. Sartorio,
BullComm 80 (1965-67) 5-36 (Porta Trigemina).
Campus Martius: G. Gatti,
Quaderni dell'Ist. di Storia
dell'Architettura (1961) 49-66 (residential quarter E of
Via Flaminia); L. Cozza,
StudTopRom (1968) 9-20
(Porticus Minucia); F. Coarelli,
Palatino 12 (1968) 365-73 (Area Sacra dell'Argentino); id., “Il Tempio di Bellona,”
BullComm 80 (1965-67) 37-72; id.,
Dial 2 (1968)
302-68 (Neptunus Templ.); id.,
StudTopRom (1968) 27-37 (Navalia, Tarentum); A. M. Palchetti & L. Quilici,
StudTopRom (1968) 77-88 (Iuno Regina); K. De Fine
Licht,
The Rotonda in Rome (1968); S. Giedion,
Architecture and the Phenomena of Transition (1971) 152-60
(Pantheon); P. Fidenzoni,
Il Teatro di Marcello, s.d.
(1970).
Markets, Warehouses, Tiber: J. Le Gall,
Le Tibre,
fleuve de Rome dans l'antiquité (1953); G. Cressedi,
NSc
(1956) 19-52 (Emporium); F. Rakob et al.,
Der Rundtempel am Tiber in Rom (1973); C. D'Onofrio,
Castel S. Angelo (1971).
Caelius: A. M. Colini, “Storia e topografia del Celio
nell'antiquità,”
MemPontAcc 7 (1944); V. Santa Maria
Scrinari,
Egregiae Lateranorum Aedes (1967); id.,
RendPontAcc 41 (1968-69) 167-89 (Gardens of Domitia Lucilla, Domus A. Veri); G. M. Rossi,
StudTopRom (1968) 113-24 (Nymphaeum in the house of the Laterani).
Esquiline, Aurelian Wall: M. Cagiano De Azevedo,
RendPontAcc 40 (1967-68) 151-70 (Basilica of Iunius
Bassus); G. Becatti,
Edificio con opus sectile (Scavi di
Ostia VI, 1969) 181-215 (Basilica of Iunius Bassus); P.
Grimal,
Les Jardins Romains (2d ed. 1969); J. A. Richmond,
The City Wall of Imperial Rome (1930); L. G. Cozzi,
Le porte di Roma (1968).
Maps: R. Lanciani,
Forma Urbis Romae (1893-1901);
G. Lugli & I. Gismondi,
Forma Urbis Romae imperatorum aetate (1949); G. Lugli,
Itinerario di Roma Antica
(1970) pl. I: Ancient Rome; pl. II: The monumental
center; pl. III: The southern Campus Martius;
Capitolium
XL (1965) 179:
The ancient remains of the Capitoline. E. NASH
