Campus Martius Research Articles

Espaces comitiaux et contraintes augurales à Rome pendant la période républicaine

In Rome during the Republican period, all the diverse comitial spaces – at the Capitol or at the Arx, at the Comitium or on the Campus Martius – were from the start “ inaugurated” places, that is to say “political templa”. This augural restraint was linked to the need of taking auspices before assemblies, in order to get gods’ agreement for decisions engaging the civic community. All along the period, the evolution of institutional practices – as well within the structure of the diverse people assemblies (the Calate, Curiate, Century and Tribal Assemblies) as in the vote organisation – didn’t make the augural restraints to vanish : their weight worked as much on space as on time. This aupiscious primacy on time and space of the Assemblies was giving to the Senate and the augural college the possibility of controlling magistrates’ powers, including citizen’s vote that was depending on their action.

The marble plan of the Via Anicia and the Temple of Castor and Pollux in Circo Flaminio: the state of the question

Much has been written in the past three decades about the marble plan found in the Via Anicia, which depicts the late Republican Temple of Castor and Pollux in Circo Flaminio, and its importance for the study of temple architecture and ancient cartography. Far less attention has been paid to the identification of the temple in the topography of the southern Campus Martius. In 1996 an excavation carried out in Piazza delle Cinque Scole brought to light the remains of a ‘monumental building’ that has been identified resolutely by the excavators as the Temple of Castor and Pollux. In this article, after a survey of what is known from the marble plan and previous excavations, I explain why my alternative location of the temple better fits the evidence from the Via Anicia plan and the 1996 excavation. I also shed new light on the area of the circus from the late Republican period to late antiquity and on transverse cella temples.

The Palatine, from Evander to Elagabalus

It is nearly forty years since Filippo Coarelli's brilliantGuida archeologica di Roma(FC 1974) announced the arrival of a new era in Roman topographical studies. A series of seminal monographs soon followed, on the Roman Forum (FC 1983, 1985), the Forum Boarium (FC 1988), and the Campus Martius (FC 1997). A volume on the Palatine was advertised as forthcoming, but unforeseen circumstances put that project on hold.

Rome Lost and Found. A Review of Piranesi and the Campus Martius: The Missing Corso — Topography and Archaeology in Eighteenth-Century Rome/Piranesi e il Campo Marzio: Il corso che non c’era — Topografia e archeologia nella Roma del XVIII secolo

Joseph Connors’ study of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Campus Martius (1762) is a lively and wide-ranging study in a small package. The primary focus is the centerpiece of Piranesi’s volume: his famous Ichnographia or plan-map of the Campus Martius in Rome, a grand and intricate foldout etching that has long fascinated scholars. Connors demonstrates that personal observation and archaeological research fed Piranesi’s imagination rather than being at odds with it. In the process, he furnishes a singular glimpse into the mind and thought process of this most alluring of paper architects.

ROMAN TOPOGRAPHY AND LATIN DICTION

This article contains five notes on Roman topography. The first three briefly argue (1) that the uia Tecta supposedly to be placed in the Campus Martius has perhaps arisen from corruption of uia Recta; (2) that the temple of Juturna, placed by Ovid near the arches of the Aqua Virgo, could not have stood where Largo Argentina now is, but further north, perhaps in the grounds of Santa Maria in Via; and (3) that the rites of Anna Perenna described by Ovid in Fasti 3 took place near the Mausoleum of Augustus, and not at the recently discovered spring near Piazza Euclide. Note (4) exhibits the evidence for regarding the twin summits of the Capitol and the Arx as the duo luci between which the Asylum was set up, and goes on to suggest that Vergil and Ovid may have used the name Ianiculum to refer to the Arx; (5) demonstrates that in with the name of a hill can refer to any site from the foot up, and builds on this in arguing that the phrase Concordia in Arce refers to a temple constructed where the slope rises from the Forum.

The Role of the Sun in the Pantheon’s Design and Meaning

AbstractDespite being one of the most recognizable buildings from ancient Rome, the Pantheon is poorly understood. While its architecture has been well studied, its function remains uncertain. This paper argues that both the design and the meaning of the Pantheon are in fact dependent upon an understanding of the role of the sun in the building, and of the apotheosized emperor in Roman thought. Supporting evidence is drawn not only from the instruments of time in the form of the roofed spherical sundial, but also from other Imperial monuments, notably Nero’s Domus Aurea and Augustus’s complex of structures on the Campus Martius — his Ara Pacis, the ‘Horologium Augusti,’ and his Mausoleum. Hadrian’s Mausoleum and potentially part of his Villa at Tivoli are drawn into this argument as correlatives. Ultimately, it is proposed that sun and time were linked architecturally into cosmological signposts for those Romans who could read such things.

The Horologium on the Campus Martius reconsidered

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

Aegyptus Redacta: The Egyptian Obelisk in the Augustan Campus Martius

The obelisk that stands today in the Piazza Montecitorio in Rome, placed there by Pope Pius VI in 1792, had two previous “lives.” Quarried in Aswan, Egypt, it was brought down the Nile and erected in Heliopolis by Psametik II (r. 594–589 BCE). Nearly six hundred years later, it was shipped to Rome and set in the Campus Martius in 10 BCE by Augustus. Each act of appropriation added another layer of meaning to the monument, and it is through awareness of these “first lives” that we arrive at a fuller understanding of its later reuse and display.

Paul Rehak (ed. John G. Younger) 2007. Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.

Paul Rehak (ed. John G. Younger) 2007. Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.

Egypt Embodied: The Vatican Nile

The Vatican Nile, a monumental marble sculpture once displayed in Rome's Iseum Campense with a companion Tiber, has had a rich post-Antique afterlife. Long in the collections of the Vatican, both sculptures were taken as spolia to Paris in 1797. Only the Nile returned to Rome. Though long understood as pendants, their physical divorce created a scholarly tradition that treats the Vatican Nile primarily in isolation, as the classic example of a broader sculptural type. The present article shifts the line of inquiry to an exploration of the multiple meanings of the artwork in its immediate and topographical surroundings, within the Iseum and Serapeum and the Campus Martius. It offers a reading of the pair of Nile and Tiber that takes into account the decoration of their bases, sculpted on all four sides, arguing that the works were intended to be seen in the round. The bases below and personifications above juxtaposed different visual conventions for depicting landscapes and their denizens, deliberately bringing together traditions about the founding of Rome and the place of Egypt in the empire.

Paul Rehak, Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus in the Northern Campus Martius, Edited by John G. Younger (Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2007) XXVIII + 255 pp. & 46 pl.

Paul Rehak, Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus in the Northern Campus Martius, Edited by John G. Younger (Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2007) XXVIII + 255 pp. & 46 pl.

Rabun Taylor. Review of "Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus in the Northern Campus Martius" by Paul Rehak and John G. Younger.

Rabun Taylor. Review of "Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus in the Northern Campus Martius" by Paul Rehak and John G. Younger.

:An Apprenticeship in Arms: The Origins of the British Army, 1585-1702

I. A MILITARY APPRENTICESHIP 1585-1640 1. The Irish Wars 2. The Low Countries Wars 3. British Manpower and the States' Army 4. Recruiting in the British Isles for Mainland European Armies 5. Military and Naval Expeditions of the 1620s 6. The campus martius: The Domestic School of War II. THE EXPERIENCE OF CIVIL WAR 1640-1660 7. Mercenaries and Gentlemen 8. Raising and Organizing Standing Armies 9. Atrocity, Plunder, and Discipline 10. The Civil Wars in Ireland and Scotland III. THE DECAY OF A MILITARY TRADITION 1660-1688 11. Standing Armies in the Three Kingdoms 12. The Decay of the Militia 13. English, Irish, and Scots in Mainland European Armies IV. THE RECOVERY OF A MILITARY TRADITION 1688-1702 14. The Descent on England 15. The Williamite Conquest of Scotland and Ireland 16. The Nine Years War 17. Conclusion: Military Professionalism Select Bibliography Index

Sacrificial Iconography: Creating History, Making Myth, and Negotiating Ideology on the Ara Pacis Augustae

AbstractAugustus, first emperor of Rome, invented a new genealogy, myth of origins, and history for himself and for Rome as he negotiated for authority with the Roman senate. As part of these negotiations the senate dedicated the Ara Pacis Augustae on the Campus Martius in 9 B.C.E. The function, location, and iconography of the monument participated in Augustus's attempts to link his present with the prehistory of Rome. In order for power and authority to be negotiated and legitimized, and for a history and myth to be invented, audience participation is required. This essay argues that the Ara Pacis Augustae was a symbol of the senate's participation and acceptance of Augustus's status, as well as a statement of its own power vis-à-vis that of the emperor.

Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius. By Paul Rehak and John G. Younger.

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsImperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius. By Paul Rehak and John G. Younger.Karl GalinskyKarl Galinsky Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Archaeology Volume 112, Number 1January 2008 The journal of the Archaeological Institute of America Views: 3Total views on this site Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/AJS40037264 Views: 3Total views on this site Copyright © 2008 by the Archaeological Institute of America. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

THE RESTORATION OF THE PORTICUS OCTAVIAE AND SEVERAN IMPERIAL POLICY

The Porticus Octaviae was built in the Campus Martius sometime between 33 and 23 BC (Figure 1). There is controversy as to whether it was built by Augustus and dedicated to his sister, or commissioned by Octavia herself. The complex, however, which included a library and senate house was closely associated with Octavia and her son. The Porticus Octaviae fell victim to the fire of ad 80 and was probably restored by Domitian. An inscription on the propylon of the complex records its restoration, also after a fire, by Septimius Severus and Caracalla in AD 203. Little consideration, however, has been given to the importance of the Severan restoration in the context of this emperor's building programme. This article will examine the messages conveyed by the restoration of the Porticus Octaviae in terms of Severus' imperial policy, and in particular his desire to connect himself to the legacy of Augustus.

Power Made Visible: Pope Sixtus IV as Urbis Restaurator in Quattrocento Rome

A single medal, commemorating the completion of the bridge, the Ponte Sisto, captures the duality of Pope Sixtus IV's (Francesco della Rovere, 1471-1484) official role as spiritual leader and his chosen role as urban renovator. The medal features a profile portrait of Sixtus surrounded by the words SEXTVS IIII PONT MAX SACRICVLTOR, while on the back a three-line inscription above a small image of the Ponte Sisto (fig. 1) proclaims CVRA / RERVM / PVBLICARVM. The obverse depicts Sixtus as the high priest of Christendom, while the reverse shows the pontiff as the caretaker of urban projects. This article explores what the medal makes visible: within his extensive patronage of art, Sixtus commissioned public works that advertised his refurbishment of Rome while communicating the message of his secular and sacred authority to observers throughout the Eternal City. The Capitoline Museum, Aqua Vergine, Ponte Sisto, the Vatican Library, and newly paved streets not only built upon and recalled ancient power and history, but they also publicly proclaimed the success of Sixtus' papacy. By extending his vision to all of Rome (see map, fig. 2) and not just particular areas of the city, as his papal predecessors had, the pope exhibited a new supremacy.1 In restoring the grandeur of ancient Rome, Sixtus claimed both temporal and spiritual importance. Fifteen hundred years before Sixtus became pope, the emperor Augustus restored temples, built a new forum in the Campus Martius, founded Latin and Greek libraries in a wing of his imperial residence on the Palatine Hill, and paved several major roads. By fashioning himself as Urbis Restaurator, Sixtus aligned himself more with this tradition than with the example of his papal predecessors.2 Sixtus commissioned projects similar to those completed by Augustus: he built churches, established the Latin and Greek libraries in the Vatican Palace, paved major streets and piazzas, constructed the Ponte Sisto, and reconstructed the Aqua Vergine. Contemporary eulogists drew parallels between Sixtus and the illustrious emperor, sometimes praising the pope as being the reincarnation of Augustus himself.5 The humanist Ludovico Lazzarelli extolled the pope's achievements in relation to ancient leaders, For you repair churches once deformed in ugly ruins. You stretch out new bridges, and even pave streets, that Agrippa took up, which Augustus had from this time encouraged! You [Sixtus] repair the waters of the Fountain Vergine.4 The urbanism of Sixtus recalled the classical city, wrote Raffaelo Maffei, since the pontiff made Rome from a city of brick into stone just as Augustus of old had turned the stone city into marble.5 The poet Aurelio Brandolini echoed this sentiment, and congratulated Sixtus for surpassing the ancient Rome rulers: But Sixtus dared this and he alone ordered old Rome to rise up again; no, actually he himself founded a new Rome! This man returned beauty to the city and he removed the old ruins and he laid out in all directions a road of baked brick. He built a famous work of a bridge and he restored churches, many to be sure, but he built still more new ones. He collected books of the ancients, he collected books of recent writers. He himself brought back the Aqua Vergine to the Campus Martius. And what those and others did in 1500 years, this man himself accomplished in ten years. Father Romulus, yield! All ancients, yield!6 Just two days into his reign, Sixtus began his civic renovation program when he attempted to protect the public property of Rome by proclaiming that no type of column or marble statuary could be moved for other uses.7 Early in his papacy, the pontiff repaired several ancient temples that long ago had been turned into churches, cleaned the Cloaca Maxima in the Foro Boario, issued new conservation laws, and commissioned the restoration of the statue of Marcus Aurelius (161-180 A.D.), thought to be of Constantine, in front of the Lateran. …

Athletic exercises in ancient Rome. When Julius Caesar went swimming

Roman ludi circenses are well known, especially chariot-racing, which was extremely popular during the Roman Empire. In many aspects, this competition even foreshadows modern sport seen as show business (the Circus Maximus could accommodate about 150,000 spectators). One could not say the same thing about the athletic exercises of Roman citizens: the common view is that Romans had a negative attitude towards athletics, which were not regarded as useful and were sometimes considered as scandalous. But Roman citizens did, in fact, practise much sport, for instance in the Campus Martius in Rome, and in the palaestrae of public baths. They were particularly fond of ball-games and of swimming in very large cold pools.

Piranesi, Juvarra, and the Triumphal Bridge Tradition

This article examines the idea of the triumphal bridge from the Renaissance to Piranesi, by way of Flavio Biondo, Onofrio Panvinio, Pirro Ligorio, Nicolas Poussin, Fischer von Erlach, and Filippo Juvarra, in order to explore attitudes toward the reception and representation of ancient architecture. It shows how the eighteenth-century theme of the “magnificent (triumphal) bridge” had its roots in topographical inquiry and examines the contribution that Piranesi's interest in the archaeological problem of the triumphal bridge made to the creative process that resulted in the Ichnographia, the large map of the ancient Campus Martius in his 1762 Campo Marzio.

The Pompey Project: Digital Research and Virtual Reconstruction of Rome's First Theatre

In 55 B.C. the triumphal general Pompey the Great dedicated Rome's first permanent theatre and named it after himself. This was no ordinary theatre. Pompey's sumptuous and grandiose edifice probably the largest theatre ever built comprised, in addition to the Theatre itself (the stage of which was 300 feet wide), an extensive "leisure-complex" of gardens enclosed within a colonnade, and galleries displaying rare works of art. It also included a curia (a meeting house for the Senate), and it was in this building that Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C. A grand temple above the uppermost tiers of the auditorium, dedicated to Pompey's patron divinity, Venus Victrix, crowned the entire architecturally unified monument. Although the theatre was built upon the flats of the Campus Martius, this, its highest point, was second in height only to the temple of Jupiter on the capitol. According to our research, the auditorium or cavea beneath it may have accommodated some 25,000 spectators.1 Pompey's gift to the Roman people was for centuries the site of many of the most important events in the cultural and political life of the city.2 Nero himself performed upon its stage,3 much to the disgust of the senatorial class and the delight of the masses. As late as the 6th century A.D., when it was restored for the last time the theatre was still sufficiently imposing for Cassiodorus to exclaim, "one would have thought it more likely for mountains to subside, than this strong building be shaken".4 Over five centuries earlier, when Vitruvius wrote his influential treatise, De Architectura, his detailed account of how a "typical" Roman theatre should be built was based upon Pompey's recently-completed edifice; indeed, at the time he wrote, it was probably still the only stone theatre in the city of Rome.5 Thus, through Vitruvius, the Theatre of Pompey became the architectural Ur-text for many of the numerous theatres built throughout the Roman Empire. Subsequently, in the Renaissance, through the influence of Vitruvius, the Theatre of Pompey left its imprint upon such seminal theatres as the Teatro Olimpico at Vicenza and the Teatro Farnese at Parma. This single theatre, therefore, had a unique