Capitoline Hill Research Articles

Cosmology, Place, and History in Varros's De lingua latina 5

This article interprets Varro’s etymological discussion of locus in book 5 of Delingua Latina (1-56) as representative of a Varronian “place-based” history. It argues thatVarro’s reconstruction of Rome’s loci as cosmically essential and structuring elementsof both the city and Roman culture in his present day depended upon the author’s peculiarunderstanding of the past and of historical truth – namely, that fundamental principlesof truth manifest both on different levels of reality, and at different points in time.Places – temples, hills, groves, or otherwise – therefore were particularly significant inproviding access to the essential meaning of Rome’s institutions, religion, and people.Varro’s consideration of the Septimontium is then analyzed within this framework. Theargument demonstrates how Rome’s natural environment, construed as part of an originalcosmos, could explain the social and political facts of the present in Varro’s reconstructionof word-history. In particular, the religious importance of the Capitoline hill,and the separation of the Aventine from the rest of the city in the first century BCE, areboth given etymological explanations that depend upon the long-lost natural topographyof the city.

One, Two, Three! Can Everybody Hear Me? Acoustics of Roman Contiones. Case Studies of the Capitoline Hill and the Temple of Bellona in Rome

Abstract Rhetoric was one of the cornerstones of Roman education and public speaking, the essence of being a Roman politician. The speakers attempted to captivate the audience with their style and convince them of their arguments. Studying the audience is therefore just as important as investigating the speakers and their speeches. The aim of this article is to estimate the number of people who could intelligibly hear a speaker delivering a speech from two speaking platforms located in the city of Rome: the podium of the Temple of Bellona in the Campus Martius (in the Late Republican and Late Augustan periods) and the Capitoline Temple. To do this, we built virtual reconstructions of both venues according to the current state of knowledge about them, taking into account the geometry of the space as well as the materials from which they were built. On the models thus prepared, we carried out acoustic simulations for three different levels of background noise (36, 49, and 55 dBA), resulting in Speech Transmission Index maps. The results became the basis upon which we estimated the size of the maximum potential crowds that could hear speech intelligibly, using two methods based on the behaviour of contemporary crowds. We further compared our results with those of previous studies that concern other speaking platforms in Rome.

Geochemical proveniencing of the tuff used to build the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus and other Archaic monuments (Rome, Italy)

This work presents the results of a geological-geochemical and archaeological study, aimed at determining the origin of blocks of Tufo del Palatino (a pyroclastic flow deposit erupted 534 ka from the Colli Albani volcanic district) used for the construction of the foundations of the Temple of Jupiter and of other important monuments of Archaic Rome (6th-early 5th c. BCE). Through the reconstruction of the underground trend and outcrop areas of Tufo del Palatino, extraction sites mentioned by historical sources and recent literature were recognized and sampled, in order to compare their geochemical signature with that of the cut blocks used by Roman builders. For this purpose, 32 archaeological samples were taken from monuments and analyzed together with 14 geological outcrop samples. By determining the ratios of particular trace elements (Zr/Y, Nb/Y, Zr/TiO2, Nb/TiO2, Th/Ta) it is possible to establish the great compositional homogeneity of all the archaeological samples analyzed and their compatibility only with outcrop samples taken from the Capitoline Hill. The evidence, both of a geological and archaeological nature, of quarry interventions on the hill in Roman times is analyzed and discussed.

Tectonics and fluvial dynamism affecting the Tiber River in Prehistoric Rome

Geomorphological investigations in Rome’s river valley are revealing the dynamism of the prehistoric landscape. It is becoming increasingly apparent that paleogeographic conditions that defined Rome in the historical era are the product of changes since the Bronze Age, which may be the result of local fault activity in addition to fluvial dynamism. Through a dedicated borehole chronostratigraphic study, integrated by 14C and archaeological dates, and paleomagnetic investigations, we offer here new evidence for fault displacement since ca. 4500 years/BP. We present the failure of the sedimentary fabric of a clay horizon caused by liquefaction processes commonly linked with seismic shaking, interpreting an (ca. 4 m) offset to signify the existence of a fault line located at the foot of the Capitoline Hill. In addition, we show evidence for another (ca. 1 m) offset affecting a stratigraphic horizon in the river channel, occurring along another hypothesized fault line crossing through the Tiber Valley. Movement along this fault may have contributed to a documented phase of fast overflooding dated to the sixth century BCE which eventually led to the birth of the Tiber Island. The most plausible scenario implies progressive deformation, with an average tectonic rate of 2 mm/year, along these inferred fault lines. This process was likely punctuated with moderate earthquakes, but no large event necessarily occurred. Together, the available evidence suggests that during the early centuries of sedentary habitation at the site of Rome, active fault lines contributed to significant changes to the Tiber River valley, capable of challenging lowland activities.

On the Banks of the Tiber: Opportunity and Transformation in Early Rome

AbstractA geoarchaeological coring survey of the Forum Boarium has shed considerable light on Rome's archaic landscape. We present the first empirical evidence that substantiates ancient and modern assumptions about the existence of a river harbour and ford in early Rome. Prior to the growth of the city, the riverbank — reconstructed as a high ledge at the base of the Capitoline Hill and a low-lying shore north of the Aventine — was particularly advantageous for river-related activities. However, the river valley changed significantly in the sixth centuryb.c.e., as a result of complex fluvial processes that were arguably spurred by urbanisation. Around the beginning of the Republic, Rome's original harbour silted up, and a high, wide riverbank emerged in its place. The siltation continued until the Forum Boarium was urbanised in the mid-Republic. In order to build their city and maintain river harbour operations, the Romans therefore had to adapt to dynamic ecological conditions.

Review: City of Saints: Rebuilding Rome in the Early Middle Ages, by Maya Maskarinec and Rome's Holy Mountain: The Capitoline Hill in Late Antiquity, by Jason Moralee

Review: City of Saints: Rebuilding Rome in the Early Middle Ages, by Maya Maskarinec and Rome's Holy Mountain: The Capitoline Hill in Late Antiquity, by Jason Moralee

WAS CAMILLUS RIGHT? ROMAN HISTORY AND NARRATOLOGICAL STRATEGY IN LIVY 5.49.2

This article deals with one particular aspect of Livy's narrative of the Gallic Sack of Rome, told in Book 5, and traditionally placed in 390b.c.—namely the issue over the validity of the ransom agreement struck by the Romans with the Gauls. The broader context is well known—and needs only brief reiteration here. When the Gauls march on Rome, the Romans give battle at the river Allia, leading to a resounding Gallic victory. Most of the Romans flee the battlefield and then the city, except for a small group of both old and young, male and female, who hold out on the Capitoline Hill. That hill is subsequently put under siege by the Gauls. Following several months of beleaguerment, both sides are depicted as severely worn out by hunger and fighting. It is important for present purposes to stress that, when the Gauls stood at the gates and besieged the city, one of Rome's greatest heroes, Marcus Furius Camillus, was noticeably absent. Camillus was in neighbouring Ardea, some fifty miles south of Rome, training an army of Roman soldiers to challenge the Gallic invaders after his recent recall from exile and appointment to the dictatorship. But before Camillus’ return to Rome, the besieged Romans surrendered and agreed a ransom with the Gauls in order to liberate their city. The continuation of the story as given in Livy is equally well known. Camillus arrives in the middle of the ransom exchange, asking for the exchange to be stopped. Unsurprisingly, the Gauls are not keen on following Camillus’ orders, and insist on the ransom. Consequently, Camillus challenges the agreement between Romans and Gauls on a constitutional basis; the agreement was reached with a lesser magistrate after Camillus’ appointment to the dictatorship (5.49.2):cum illi renitentes pactos dicerent sese, negat eam pactionem ratam esse quae postquam ipse dictator creatus esset iniussu suo ab inferioris iuris magistratu facta esset, denuntiatque Gallis ut se ad proelium expediant.When they, resisting, said that they had come to an agreement, he [Camillus] denied that an agreement was valid which, after he himself had been made dictator, had been concluded by a magistrate of lower status without his instructions, and he announced to the Gauls that they should prepare themselves for battle.The constitutional argument has often been repeated by modern scholars. Ogilvie comments that ‘(t)he dictatorship was held to put all other magistracies into suspension.’ Feldherr notes similarly that, ‘(o)nce Camillus has been appointed dictator, hisimperiumsupersedes that of the lesser magistrates who negotiated the surrender.’ And to explain why the Gauls nevertheless entered into negotiations in Camillus’ absence, Ross observes that ‘the Gauls, of course, could hardly have known either of Camillus’ appointment as dictator or of the fact that the dictatorship superseded all other magistracies.’

Res publica restituta? Perceiving emperors in fourteenth-century Rome

Three emperors were crowned in Rome, while the pope was residing in Avignon: Henry VII (1312), Louis IV (1328) and Charles IV (1355). This contribution suggests that these emperors did not simply enter into an insurmountable “conflict of Empire and city-state”. Many Italians perceived the transalpine rulers as carriers of justice and order. Instead of criticizing the idea of empire, fourteenth-century (proto-)humanists reinforced the imperial myth by applying a classical language to discuss the contemporary Holy Roman Emperors. With their imperial histories, authors such as Albertino Mussato and Ferreto de’ Ferreti wanted to imitate the ancients. As a consequence, they focused on the triumphal aspects of the imperial coronations. Not the coronation in Saint Peter’s Basilica but the adventus into the city and the interaction with the SPQR drew special interest. Because of the papal absence, Henry VII and the excommunicated Louis the Bavarian could indeed act independently in the Eternal City. They both gathered assemblies with the SPQR on the Capitoline Hill. Charles IV, however, kept his promise to the pope and stayed only one day in Rome for his coronation in 1355. The letters of Francesco Petrarch and Niccolo Beccari nevertheless provided him with a classical discourse that could have supported his claims of independence vis-a-vis the pope. The Holy Roman Emperors were presented as the restorers of the res publica. It seems that the imperial presence in a popeless Rome increased the awareness of (and interest in) the city’s ancient past.

Maya Maskarinec. City of Saints: Rebuilding Rome in the Early Middle Ages.; Jason Moralee. Rome’s Holy Mountain: The Capitoline Hill in Late Antiquity.

Maya Maskarinec. City of Saints: Rebuilding Rome in the Early Middle Ages.; Jason Moralee. Rome’s Holy Mountain: The Capitoline Hill in Late Antiquity.

The Women and the Lares: A Reconsideration of an Augustan Altar from the Capitoline in Rome

This paper offers a reexamination of a small Augustan lares altar found on the Capitoline Hill and now in the Museo Nazionale Romano at the Terme di Diocleziano. The altar features two women, one on each of its sides, wearing very similar costumes and offering libations, and twin lares on the front. The discussion analyzes the altar's original context, scale, iconography, workmanship, and state of preservation. This altar fits into the well-known series of altars dedicated by freedmen vicomagistri in the local neighborhoods (vici) in honor of the newly named Lares Augusti in and immediately after 7 B.C.E. Based on this setting and their elaborate costumes, which resemble those of the vestal virgins, these women can be identified as Roman brides, who regularly made offerings to the local lares near their new home on their wedding day. The Terme altar provides valuable evidence for the religious roles of Roman women, specifically in relation to lares at crossroads shrines (compita); it is the only representation of brides in a relief from the city of Rome and a rare example, among extant images, of women pouring a libation.

Rome's Holy Mountain: The Capitoline Hill in Late Antiquity. By Jason Moralee. Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. xxv + 278 pp. $74.00 cloth.

Rome's Holy Mountain: The Capitoline Hill in Late Antiquity. By Jason Moralee. Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. xxv + 278 pp. $74.00 cloth. - Volume 88 Issue 1

Rome's Holy Mountain: The Capitoline Hill in Late Antiquity by Jason Moralee

Reviewed by: Rome's Holy Mountain: The Capitoline Hill in Late Antiquity by Jason Moralee Raymond Van Dam Jason Moralee. Rome's Holy Mountain: The Capitoline Hill in Late Antiquity. Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xxv, 278. $74.00. ISBN 978-0-19-049227-4. The symbolic high point of ancient Rome was the Capitoline Hill, crowned with the great Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. In Vergil's Aeneid the hero had been granted a glimpse of the glorious future of the site, "once bristling with woodland thickets, but now golden." For centuries the hill and the temple would represent the power and the eternity of the Roman empire. Then, after the collapse of empire, the challenge of Christianity, and the incessant conflicts among medieval states, it became difficult to conjure up that shiny past. In the fifteenth century the antiquarian Poggio Bracciolini mourned the reversal of fortune for the hill and its monuments, "once golden, but now returned to thickets and brambles." In the past the hill had been a caput, the head of the empire; now, Poggio lamented, it had become, literally, the bottom, spattered with poop (12). Jason Moralee's book about the "Temple Mount" of Rome is another sterling contribution to the recent interest in memory studies among classicists and ancient historians. The coverage of his book stretches from the early Roman Republic to the Renaissance, with an emphasis on late antiquity. Part of his narrative is the physical transformation of the Capitoline Hill, with the construction and deconstruction of buildings, monuments, administrative offices, and residential neighborhoods. But his primary concern is the accompanying cognitive transformation. The hill was not simply a place, but also a hermeneutics, "a way of representing and critiquing the exercise of social power, the morality of rulers, the authority of divine forces, and the failures of the state" (121). The discussion of so many topics and themes is often split among various chapters and therefore sometimes a bit jumbled. One important topic is the significance of processions. In the Republic and the early empire, ascending the hill to sacrifice at the Temple of Jupiter was the culmination of triumphal parades and [End Page 371] ceremonies of investiture: for a moment the victorious emperors were kings of the mountain. By the early fourth century, however, emperors stopped climbing the hill, and in the culture wars between Christians and pagans Constantine would be denounced for abandoning the Capitol. When Christian emperors visited, the routes of their public processions instead included the Church of St. Peter. Another important topic is the transition from temples to churches. In Moralee's evocative summation, "the old temples of the Roman world were like decommissioned nuclear power reactors: they were systematically closed, cleaned up of contaminants, and eventually demolished" (62). Christian apologists were only too happy to classify the earlier destructions of the Temple of Jupiter as examples of "the Christian God's righteous anger" (183). In late antiquity the agents of that divine wrath were barbarians and Greeks. In the mid-fifth century the king of the Vandals sailed away with half of the gilded roof tiles from the temple; in the later sixth century the first church was established on the hill, whose founder Moralee argues to have been Narses, Justinian's general in Italy. By then the Capitoline Hill was becoming a Christian heritage site (102). It was also incorporated into "a new Christian history of the Roman people" (140). According to this alternative perspective, for centuries the ancient gods had been asleep or ineffective. In 390 b.c. only the honking of a goose had saved the hill from being captured by the Gauls; in 410 a.d. the Goths had sacked the city. These disasters confirmed that the most reliable sanctuaries were now the shrines of the apostles Peter and Paul. In this "triumphalist Christian memory culture" (139) the only triumphs worth celebrating on the hill commemorated the victories of saints and martyrs. Already in antiquity remembering the Capitoline Hill and the Temple of Jupiter was a powerful way of rewriting history, and Moralee's book is itself a splendid evocation of this Capitole imaginaire. Another...

Die Tyrannenmörder auf dem Kapitol

In which historical constellation and with which meaning one erected the most accurate copy of the early classical group of the tyrannicides near the Fides temple on the Capitoline hill in Rome? As the copy of the early classical group of the tyrannicides remained on the Capitoline hill until medialval times, a widespread acceptance may be assumed. It is unlikely that Augustus was tolerating the statues of his enemies Brutus or Sulla. In fact there was on the capitoline hill a tradition to keep a balance of statues, erected for the leader of different political parties, which only the summi viri of the Augustusforum ostensible still pursued. The copy of the famous group is probably an initiative of Pammenes from Marathon, a descendant of the tyrannicides, and probably represents Eleuteria/Libertas, won in the civil war by Augustus Soter and Agrippa Euergetes. The term Demokratia, closley linked with the Tyrannicides and Eleuteria, became the key word substituting the aristocracys’ demand of political participation at the beginning of the Principate.

Il voto nei quartieri di Roma dal 2000 al 2018

Social and economic inequalities between the city centre and peripheral belts persist for many years in Rome districts, in parallel to the on-going suburban sprawl. That yields political effects too, since electoral results from 2000 to 2018 highlight sharp political polarization: votes for left-wing (right-wing or Five Star Movement) candidates are inversely (directly) proportional to distance from Capitoline Hill. Notably, in 2018 general election, the left-wing coalition prevailed in central districts only, where education levels and personal income are very high, and (even if only slightly) in historical periphery, where it keeps consensus on progressive, inclusive and liberal policies. The opposite holds for the new populist Five Star Movement, that prevailed in low-density periphery inside the Orbital, in far-off sprawled districts and in Ostia coastal area. However, the right-wing coalition won in Rome as a whole, by more homogeneous and even inter-classist consensus, and prevailed outside the Orbital thanks to the League, that had for the very first time many votes in the Roman peripheries. As a matter of facts, both right-wing and populist policies seem easier to the extent that suburban citizens feel deprived since harmed by economic crisis, unsafe and worried about immigrants, far from elected bodies, scarcely endowed with public services.

LIVING ON THE CAPITOLINE HILL: THEDOMUSOF THE ARACOELI AND ITS SCULPTURAL AND PAINTED DECORATION

This article investigates an aristocraticdomuslocated on the Arx, overlooking the better-knowninsulaof the Aracoeli from the northern summit of the Capitoline hill. Thisdomuswas buried during the construction of the basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in the thirteenth century and remained sealed until the 1980s. I have reconstructed its layout — at least three levels survive — relying on my architectural survey and on the Vittoriano archives. The original phase dates from the first century BC, but substantial restorations were made during the Flavian age, when thedomuslost itsfauces–atrium–tablinumpattern, and in the early third century AD, when it was expanded vertically by a deep cut into the tuff bank, received a new facade and was redecorated with frescoes. Thedomusof the Aracoeli must have been a residence of high status, and in the Severan age it was supplied by lead pipes bearing imperial stamps. Although the Capitoline was mostly occupied by public buildings, the Arx was a prestigious neighbourhood and not a sort of monumental acropolis. I discuss the development and the architectural design of thedomusof the Aracoeli, including its underground residential spaces as well as its sculptural and painted decoration; finally, I examine the remodellings of the originalatriumhouse from a socio-cultural point of view.

The Gallic Ransom and the Sack of Rome

AbstractThe article challenges the widespread view that the Gallic ransom mentioned in a number of sources for the events traditionally known as the Sack of Rome in 390BCshould be understood as evidence that the Gauls did not take Rome in its entirety. The article shows in contrast that, whatever happened in the night when the geese suffered from insomnia on the Capitoline Hill, a ransom is a perfectly suitable element in a story of a Gallic take-over of Rome—hill and all; and that it cannot be taken as evidence that an alternative narrative to the successful defence of the Capitoline Hill never existed.

From the Capitoline Hill to the Tarpeian Rock? Free French coming out of war

This text explores the return of the Free French to metropolitan territory in 1944–45. The intense emotions provoked by rediscovering the soil of France and their compatriots were succeeded by more mixed and even bittersweet feelings. Very soon, dreams dreamed far away and for many years met the reality of a country deeply wounded by the defeat of 1940 and by the Occupation. The takeover of administrative and political power, and the beginnings of the purges, provoked clashes with the Allies and even more with the metropolitan Resistance, which were essentially quarrels of legitimacy. The violence of the fight for the Liberation mercilessly took its toll. Each and every person who had survived the conflict found the resumption of a personal and intimate life more difficult than expected. Finally, some of the hopes for renovation that had been developed throughout the war began to waver. This led to a frustration tinged with bitterness on which contrasting memories took root.

Rome's Holy Mountain: The Capitoline Hill in Late Antiquity by Jason Moralee

Reviewed by: Rome's Holy Mountain: The Capitoline Hill in Late Antiquity by Jason Moralee Hendrik Dey Rome's Holy Mountain: The Capitoline Hill in Late Antiquity Jason Moralee Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xxv + 304. ISBN: 978-0-19-049227-4 Jason Moralee's book is a kaleidoscopic, non-linear, allusive, often speculative meditation on the Capitoline Hill and its crowning Capitol as topos: a real place, a literary construct, a figment of the collective imagination of local Romans and denizens of Rome's extended cultural sphere alike. It is erudite, delightfully readable, fascinating—and frustrating. There is something here for people of every disciplinary stripe and methodological proclivity to object to. Admirers of Andrea Augenti's stone-by-stone approach to the topographical evolution of the Palatine in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages will lament the impressionistic treatment of archaeological evidence and the illegibly tiny, outdated maps and plans of the Hill itself. Fans of Lisa Mignone's closely argued social history of the Republican-era Aventine will grasp in vain for ramified networks of identifiable actors who animated and experienced the Capitoline at any given moment. But there is also something here—much, in fact—to delight and enlighten anyone with even a passing interest in the city of Rome and its post-classical legacies. Although he ranges from the dawn of the Republic in 509 bc to the present, Moralee concentrates roughly on the third through the seventh centuries ad, when the Capitoline ceased to be the premier locus of Roman state cult and imperial ceremony, while Rome shrank [End Page 434] from imperial megalopolis to provincial Christian town on the Byzantine periphery. Moralee first approaches the Hill as a physical and topographical presence, a neighborhood deeply implicated in the living fabric of the city and the political and ceremonial agendas of its rulers (Part 1, "Lived-In Realities"), and then as a mental construct, an enduring symbol of the might of the pagan Roman Empire and, from a Christian perspective, the impiety of that Empire and the inevitable triumph of the true faith over ancient superstition (Part 2, "Dreamed-Of Realities"). Part 1 opens with a chapter on (emperors) "Climbing the Capitoline Hill." Moralee sides with those who, contra Eunapius of Sardis and Zosimus, think that Constantine never ascended the Capitoline to sacrifice before the Capitol, thus rupturing the age-old tradition whereby ceremonies of triumph, adventus, and coronation concluded at the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. In either case (it makes less difference than many seem to think), what matters is that by Constantine's day, the Capitoline and its crowning temple were increasingly marginal, peripheral in cultic and ceremonial terms. Moralee assembles a wide range of ancient perspectives on the place of the Capitol (the temple) and the capitolium (the Hill) in state ceremonial to show that the "decentralization of Rome's symbolic topography" (42) was a long and gradual process with roots stretching back at least to Augustus, who created alternative ritual and ceremonial poles (his temple of Apollo on the Palatine, his forum) and made the triumph the exclusive appurtenance of emperorship. Moralee sensibly maintains that the third-century migration of emperors/imperial ceremony to the provinces, the ongoing proliferation of imperial showpieces in Rome (Caracalla's temple of Isis and Serapis, the Eliogabalium, Aurelian's temple of Sol), and the growing prominence of the Forum Romanum itself as Rome's main venue for imperial display, especially in the form it took after the fire of 283, all made imperial adventus, triumphs, and accessions conceivable without a culminating sacrifice in front of Rome's Capitol. Thereafter, Christian emperors naturally avoided it, preferring instead to appear in the Forum or at St. Peter's. In the next two chapters, Moralee wonders what did happen on, and to, the Hill when emperors stopped ascending it. Chapter 2 seeks to show that the Capitoline, always a central place where Romans lived, worked, and worshipped, continued to function as such throughout Late Antiquity, albeit in evolving ways. Moralee reasonably presumes that people kept living on and around the Hill, and he stresses that officials and administrators probably continued to work...

A funerary monument on the Capitoline: architecture and painting in mid-Republican Rome, between Etruria and Greece

The debate on the relationships between Rome, Italy, and the Mediterranean world in the Archaic and mid-Republican periods remains very lively. Complementing the most recent discoveries and interpretations, I present two unknown mid-Republican documents from the Arx, the N summit of the Capitoline hill (fig. 1). Excavations for the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II brought to light after 1887 many walls and artifacts, which have been studied almost exclusively to produce archaeological maps or catalogues of objects, but the structures sealed beneath the basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli toward the end of the 13th c., rediscovered in the 1980s and surveyed by the present author since 2001, shed new light on a number of religious, historical, topographical, architectural and art-historical issues.The new archaeological evidence may be summarized as follows. In the 1st c. B.C., an aristocratic domus set on three levels occupied the NW sector of the Arx; it was remodeled in the Flavian and Severan periods (figs. 2-3). Apparently a location of the temple of Juno Moneta on the site of the Aracoeli must be ruled out. Among the structures still preserved beneath the basilica, which include an Imperial-era wall with huge curvilinear spurs that can be associated with the Iseum Capitolinum, we may mention an ashlar wall in blocks of Grotta Oscura tuff (a stone available after the defeat of Veii in 397 B.C.) that constituted the façade of a monument with a false arch dating from the 4th c. B.C. (fig. 2).

On timbre in urban soundscapes: The role of fountains

According to European Environmental Noise Directive (2002/49/EC, 25 June 2002), acoustical issues in urban planning are mostly treated in term of loudness. However, timbre of urban sound sources, including their spectral features but not only, can affect our daily life due to auditory preferences. Social studies identify the sound of water as one of the most enjoyable sounds by humans and laboratory experiments demonstrate that testers prefer soft types of water sounds, with low frequency contents and low flow rates, such as natural stream and fountain. Recent surveys acknowledge fountains as acoustical urban elements, focusing on sound pressure level and spectrum analysis. In this paper, we will discuss observations made in Rome (e.g., Capitoline Hill) in 2015 and recently in Brussels, that suggest that fountain sounds may change habits and paths of passers-by. We will then present first findings from statistical analysis of the audio samples collected in situ, in an attempt to identify attributes of timbre that are responsible for shifted habits.