Lecture 13
The Layout of Imperial Rome
Rome grew slowly and it long maintained its character as an Italic city, but once the wealth of conquest began to flow into the city, Rome developed into a major center, on the lines of a Hellenistic capital. By the reign of Augustus Rome had grown into the greatest city in the ancient world.
A. An aside: the political history of Rome:
753 - 509 BC the monarchy (Rome supposedly ruled by seven kings; little known of the history of the period)
509 - 27 BC the Republic (Rome supposedly a democracy, but in fact dominated by an aristocracy, centered in
the Senate)
27 BC - AD 500 the Empire (Rome ruled by emperors -- essentially monarchs who often acted in a tyrannical fashion)
B. The Forum Romanum under the Republic
1. As mentioned in an earlier class, the Forum Romanum was originally a swamp between the hills of the Capitoline, the Palatine, the Esquiline, and the Quirinal.
a. The Sacred Way (Sacra Via) ran from the Velia across the floor of the Forum to the Capitoline, where it ascended the Capitoline to the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.
b. This was the route of triumphal processions, taken by victorious commanders who returned to Rome.
c. In the period of the Empire the Via Sacra was spanned by a series of monumental ("triumphal") arches that commemorated the great victories of the emperors.
2. Under the Capitoline was the Comitium, which was the place where Roman citizens gathered for political meetings and assemblies to vote; this was basically an open space.
3. Nearby was the Curia -- the Senate House.
4. There were many temples in the Forum and its vicinity.
a. Jupiter Optimus Maximus (with Juno and Minerva -- the Capitoline Triad) on the Capitoline: this was a great temple in the Etruscan fashion, probably from the 6th century BC.
b. Temple of Saturn (consecrated in 497 BC).
c. The Temple of Castor (or Castor and Pollux) consecrated in 484 BC.
d. Temple of Concordia.
5. There was a speaker's platform in the Comitium, decorated with captured ships' beaks (rostra) taken from defeated Latins in 338 BC (hence our word rostrum).
6. In the fourth century most of the shops and itinerant merchants were sent elsewhere; only the Tabernae Argentariae (shops of bankers) remained. Thus, as early as the fourth century the Forum was becoming monumentalized.
7. By the second century Rome had become ruler of the Mediterranean world, and wealth flowed into the city.
a. Several basilicas (enclosed public buildings, often used as courts).
b. Many small buildings of a monumental character began to clutter up the Forum.
8. Annual magistracies had prevented long-range planning in Rome.
a. In the first century BC and later, various politicians held power for longer times, and this led to significant planning and monumentalization.
b. In 83 BC the city was burned and the dictatorship of Sulla (81-79 BC) witnessed considerable rebuilding.
c. Lepidus rebuilt the Basilica Aemelia.
d. Pompey built Rome's first permanent theater in the Campus Martius behind the Capitoliine.
e. Caesar reorganized the Forum, constructing a voting enclosure (Saepta) near the Theater of Pompey.
f. Caesar arranged for public shows in the Forum
B. The Forum Romanum under the Empire
1. Augustus claimed that he found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.
2. Augustus and his heirs rebuilt most of the buildings in the Forum.
3. Augustus built a temple to the Divine Julius at the end of the Forum and two arches commemorating his victories (Actium, Parthians).
C. Imperial Fora
1. Caesar had planned an extension of the Forum, the Forum Julium, focused on the temple of Venus Genetrix.
2. Shops and meeting rooms all around, an equestrian statue of Caesar in the middle.
3. Augustus built a forum around the temple to Mars Ultor.
4. The Forum was to honor Rome's leaders of the past and it emphasized their connection with the family of Augustus.
5.The greatest of the Imperial Fora was that of Trajan. It was entered by a monumental gate and was terminated by a
huge transverse basilica and the Column of Trajan and two libraries.
D. Palaces
1. From the time of Augustus the main residence of the emperors was on the Palatine.
2. Little is known of Augustus' house, but Tiberius, Caligula, Domitian, and Hadrian extended and beautified the huge complex.
3. The palace was not a single building but a group of buildings erected around a central core of a public and a private area -- between the Forum and the Circus Maximus.
E. Places of Entertainment
1. Theaters (such as the Theater of Pompey, Theater of Marcellus).
2. Baths, such as the Baths of Caracalla
3. Amphitheaters (not theaters -- there is a difference): the Colosseum
4. Hippodromes: the Circus Maximus
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