CAAH Mods Core: Republic to Empire 50 BC–AD 50
(Dr Nick Ray)
Archaeology Lecture 1: the City of Rome
Bibliography
General
Claridge A. (1998) Rome: an Archaeological Guide. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
Coulston, J. and H. Dodge (2000) Ancient Rome: The Archaeology of the Eternal City. Oxbow
Books: Oxford.
Steinby, E.M. (1992-2000) Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae vols. I-V (Rome). For
reference, entries in several languages, with good bibliographies. Note particularly:
Purcell, N. (1995), ‘Forum Romanum (The Imperial Period)’, in LTUR II, 336-42;
Wiseman T.P. (1993), ‘Campus Martius’ LTUR I, 220-24.
Sites, monuments
Guidobaldi, P. The Roman Forum (Rome) 1998
Humphrey, J. (1986), Roman Circuses. Arenas for Chariot Racing (London), esp. pp. 73-78 for
the Circus Maximus under Caesar and Augustus, pp. 545-52 for the Vatican circus
Caesar
Ulrich, R. (1993), ‘Julius Caesar and the creation of the Forum Julium’, American Journal of
Archaeology 97, 49-80
Welch, K. (1994), The arena in late-Republican Italy: a new interpretation, Journal of Roman
Archaeology 7, 58-80, esp. pp. 69-77 on the temporary amphitheatre in the Forum
Romanum
Augustus
Haselberger, L. (2002) Mapping Augustan Rome (Portsmouth RI) – as well as the map itself
there is a useful catalogue of monuments and places with discussion of recent theories
and discoveries.
Haselberger, L. (2007) Urbem Adornare. Rome’s Urban Metamorphosis under Augustus
(Portsmouth RI) – analytical narrative to complement Mapping Augustan Rome
Walker, S. (2000) The Moral Museum: Augustus and the City of Rome, in Coulston, J. and H.
Dodge Ancient Rome: The Archaeology of the Eternal City (Oxford), 61-75
Zanker, P. (1990) The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (Ann Arbor)
Architecture
MacDonald W.L. (1985) Empire imagery in Augustan architecture, in Winkes, R. (ed.) The Age
of Augustus (Louvain) 137-148
Strong, D. (1960) Some early examples of the Composite capital, Journal of Roman Studies 50,
119-128.
Wilson Jones, M. (2000) Principles of Roman Architecture (New Haven and London), 135-143 on the Corinthian order
Coates-Stephens, R. (2004) Porta Maggiore : monument and landscape : archaeology and
topography of the southern Esquiline from the Late Republican period to the present
(Rome)
Water management
Evans, H.B. (1994) Water Distribution in Ancient Rome: the evidence of Frontinus (Ann Arbor),
chs 7-10
Lloyd, R. (1979) The Aqua Virgo, Euripus and the Pons Agrippae, American Journal of
Archaeology 83, 193-204
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Key stages in the transformation of Rome:
60-50 BC
The First Triumvirate embellish Rome in Republican tradition but Hellenistic
fashion
55 BC
Theatre of Pompey and Temple of Venus Victrix dedicated
49-44 BC
Caesar’s new vision for Rome - as a new Alexandria?
48 BC
Temple of Venus Genetrix vowed at Pharsalus
44-31 BC
Octavian and the Second Triumvirate complete most of Caesar’s projects and
restore/rebuild key Republican monuments
Octavian begins personal monuments: Temple of Apollo Palatinus,
Mausoleum
42 BC
Temple of Divus Julius commissioned, Temple of Mars Ultor vowed at Philippi
31-12 BC
Augustus and Agrippa transform Rome: new and restored monuments in Forum
Romanum, Campus Martius, Esquiline; improvements to infrastructure
12BC-AD14 Augustus completes earlier projects (esp. Forum of Augustus), restores or rebuilds
after fires. Only new project is naumachia
AD 14-37
Tiberius works on Tiber, builds Castra Praetoria
AD 37-50
Caligula and Claudius do further work on urban infrastructure, Claudius builds
new harbour at Portus related to annona
Caesar's projects for Rome
In particular, for the adornment and convenience of the city, also for the protection and extension
of the Empire, he formed more projects and more extensive ones every day; first of all, to rear a
temple to Mars, greater than any in existence, filling up and levelling the pool in which he had
exhibited the sea-fight, and to build a theatre of vast size, sloping down from the Tarpeian Rock;
[…] to open to the public the greatest possible libraries of Greek and Latin books […] All these
enterprises and plans were cut short by his death.
Suetonius Divus Iulius 44
…very à propos (though by chance) Capito fell to talking about the enlargement of the city: the
Tiber is to be diverted, starting from the Milvian bridge along the Vatican Hills: the Campus
Martius is to be covered with buildings; while the Vatican plain is to become a kind of new
Campus Martius. "What do you say?" said I, "why, I was going to the auction, to secure Scapula's
pleasure-grounds if I could safely do so." "Don't do anything of the sort," said he, "for the law will
be carried. Caesar wishes it."
Cicero, Letters to Atticus 13, 33, 4
Building in the Second Triumvirate
Triumvirs/Octavian
43BC
Temple of Isis and Serapis dedicated
42
Temples of Divus Julius and Mars Ultor vowed
38
Porticus Octavia rebuilt
36-28
Temple of Apollo Palatinus built
33 (?or 40) Aqua Julia completed
Others
43-c30
39-36
34?
34
33
Temple of Saturn rebuilt
Regia rebuilt
Temple of Apollo Medicus Sosianus begun?
Basilica Paulli (Aemilia) rededicated (begun 56 BC)
Porticus Philippi rebuilding begins
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Building after Actium
New projects
29 BC
Temple of Divus Julius with Actium rostra, Amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus
dedicated
27-25
Pantheon
20s-7
Diribitorium
19
Aqua Virgo completed, ?Pons Agrippae, Stagnum Agrippae, ?Baths of Agrippa
15
Porticus Liviae
10
Horologium
7?
Macellum Liviae
2
Forum Augusti, Porticus Gai et Luci, Naumachia, Aqua Alsietina
State monuments
19
Parthian Arch
9
Ara Pacis dedicated
Completed
Theatre of Marcellus, Forum of Caesar, Curia Iulia
Rebuildings
Temples of Castor and Pollux, Concord, Juppiter Optimus Maximus, Minerva Aventina, etc;
Saepta; Basilicae Paulli, Julia; Rostra; Porticus Octaviae; Circus; etc
Inscription on base of Horologium obelisk:
Imperial Caesar, son of Divus (Julius) Augustus Pontifex Maximus, Imperator 12 times, consul
11 times, holding tribunician power for the 14th time, gave this as a gift to Sol, since Egypt had
been brought under the power of the Roman people.
Augustus' own record of his building programme: the Res Gestae 19-21
19. I built the Senate-house and the Chalcidicum which adjoins it and the Temple of Apollo on
the Palatine with porticos, the Temple of Divus Julius, the Lupercal, the portico at the Circus
Flaminius, which I allowed to be called by the name Octavian, after he who had earlier built in
the same place, the state box at the Circus Maximus, the temples on the Capitoline of Jupiter
Feretrius and Jupiter Tonans, the Temple of Quirinus, the temples of Minerva and Juno Regina
and Jupiter Liberator on the Aventine, the Temple of the Lares at the top of the Sacra Via, the
Temple of the Penates on the Velian, the Temple of Iuventas, and the Temple of the Magna
Mater on the Palatine.
20. I rebuilt the Capitoline temple and the Theatre of Pompey, each work at enormous cost,
without any inscription of my name. I rebuilt aqueducts in many places that had decayed with
age, and I doubled the capacity of the Marcian aqueduct by sending a new spring into its
channel. I completed the Forum of Julius and the basilica which he built between the temple of
Castor and the temple of Saturn, works begun and almost finished by my father. When the
same basilica was burned with fire I expanded its grounds and I began it under an inscription of
the name of my sons, and, if I should not complete it alive, I ordered it to be completed by my
heirs. Consul for the sixth time (28 B.C.E.), I rebuilt eighty-two temples of the gods in the city
by the authority of the senate, omitting nothing which ought to have been rebuilt at that time.
Consul for the seventh time (27 B.C.E.), I rebuilt the via Flaminia from the city to Ariminum
and all the bridges except the Mulvian and Minucian.
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21. I built the Temple of Mars Ultor on private ground and the forum of Augustus from warspoils. I build the theatre at the temple of Apollo on ground largely bought from private
owners, under the name of Marcus Marcellus my son-in-law. I consecrated gifts from warspoils in the Capitol and in the Temple of Divine Julius, in the Temple of Apollo, in the
Temple of Vesta, and in the Temple of Mars Ultor, which cost me about HS 100,000,000.
Claudius' public works
Claudius also completed a task begun by Caligula: he brought the cool and abundant springs
called the Caerulean and the Curtian into Rome; the water ran along a stone aqueduct, with
lofty arches, now known by his name and was the distributed into a number of ornamental
reservoirs.
Claudius’ public works, though not numerous, were important. They included the draining of
the Fucine lake and the building of the harbour at Ostia – though he knew that …Julius Caesar,
while often on the point of excavating the harbour at Ostia, had always abandoned the project
as impractical……Claudius threw out curved breakwaters on either side of the harbour and
built a deep-water mole by its entrance. For the base of this mole he used the ship in which
Caligula had transported a great obelisk form Heliopolis…
Suetonius, Claudius, 20
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