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Public Building in Rome between the Second Punic War and Sulla*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

Filippo Coarelli
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Extract

Discussion of the last century of the Roman Republic, now increasingly incisive and professional in the field of political and social history, if less so in the field of economic history, has so far taken little account of the evidence of archaeology, or rather of those historical investigations which make direct use of material objects as their primary source of evidence; the ‘material culture’ thus studied is naturally to be understood in the widest possible sense. Of course, a concern with material culture has not been wholly lacking in historians, who are perhaps now increasingly aware of it (it is here irrelevant whether they have rejected or accepted, however summarily, its relevance, provided they have done so explicitly). But the use of archaeological evidence, when it has occurred, has been for the most part conditioned by a traditionalist approach, which sees in a number of fields of study no more than ancillary disciplines to the science of history; fields of study concerned with material culture have been particularly vulnerable to being ranked in this hierarchical fashion and thus to being used to provide marginal support to theories based largely or exclusively on evidence of other kinds, for the most part literary.

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Research Article
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Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 45 , November 1977 , pp. 1 - 23
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Copyright © British School at Rome 1977

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References

1 A good bibliography up to 1970 is in Badian, E., ‘From the Gracchi to Sulla’, Historia, xi (1962) 197–245Google Scholar (= Seager, R., The Crisis of the Roman Republic, Cambridge and New York, 1969, 3–51Google Scholar, hereafter Seager) and Gabba, E., ‘Mario e Silla’, in Aufstieg und Niedergang der röm. Welt (Vogt, Festschrift J.), I, 1, Tübingen, 1972, 764–805Google Scholar (add at least ‘Roma e l'Italia tra i Gracchi e Silla’, DArch iv–v (1970–1971) 165–562)Google Scholar. For later bibliography see the surveys published regularly in Labeo. On the economy of the Republic see Torelli, M., DArch vii (1973) 307–12Google Scholar; Finley, M. I., The Ancient Economy, London, 1973Google Scholar, with the review of Frederiksen, M., JRS lxv (1975) 164–71Google Scholar. (All abbreviations are those of L'Année Philologique.)

2 The book by Finley, cited in n. 1, provides an example of almost total discounting of archaeological evidence.

3 Tibiletti, G., ‘Ricerche di storia agraria romana’, Athenaeum N.S. xxviii (1950) 232–9Google Scholar (‘Lo stato delle fonti dal 167 al 136’).

4 On Auximum, Vell. i. 15, 3, Salmon, T., Roman Colonisation under the Republic, London, 1970, 112–6Google Scholar; id., in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, Princeton, 1976, 128–9.

5 Beloch, J., Römische Geschichte, Berlin and Leipzig, 1926, 608Google Scholar.

6 Livy, , Per. 46Google Scholar.

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8 Boren, H. C., ‘The Urban Side of the Gracchan Economic Crisis’, AHR lxiii (1957–1958) 890–902Google Scholar = Seager, 54–66; id., The Gracchi, New York, 1968; see the critical remarks of Gabba, E., RFIC xcviii (1970) 353–6Google Scholar.

9 Badian, , Publicans, 44 and 48Google Scholar.

10 Brunt, P. A., Social Conflicts in the Roman Republic, London, 1971, 79Google Scholar.

11 Giglioni, G. Bodei, Lavori pubblici e occupazione nell'antichità classica, Bologna, 1974, 87–105Google Scholar.

12 F. Coarelli, loc. cit. in n.7.

13 This fits with what we know of the difficulties faced by the aerarium during and after the Hannibalic War (Livy xxiv, 18, 2; xxvii, 10, 13; xxxiv, 6, 17).

14 The repair of the Atrium Libertatis and the Villa Publica by the censors of 194 is highly significant; the buildings are closely connected with the functions of the censors and indeed contained their archives (see most recently Nicolet, C., CRAI 1976, 29–51Google Scholar for the temple of the Nymphs; id., Le métier de citoyen dans la Rome républicaine, Paris, 1976, passim).

15 This work on the Capitol was evidently made necessary by the landslide of 192; Livy xxxv, 21, 6: ‘saxum ingens, sive imbribus seu motu terrae leniore, quam ut alioqui sentiretur, labefactatum in vicum Iugarium ex Capitolio procidit et multos oppressit’.

16 The concentration on useful public buildings and the absence of ornamental or sacred buildings evidently reflects the interests and values of Cato. The moles ad Neptunias aquas (rebuilt by M. Aemilius Lepidus in 179) is evidently a terraced road, intended to bypass the ‘Pisco montano’ above Terracina. The road was eventually cut out by Trajan: Lugli, G., Forma It. I, 1, 1, Rome, 1926Google Scholar, n.46, cc. 210–1.

17 On the censors of 179, cf. Frank, T., An Economic Survey of Ancient Rome, I, Baltimore, 1933, 152–4, 184–5Google Scholar.

18 On the activities of the censors of 174 (the text of Livy is incomplete) see above all Richter, W., ‘Zum Bauprogramm der Censoren des Jahres 174 v. Chr’, RhM civ (1961) 256–66Google Scholar, and P. Jal on Book xli of Livy (Belles Lettres, Paris, 1971), 162–7. For the viaduct cf. n.16.

19 With the building of this monument diametrically opposite the Basilica Aemilia, the Forum acquired its own architectural stamp; it is important to remember that the censors of 174 had created organic complexes for the fora of Calatia, Auximum and above all Sinuessa (we are dealing with the earliest censorial activity outside Rome).

20 This horologium replaced the first one, brought to Rome from Catania in 263: Pliny, loc. cit.

21 The story of the theatre built in 154 at the foot of the Palatine and then demolished at the orders of the consul of 155, P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum, is mentioned by several sources: evidently the political struggle involved was intense (cf. Mazzarino, S., Il pensiero storico classico2, II, Bari, 1966, 301–5Google Scholar).

22 Pliny, NH xxxvi, 185Google Scholar: ‘Romae scutulatum in Iovis capitolina aede primum factum est post tertium bellum Punicum initum (147 B.C.)’. On the interpretation of scutulatum as a pavement of coloured blocks so arranged as to form a pattern in perspective, cf. Rizzo, E., La Casa dei Grift (Mon. Pittura Antica III, 1), 1936, 28f.Google Scholar; De Vos, M., BVAB 1 (1975) 200Google Scholar (to his list add the unpublished pavement in the exedra of the Basilica of Lucus Feroniae, certainly belonging to the earliest, probably Sullan, phase of the building. All known examples belong either side of 100 B.C.

23 We know of the arches of the Pons Aemilius only from a reference forward by Livy from the census of 179. The gilding of the lacunaria may indicate a continuation of the work on the Temple of Jupiter, begun already in 147 (cf. n.22: the censors of 179 also restored this temple). Both the temples of Hercules, that dedicated by Scipio Aemilianus (see Coarelli, F., Guida archeologica di Roma, Rome, 1975, 279Google Scholar, and Appendix 1 below), and that dedicated by L. Mummius were only dedicated in 142: clearly they have nothing to do with the locatio censoria. The placing of a fragment of the Forma Urbis with AEMILI[ANA] (cf. Rodriguez-Almeida, E., BCAR lxxxii (1975) 112–3Google Scholar) makes it very likely that this building, presumably the (Horrea) Aemiliana, is to be placed by the river near the temple of Portunus, where in fact the remains have been discovered of large horrea rebuilt under the Empire (see the forthcoming publication of A. M. Colini and C. Buzzetti, in BCAR). In fact we know from a lost inscription (CIL XV, 7150Google Scholar) that this building was near the river and from Varro (de re r. iii, 2, 6Google Scholar) that it was outside Porta Flumentana, also to be placed near the temple of Portunus (R. E. A. Palmer, forthcoming in BCAR; Coarelli, F., Guida 22, 286Google Scholar).

24 But see p. 8 below for an argument against this gap in building activity.

25 Cf. Morgan, M. Gwyn, ‘The Porticus of Metellus: a Reconsideration’, in Hermes xcix (1971) 480–505,Google Scholar at p. 500.

26 The activity of these censors could also be explained in terms of laws which regulated building practice; see for instance the limitation on renting (Vell, ii, 10, 1) and on the height of buildings (Val. Max. viii, 1, 7). Their activity is known only from the building of an aqueduct of which Frontinus and Pliny speak. No historical sources (not even the Periochae of Livy) mention it.

27 The temple of Castor, burnt in 117, may be the work of Diadematus, for we know that it was restored by a Metellus. In any case two years are perhaps too little for the rebuilding.

28 One may invoke the dedication of the temple of the Magna Mater, burnt in 111 and restored by a Metellus, probably C. Metellus Caprarius. Cf. Morgan, M. Gwyn, ‘Villa Publica and Magna Mater’, in Klio lv (1973) 231–45Google Scholar.

29 Cf. Pieri, G., L'histoire du cens jusqu' à la fin de la République romaine, Paris, 1968, 163–72Google Scholar.

30 Crawford, M., Roman Republican Coinage, Cambridge 1974, 633–707, Fig. 58Google Scholar.

31 Cf. art. cit. in n.8.

32 See the discussion in Hellenismus in Mittelitalien, passim. Cf. also ‘Roma e l'Italia tra i Gracchi e Silla’, in DArch, cit., and my review of Rakob, F. and Heilmeyer, W. D., Der Rundtempel am Tiber in Rom, Mainz a.Rh., 1973Google Scholar, forthcoming in Gnomon. But above all, P. Gros, Architecture et société à Rome et en Italie centro-méridionale aux deux derniers siècles de la République.

33 P. Gros, op. cit.; we now know the architect of Lutatius Catulus, L. Cornelius (cf. Molisani, G., RAL viii, 26, 1–2 (1971) 1–10Google Scholar; Gros, P., ‘Les premières générations d'architectes héllénistiques à Rome’, Mél. J. Heurgon, Rome, 1976, 387–410Google Scholar).

34 Cf. Coarelli, F., ‘Il comizio in età arcaica. Cronologia e topografia’, PP (1977)Google Scholar, forthcoming.

35 See Appendix 1. Cf. Gros, op. cit. in n.32.

36 The dedication took place in this year, but the work was not finished, if it is true that the cult statue of Apollonios was only put out to contract in 65 and finished in 63 (Cic., , de div. ii, 46Google Scholar; in Cat. iii, 20Google Scholar; Cass. Dio 37, 34, 3–4; Chalcid., ad Plat., , Tim., p. 440 MeursGoogle Scholar).

37 As Crawford notes, loc. cit.

38 Also noted by Crawford, ibid.

39 Crawford, ibid., has emphasised the possible use of the money for public building in these two cases.

40 Coarelli, F., ‘L' “Ara di Domizio Enobarbo” e la cultura artistica in Roma nel II. sec. a.C.’, DArch. ii (1968) 335–6Google Scholar; Gros, P., ‘Hermodoros et Vitruve’, MEFR(A) lxxxv (1973) 137–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; id., art. cit., Mél. Heurgon; F. Zevi, ibid., 1047–64.

41 Cf. Appendix 1.

42 Op. cit. in n.32.

43 Cf. my review (n.32).

44 Gros, P., Mél. Heurgon, 393, n.24Google Scholar.

45 Degrassi, A., MAL viii, 14, 2 (1969) 111–27Google Scholar = Scritti vari di antichità IV, Trieste 1972, 2–22Google Scholar; cf. Coarelli, , Hellenismus in Mittelitalien, 337–9Google Scholar.

46 Delbrück, R., Hellenistische Bauten in Latium, 2 voll., Strassburg, 1907–1912Google Scholar.

47 Lugli, , La tecnica edilizia, 363–414Google Scholar; Billig, R., Opusc. Archaeol. iii (1944) 124–44Google Scholar; Blake, M. E., Ancient Roman Constructions in Italy from the Prehistoric Period to Augustus, Washington, 1947, 227–75Google Scholar (with too low a chronology); Le Gall, J., RA 1959, 1, 181–202Google Scholar. Opposed to the high dating of opus incertum is Gerkan, A. v., GGA ccxii (1958) 187–92Google Scholar. Richardson, L., AJA lxxx (1976) 57–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar, only adds confusion; see also Lamprecht, H. O., Opus caementicium, Düsseldorf, 1968Google Scholar.

48 Gatti, G., BCAR lxii (1934) 123–41Google Scholar.

49 See the articles of v. Gerkan and Richardson (n.47).

50 v. Gerkan, art. cit., 191f. This terminology has been accepted, for instance, by Kähler in the course of his misguided attempt to date to the age of Sulla the viaduct behind the imperial Rostra (Kähler, H., Das Fünfsäulendenkmal für die Tetrarchen auf dem Forum Romanum, Köln, 1964, 19f.Google Scholar).

51 Apart from the manuals, see above all Hülsen, Chr., ‘Der Tempel der Magna Mater’, MDAI(R) (1895) 3–37Google Scholar; Romanelli, P., ‘Lo scavo del Tempio della Magna Mater sul Palatino’, Monum. Lincei xlvi (1963) cc. 202–330Google Scholar; Gwyn Morgan, ‘Villa Publica and Magna Mater’, art. cit.

52 Cf. n.13.

53 Romanelli, art. cit.

54 Heilmeyer, W. D., Korintische Normalkapitelle, Heidelberg, 1970, 122Google Scholar; Gros, P., Aurea Templa, Rome, 1976, 232–4Google Scholar.

55 Gwyn Morgan, ‘Villa Publica and Magna Mater’, art. cit.

56 Gros, Aurea Templa, op. cit., 15, 19.

57 Romanelli, art. cit., cc. 227–39.

58 On this material and in particular on the whole temple, a publication is being prepared by the Seminar of the Istituto di Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte Greca e Romana dell'Università di Roma, under the direction of P. Pensabene.

59 P. Romanelli, art. cit., c. 232.

60 One must mention at least the cement work podium of Temple D in Largo Argentina, whose first phase certainly belongs in the second century, and which is probably to be identified with the Temple of the Lares Permarini, built between 190 and 179 (cf. Coarelli, F., ‘L'identificazione dell'Area sacra dell'Argentina’, Palatino xii, 4 (1968) 365–73Google Scholar; Guida archeologica di Roma, cit., 253).

61 Livy xxxvi, 36, 4: ‘tredecim annis postquam locata erat dedicavit earn M. Iunius Brutus’.

62 On the types of mortar in use under the Republic see the classic article of van Deman, E. B., ‘Methods of Determining the Date of Roman Concrete Monuments’, AJA xvi (1912) 230–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

63 Art. cit. (n.51).

64 Marchetti-Longhi, G., BCAR lxxvi (1956–1958) 45–118Google Scholar.

65 Livy xxxviii, 28, 3.

66 Cf. n.15.

67 On the Aequimaelium, Platner, S. B. and Ashby, Th., A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, Oxford, 1929, 2Google Scholar; Coarelli, F., DArch. ii (1968) 77Google Scholar.

68 BCAR lxviii (1940) 228Google Scholar: ‘Queste costruzioni sorgevano nell'area tra il piede del colle e il vicus Iugarius, su cui si allineavano: la roccia è apparsa ovunque da esse regolata e rivestita, ma in due tratti, e cioè presso la facciata della chiesa della Consolazione e di fronte all'ingresso dell'ospedale omonimo, restano notevoli avanzi delle opere di sostruzione del colle eseguite nei punti deboli e franosi durantela Repubblica’. Cf. Capitolium xviii, 1 (1943) 98Google Scholar; Lugli, La tecnica edilizia, op. cit., 412; Capitolium xl, 4 (1965) plate on p. 179 (plan)Google Scholar.

69 Lugli, G., Roma antica. Il centro monumentale, Rome, 1946, 151Google Scholar; id., La tecnica edilizia, 412.

70 Livy xli, 27, 7. On this passage, apart from the commentary of Jal, and the article of W. Richter, cited in n. 18, see Klotz, A., RE, IIA, 2, cc. 1453–4Google Scholar (****Senaculum); A. Schlesinger, ed. Loeb, comm. ad loc.; F. Coarelli, ‘Il Comizio’, art. cit. (n.34).

71 The correct identification with the Rostra of Caesar was already seen by Mau, , MDAI(R) xx (1905) 230–66Google Scholar. On the absurd Diocletianic dating of Kähler, cf. n.50, and F. Coarelli, ‘Area Saturni, Mundus, Senaculum’, in DArch, forthcoming, n.4.

72 Lugli, , La tecnica edilizia, 412, pl. 108, 2Google Scholar.

73 Marchetti-Longhi, art. cit. (n.64), 62, fig. 11, pl. III.

74 Coarelli, , Hellenismus in Mittelitalien, 27Google Scholar.

75 Cf. Appendix 2, and supra, the list of censorial buildings.

76 Matini, M. L. Morricone, Mosaici antichi in Italia, Reg. I, Roma, Reg. X, Palatium, Rome, 1967, 5 and 17–18Google Scholar.

77 Beyen, H. G., Die pompejanische Wanddekoration, I, Haag, 1938, 21 and 46–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Engemann, J., Architechturdarstellungen des frühen zweiten Stils, MDAI(R) Ergänzungsheft xii, Heidelberg, 1967, 15–22Google Scholar; Fittschen, K., Hellenismus in Mittelitalien, 543Google Scholar.

78 Coarelli, , Guida archeologica di Roma, 301Google Scholar.

79 Morricone Matini, op. cit., 6, 43–4 (domus Antonii).

80 Nash, E., Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome2, London, 1968, I, 481–4Google Scholar.

81 Platner-Ashby, op. cit., 480; Nash, op. cit. II, 370.

82 Säflund, G., Le mura di Roma repubblicana, Rome, 1932, 67–8, fig. 30Google Scholar.

83 App., , BC i, 66, 303Google Scholar (with commentary of E. Gabba).

84 Coarelli, F., RP AA xliv (1971–1972) 99–122Google Scholar.

85 Raster, G., Die Gärten des Lucullus, Diss. München 1974Google Scholar.

86 The use of testa is recorded several times by Vitruvius as normal in the late Republic and the age of Augustus. Some dated examples are known, for instance, at Pompeii (Small theatre and Forum baths: De Vos, M. and De Vos, A., La Rocca, E., Guida archeologica di Pompei, Milan, 1976, 132, 155f.Google Scholar), at Cales (Johannowsky, W., BA xlvi (1961) 260–3Google Scholar), at Terracina (Lugli, G., Forma Italiae, cit., c. 183, n.8Google Scholar; c. 186, n.12) and at Rome, above all in tombs, Nash II, 341, 357 etc.

87 Vitr. ii, 8, 1.

88 Plut., , Lucul. 39Google Scholar; Tac., , Ann. xi, 1Google Scholar; Platner-Ashby, 268f.; Kaster, art. cit. (n.85). The villa must have been built straight after the triumph over Mithridates of 63. It had been finished for some time by the death of Lucullus in 56.

89 I discuss here only the city of Rome, with the opus reticulatum of which that of central Italy should not be confused; there the stone used for the facing is much harder and the result much less regular.

90 Lugli, , La tecnica edilizia, 488ffGoogle Scholar.

91 Cf. n.87.

92 Johannowsky, W., Hellenismus in Mittelitalien, 272Google Scholar; De Vos–La Rocca, , Guida archeologica di Pompei, 40Google Scholar.

93 Vitr. ii, 8, 17.

94 Livy xxi, 62, 3 (218 B.C); xxxix, 14, 12 (186 B.C).

95 Varro, , LL v, 162Google Scholar.

96 Cic., , de lege agr. ii, 96Google Scholar. Note the contrast with Capua.

97 Plut., , Crass. 2, 5Google Scholar. Cf. Adcock, F. E., M. Crassus Millionaire, Cambridge, 1966, 15–19Google Scholar; Shatzmann, I., Senatorial Wealth and Roman Politics, Brussels, 1975, 376Google Scholar.

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99 Front., , de aq. 1, 7Google Scholar (180 million HS). Cf. Frank, , An Economic Survey, cit., I, 226–7Google Scholar.

100 Front., ibid.

101 De Ruggero, E., Lo stato e le opere pubbliche in Roma antica, Turin, 1925, 70Google Scholar.

102 Frank, op. cit., 226.

103 Frank, T., ‘Roman Building of the Republic’, Papers and Monogr. of the Am. Acad. in Rome iii (1924) 24–5Google Scholar (lapis Gabinus); 26–8 (tufa of the Anio). For the tufa of Grotta Oscura and the ‘Servian’ walls, 19–22; Säflund, , Le mura di Roma repubblicana, op. cit., 115–21Google Scholar.

104 For travertine, Frank, , ‘Roman Building’, cit., 32–3Google Scholar.

105 Gerkan, v., GGA ccxii (1958)Google Scholar art. cit., 192; Rakob, F., Hellenismus in Mittelitalien, 372Google Scholar.

106 Vitr. ii, 8, 17.

107 See the comment of Torelli, M. on the paper of Rakob, Hellenismus in Mittelitalien, 376fGoogle Scholar.

108 De Vos–La Rocca, , Guida archeologica di Pompei, 14, 33–7Google Scholar.

109 Gros, Architecture et société à Rome et en Italie, cit., provides a complete list. For the period after the Social War, Gabba, E., ‘Urbanizzazione e rinnovamenti urbanistici nell'Italia centromeridionale del I sec. a.C.’, SCO xxi (1972) 73–112Google Scholar.

110 I accept the hypotheses of Gabba, E., ‘Le origini della guerra sociale e la vita politica romana dopo l'89’ Athenaeum, N.S. xxxii (1954)Google Scholar = Esercito e società nella tarda Repubblica romana, Florence 1973, 193–345Google Scholar (with additions).