Lost Architecture Ancient Rome

8/14/2019 Lost Architecture Ancient Rome

1/6

The Lost Architecture ofAncient Rome

Insights from the Severan Plan and theRegionary CataloguesDavid W est Reynolds

lack o economicsegregatiol toas

intenselycbaracteristic oancint Rente

ueh of the urban fabric of ancicnt Romeis lo sr ro uso Th e famou s monumcnrsoffer a powerful testament to rhe grandeur of th e imperial capital, and Rome's survivin g archirecrural legacy isr ich indeed . However; ir was in dwcllngs. shops. workroo ms, and other mina r stru cturcs that mosr of the por ulat ion spcnr most of their lives. I lumble construct ionslike warehouses and raverns madc lfe in this mili ionst ron g ciry possble, ami reflccrcd basic soc ial realinesrat her t ha n grand poli ti cnl im age-buil din g . In


2/6

Purpose of the Marble Planand the Regionary CataloguesThcsc tW reoords of ancient Romerake 'iery different forms, yet they share a s imilar enigma: Wh arweretheyfor>Man y suggest ions have beco advanced over thc years, especially for r he Severan Marhle Plan , which ismost frequently supposed to havescrved as a cadastml (tax) record. Th e realry was tha t rhc Plan was mounted

ith its uppermost reaches over 40 feer srraigh t up frcm the nearest viewer's eyes(see Fig. 1). lnaccessiblc forcla se consulration, thc Plan was [ S ( ) immurably carved in marble and included few inscriptions i twa s no taxrecor d. Yet the lan sinc rediblc derail has seemcd ro arguc for sorne practica jusrificarion of all the workinvolved in collccungits informarion. Th e answer is rh at t he Plan was derived from ciry sun ey documen rs rhardid serve practica purposes, inked on paP}TUS rolls that more than likelyfilled the ,-eryroom in which rhe Planwas m ourued there appear 10 have been book niches in the ruins of one ofthe walls of its building). These plansof the ciry were maintained as the necessary r cords, piecemeal and on perishable, correctable materials. Thegreat marble collation of the whole body of papyrus p lans was a symbolic creation, emblematic of the citysrecords progra m and possibly of rhe New Rome tharthe Emperor SeptimiusSeverus had created by restonng somanymonumcnts devastared in the great fireof AD 1 J2. Severus celebrarcd the Century Games (Ludi Soeculorrsduring his reign in : D 20 . marking a redefinition of his formerly military image wth a revised emphasis onPeace and Co ncord. Th e Plan. moun red perhaps meaningfully in the Temple of Peace, may have been renderedin rhat spirit.

Th e Rcgionary Catalogues, th cenrnry architccrural ccnsus tablcs, are simi la r to the Merble Plan inthat they prescnt a great amount of difficult-ro-gather informanon in a form thar seems ro dcfy practical usage.Tho ugh they hevebeen dismissed as fictionalizcd ..Rome worship, close enelysis of the figures shows that thcurban patterns they record are too complex and cc herenr to be mere inventions. The Elde r Pliny (NaturalHistory 3.66) refers to the Roman Census under Vespasian as ineluding not only an assessment of the citizenry,but of many physicel details of the ciry-c-such asme numbers of city gates and neigh borhood shrines-which areamong the 'ery features tallied in the Regional')' Catalogues. The Regionaries, lke me Severan Plan beforethem, musehave been abstracted from city census r cords for the purposc of celebracng Rome. Both documentsmade use of accurate. detailed infonnation rhar had been compiled for official purposes and rendered it inromore accessible fonns for more general appreciation.

FI G . l . R ECO: ST RUCT IO X 01 'RO.\I ES S EVERA: \ I. RBLE P L. xintsoriginal settingin the Templum Pad scomplexoIts spectacular size iso ften umlerappreclateJ . Th e furnishings of the room areunknown, so this drawing represellts theroom just after thc Planwas completed,before the furnishings were installed.By Dnid msrRrynolJs

Fl c . 2. R ECO :\ ST RUC Tl OX OJoT IIE T L\l PLU,\\ PACIS, the buildinghousing me Marble Plan.By /t , ismonJj(19J7) Olrrmmi l. 1960:195

J

:: .. . ~ - . ~/ > r ss . . . . - - - - -

roomo fth e Plan

_- _-Single roOlns frequcntly serve d as th e ent i re dwellingspace for poor familics. ,\h ny dozens of oth er exampleson the Plan show that this particular fonu of apart rncn tdwelling was cspecially chal ;lcte ristic of Rome, althoughthe fonn is not common at Pompeii or Ostia, ou r twoother principal rites in l ta l) for stud),ing Roman imperial urban strucrure. T he Plan sen 'es as a vital anduniquesource of e\de nce, prO\-i.ding da ta that could not heextrapolated fmm other sourccs.Fragment 11 further ilIustra te s several pointsaOOm the general narure of Rome's urban fabricoFirst ofaH isthe e10sc juxtaposirion of the houses of t he wealthyand th e single-room highr ise apartment dwcllings ofthe poor. As this and many other Plan fragment. show.the re was no significant economic segregation in Rome. hi le somc neighhor hoo ds aC(lllired repu tations ashigher or lower class than others. they displayed noth.ing like the str iet modero American economic segregation with which w e are familiar. in which new dwellingsare gro uped with others of their own economic starus.

it is a unique resource.tis especially inte resting for thefact th at it ineludes not only monuments and great puhHe spaees, hut also the tcnements and one-room shopsof th e poor (Fig. 5). T he Plan helps us sce Rome fmmtop to bottom , filling in many missing pieces of ourimage of the cit)'.rogmmtFragment 11 illustrates seve ra l points abo utRome's urban strueture (Fig. 6). Fi rs t of all. it recordsspecific architeetural infonnation conceming stru etureslea.st liL:e1)' to survi\'c the ages, such as dwellings. shops,and workshops. For example. in Figure 6 can he seenc1assic examples of the Roman atrium house (A), wellkno wn from Pom pei i and lI erclllaneu m. T he Planshows that even in densely crowdcd cad) 3rd centuryRome, the atrium house plan endured as a dwelling forthe rich. Nea rby can be seen examp les of apar tmentdwellings (B and C). in which small multipurpose rOOInswere grouped around open courtyards for light a nd airo

16 E XP E DI TI O : Volume 39, :- :0. 2 (1997) TH E L O ST A RCH I T E C T U R E OF A : C I E : . T R O .\I E 1


3/6

FIG .FR:\G .\t ENT THE .\ I :\ RBLE Pillustrates a \ lI rielYbuildingtypes. allid ose proximity. Riponr, commercial aresidenria l. a ll wereintenn ixed i n l hufabric oCancien[ RoByPlluJ7Jmm rrmlln Rodrigurz A/m riJA 1

BackRoom o-tIing(O)

Courtyard Apartmenle )

Monumenta Garden

F IG. 4 A, B. AR CII AEO LOG ICAL EXCAVATIOOF THE C IRCU S .\ I AXI.\IU S SPIIES OSE (curvesearing area) accords wirhderails dehneared on rhe MarbPlan, even to the placemenr of srairs wirhin cena ln room(indicated with sym bols on me Plan).(.) arl Pm frgmrnu by p,rJ Z i m m ~ n i f t RobiprzA lmh 1981; b) ~ x a r pl,nn rSuin/ry 199J:fig 159

F IG. 5. TH E . I ARBL E PL :\ ;.;depicts borhp rominent public monuments(such as the Pon icoof Livia, shown here ) andme warren of anonymous dornesricand com-mercial architecrure that filled the ciry, For th esrudy of this non-monumental urban matrix,the Planis a unique resource .By PllrJZimmn-mllnft J J I

WorkshopE

Courtyard Apartrnent(B)

mu se classes in Olan) social praetices. Th e contrast tomodern Amrica is again striking, where the socia l idealof equal citizens meets the strucrural pracrices of strictarchirecrural segregaron.

Rome's non-monumental architecrure was thor oughly intermixed, wirh the urban fabric being fundamcntally of me same composition all ayer the city (Fig.7). Wi rh its characreristic rype of high-rise cou rryardapartments , thi s fabric was signficently diffcrenr frcmme urban composition of such p reserved sires as Ostiaand Pompeii.

From the Scveran P lan, we turn to anot he runque resourc e f or rhe investgarion of ancient Reme.the Regio nary Catalogues (see j or dan 190 7). Th eRegionaries are 4th centu rr architecrural cens us tablesfor the city of Rome (dividcd into fourteen wards. orrtgiones, by Augustus; hen ce t he nam c g iven to thetables). [nd uded in these tables are tallies of the num bcrs of various kind s of bu ildings and urban features-bakeries, houses, street fountains, and so on--organizedregion by region. There a rc a lso Iists and tallies of mecit} s landmarks. There are [wo versions of the Regionaries. That known as the Curiosflm i s identi6ed as th eolder and more reliabl e manuscript, the origi nal datingto shon l) after AO 357 O'ordh 1936:8-11). The Regionary Catalogues a re a spedal ropographic resource whichprovides vital ass istance in the assessment of andentRome s urban structure. Tho ugh frequemly given pass-

THE REG IO N ARY CATALO GUES

FI G. 3. TH E FOO T PR Ii T OF ASTRl:C TU RE OF 5PEC L\.L S IG ;; I FI C A; ; CE is rraced on the Plan wnh an oodmeand rhe area wirhin mis outline is oC enrccessed and colored. Th e buildings affordedrhis prominence are. almosrcxclusively, tem ples. A single lineis used ro rcprC5cnt the wallsof ordinary buildings.iy /)vid Hn Rrynods

whether they are seas ofdenrcal apanmcntsor subdivisions of dozens of similar large houses. A lack of economi c segregation was int ensely characteristic of ancienrRome and remained common in Iralian cities inro thcmodem era .Second, the fragm ent illusrrares the nrermixingof residen t al and co mme rcia l architecrure . T hi soccurred in rnoststreet-fronr huildings, which commonIy had shopsun e it her side o f an cntrance hall leadinginto a residcncc behind the shops (F, Fg. 6). Sorne oneroom shops had back rooms as dwellings for the shopkccpcr an d his family (O). In thc illusrrated fragmenr,we can even sce th e close juxtaposition of a workshop(E) with rhc houses of the rich. T his is another contrasrro rh c modcrn Ameri can urbun form creared by urbauzon ing laws wh ich keep separate architecrural c1assesgcographically dstincr. Th e same conrrast is llustratedby the d osc juxtaposition of different levelso f cornmercial ope rations the workshop and the tabemae-wherewe typically separate such ieve1s as light industrial andreta il.

Th e compari son to mod ern America he lpsillu strate that there is no defauh urban structure .Cit ies of different cultures differ i n f abric as much asthey may differ in architectural st}les. Th e re is a tremendous range of possib ilitics-som e ancientcities evenlacked streets and each facet of urba n fabric may beexamined a s an exp ression of culture . In our presentexamp le of imperial Rome , it is interesting to considerthe reality of c1 0se physical mixing of soc ial classesagai ns t the Iiterary image of the distinct separation uf

E X P EO I T IO N Volume 39, No. 2 (19 97) TH E LO ST AR C Il ITECTURE OF NCIENT R O M E


4/6

81 1061 - 8041 6021 - 40.. 0

XIII

Density of Insulae

matr ix into which it was set is rarely given suffidconsideration.

The Forum of Trajan was extravagantly prain antiquit}' for the g rea t imprcssion it made on visitand while the port icoes and Basilica Ulp ia were indof grand proponions, it would seem that the s imple rtangular design would not have been especialiy inspi(Fig. 10). How e\er , t he den sity figure s fromRegional)' Catalogues reconstitute in the mind themasses of insulae filling e' ery available space in th e ctral zones of the citl', indeed tDweri ng ove r the vForum of Tra jan as the anecdate ab out the coilapsbuilding attests (F ig. 11). In [his overcrowded, ovwhe1ming cacophonl' of insulae , t he clean sweep ofvast open space of Trajan's Forum would have mad

.~ ~ lL d /. . . . . . .

rear co ur t ter residenlial taern e......... - Forum ofTrajan -I . .

..

ccnter of Rome was mickIy hemmeJ in, appa rently inever r available com er, by apar tment buildings. Fragment 29 of me Plan shows insulae with double rows oftabemae direcdy bordering pan ofthe Forum of Trajan(Fig. 9), and a remarkable leuer records tha t a precariou s a pamn ent build ing collapsed right in to th is forumin the 4th century ID(Symmachus 37). E\'en in th e agcof Augustus, residenti alsetdement was thi ck in this area.Augustus 's forum is as pnmetrical in design becaus e hewas not able to bm all the land he had desircd from itspresem owners, who were no douht reluetant to seUth esou rc e of ver y pr of it abl e re n ts in the d ty ce nt cr(Suetonius A tlgustllS 56. 2). T he monumental center ofRome is often discussed for the design and relationshipsuf its monument s, but the extremely dense residential

insulae

F IG . 8 . D ENSITY OF 1 SU1 E or apartmentbuildings, ineach of rhe14administrative regionsof -ltheentury \0 Rome, acccrding to me Regionary Catalogu s

byPllul7jmmn mJln fi n-Ilutbor s wig I

FI G . 9 . T H E F OR U.\I OF T RAJAX. wirh nsmagmficenrBasilia Ulpia.was dosel)'bordered by a p 3 r tment buildings, asshownby fragments of the Severan.\ larb le Plan. One pco rly consrructed renemenrcollapsedright into this forum duringthe 4thcenrury (Graylinesare derived fromRenaissance drawings oflost Plan fragrnenrs; bluc linesarefrom archacclo gy and extrapolation.Byo,lt id wt; RrynoJs

i ng the capital. T he Reman insulae ran frequend y 10seven stories and h igher. and ancient comrnen tatorsdescribe them as built byspeculators on me cheap.One of the friends of Aulus Gellius remarked atthe exea ordinarv renral income realized bv landlords ofcry pro perry, dec1 ared th at he wouid sell off hiscountry estates tn buy land in the ciry if on ly the cirydid n o t h u m so ofren (Aulus Gellius 15.1.3). Rome sinsulae were commonly buih wirh wood and mud construction in the ir upper sections, rather rhan th e srurdybr ck and concrete work familiar from foundations and

surviving insulae in Ostia (Virruvi us 2.8.20). T his maderhe apartment blocks infamous tire hazards, as well asdangerously unstable (Scneca, On Anger 3.35.4-5 . T hefear of on e's dwell ing collapsng was real in Reme,wherc rhe p O O l ofren sle pt with th e bcam s i n ruinabove (juvenal 3.194--1(6). lt may be easy for us ro losesigh t of these ,;:rumbling tcn cmcnts as we imagine themarble RomeAugustlls c aimed to have lefr, h ut according to th e e vidence they were an overnhelmi ng presence.

The plot of insula densities (Fig. 8)sho\ \ S matthe greatest concentra tions of apa rt me nt bui ldingsoccurre d in the city cent e r. in Region VIII (RomanForum), Region X (Palatine), and especially in RegionXI (Cir cus .\ 1aximus). Th ese high densities are particula rly surprising, becau se in each of these regions the rewere substantial areasgiven mer toopen space or publicbuildings.One of the implications of th is level of densityis th at the monuments presen-cd todar were absolutelysurrounded by dwellinhS in anciquity.T he monumental

ing rnenton . the Regionaries are almos t never engagedindepth, and irnportant aspects of thesedocumenrs haveneve r been explored.A crucial sre p inm aking the regionary staristicaldata useful is their conversion into densiry figures. First ,the densiry figures showthat the numbers recorded inthe Regionariesare notoas has ofren been claimed, exaggerate d: rhe y form a pan ero which is comparable rodensiry figures that mar be derived from excavated sections of Pompeii where higher, the figures for Romeare no tunreasonably highcr, a nd in sorne cases they arelower (Reynolds 1996:234, 2+4). Through these figuresthen, the macrostrucrurc of Romc can be explored. Th erelative levels of dcvelcpment in different par ts of thecity can be examincd in ways not possible th rough thePlan or any other rncans. Thi s macrosrrucrural studycomplement s rhe microst ructura l data of individualbuildings and neighborhood s prov ided by the .\ larb lePlan, and makes possible a more comprehensive urbananalvsis of a neient Rome. II cre we will focus on twoparticular topics iIluminat e d by the Regionari es: th ehigh-rise aparnnents and the neighborhood baths.Rom f1igh-RiseApartmm ts: lnsulaeTh e Roman aparnnem block. Of instilo (iterally,island ), hasbecn too o ft en charaeterized on the basisof th e famou s ruins at Ostia, where well-bu ih brickapanrnen t blocks of standard plan still stand in testament to Rom an ord er and construc t io n tech nique.\Vhile eharacteris tic of Ostia, they are not necessarilycharaeteristic of Rome, in spite of the fae t tha t they areoften pressed into service for scholarly srudies describ-

F IG . 7 . TI I E G RANO ANO T IIE IIUMBL E were side by si de in nnperialRomc's urbnn fabricoIn rhis reconstruction, high -rise renements ovcr look rhe mar ble temp les of rhe Forum Hofirorium. Th e same juxraposirion is secn i n r hc ncighhoring houscs of rhe rich and rhe poor, as revea ledon me SeveranMarblePlan.By G. Gllt tuhi,jrom G,mmhi 1924--; PI 61

20 EXPE OI T IO N Volumc 39, 2 (1997) T H E L O S T AR C II I T EC T U R E OF A N CI E NT R O ; lE


5/6

Via Flaminia tn the north , and rhe V ae Appia aLatina entering fromrhe southeasr in Region 1 (Fig.Travelers arriving in the dty must have desire db athfacilit ies to refrcsh themsclves soon after passingmaio gates.

The grcat imperial thcnnae are certainly imptant , but they arc unly pan uf the pieture of Romhathing, and a smaller pan than the speetacular m inthennae still standing in Romewould suggest. The Pand th e Regionaries help us to address thi s skewimage and re-evaluate th e role of minur baths inan6ent city.T he imperial baths wcre huge and luxuricomplexes, offcring spectacular publie amenitics theuf which the worlJ has ncver sccn again. I l ow couldcity market sustain humble minor baths when such copetition for patrons existed? Ouc might expcct thatimpe r ia l baths wuuld replace the old smallcr pr ivbaths, increasingly as more largc therma e were bover time. The first public complex was built by Agnin 38 BC. Th is se t t he foundation for the long traditof imperial public baths that was to follow, and whind ee d was to bccom e one of the most ehar acteri

F IG. 13. \ O S G R K ~ IDE XTIF IEDTH E OF RO.\I E S R EG IOSbased on rhe landmarks listed for each of them ime RegionaryCatalogues. Ilis pain stakingworkwasrhc basis for rhe rcgionarymaps in [hepressrudy, The majnr transportcorridors of Rorue wassoc iated with higher den siries of resldenria l ancommercial archirecture, panicularlysmall barhBy Pu/Zimmnwwn .firr Hm Grrk lI 19-19

1.4S 1.801. 09 1.440 .13 1060 70.n0-0 .36- -

Density of Balnea

Tbt NtighborhooJ Baths o RiWltThe plot for balnea (Fig. 12) shows that theyare found throughout the city. Thi s is what we wouldexpect hased on the .\ 1arble Plan, on whieh small bathsappear in many locations (Staccioli 1961). According to

the Regionary figures, on ly one region, IX (the monumental zone Campus l lan ius), rutesas relativcly low indensity uf baJnea. In general the density Df small bathsfollows the density uf residential matrix as indicated inthe plots for insu lae and domus (private houses). T hissuggests that while baths were esscnt ial all Q\er the city,more were required for the hea y population in the citycenter. Th e particularly high den sit ies in regions VIIand 1 can be explained by the faet that these Iie alongthe main t ranspon corridors leading into the eity, the

ings is rhe bath , an ameniry rypically enjoyed in a publicrather than a domestic setti ng. Th e grand imperial haths(or thtmJlu) are wellknown and justlyfamous from th eirsurviving mins, but evidence shows tha t the very smallneighborhood bath-houses, or ba/m:a, were a more significant pan of Rome s urban fabric than we have giventhemeredit foro

FI G. 12. D ENSIT Y OF B Eor small barhs, in 4th centUT AD Rom e,accordmg ro the Regionary Catalogues.Gr phicby1 / Zimmerman fi rr lIth/ / s / JI fIinal

strong mpression. In reaching this forum a visitorwould bave to pass through the dense residential areas,and would alwa} s have been conseious of the exrraordinar) contrast presenred by the grand plaza.Ir was in facr this aspcct of the Forum, rarherthan sorne featurc lil e the basilica s am ate uppon tments, rhar struck the comparuon of Constentius whenthar emperor visted Rome for the first time in \ D 356.Consta ntius entered [he Forum of Trajan and , awestruck ar it all, vowed that he would copy theequcstriansrarue t hat s tood in its cerner. First , sire, repliedprince Ormisda of Persia, build a simi lar stable foryour stced. iryou can, so that it can range as freely asrhe e ne which we see here ( Ammianus Ma rcellnus16.10.15-1 6). T hiscomment, and oth er reactions tu theimperial fora in antiqui ty, are bertcr undersrood in lightof the insula density information from the RcgionaryCa t alogues. T he cxrr ao rdi nary co ncent rat ion ofdwellings in the cirycenter should be taken inro accountinan)as sessment of this pan of Rome.

The insulae contaned apartments both spacious and cramped , both pleasa nt and miserable; condirions grewworse as one climbed higher flights of srairs..\ to st of the ciry s flars would have been single-roomgarrets , and rhesc underlne the degree to which poorR OI1l 111S nccessarily conducred the ir l ves outside rheirhomes. One of rhe mosr characreristic of Roman build-

e

irII1

F IG. 11. TE NEMEl :T- STYLE BUIL D IS GS RIS E O\ ER T R:\) :\S S .\IARKET S r o u n center) inmis reconsttuetionof the ForumofTrajan .The image helpsbring to

mindme densely packeJ mousands of lost ap artm ent huildingsmat sllITOunded thisandothermonumentsin imperial Rome. as recorded onlhe Se\eranMarble Plan.By G. f t ~ h i f r u m G ftts i 1914--; PI fi9

~ .

. 10 . T IIE . IAIX PLAZAT HE FO Ru .\t U f T RAJA\ wasmuch

in anriquity, Ir consisredo f aIarge rectangular openf simpledesigno .\ luchof its impact must have come fromcomran it presenred again st me surrnunding rhicket ofhigh

aparunents.rvm Frllni Srllr, RomanArchnecture. Coryngbt Frani Stilr 1982.

bypcnnissiQ I ()ftbtAmmc, publshn; CrmltUUIiv ty Pnss.

22 Ex l E D I O N Volume 39, No. 2 (1997) T HE L o s T AR C I I ITE TURE A N C I E N T R O . I E


6/6

tra its of Roman urhanism, within the imperial ciry andthroughout rhe Ernpire . \ tos t aqucducrs to Remancities rhroughout the Empi re were built nor for drinkingwater supply, hut to feed ha ths large ami small (Hodgc1989;128). Beginning with Xe ro , a succession uf empcrors huih public hat h cornplexes in Rome throughout thcflrsr four ce nt ur ies D Typically, thc ncwest complexwas cven larger and rnore splendid than thc lasr.The barhs of Diocletian, hu ih ut thc bcginningof the h h cenrury, cove red over 30 acres (13 hccrares),0 1 an area rougbly equel to that of the or iginal sculc me nt of the Roman ciry o f Tim gad in Alger a. By rhct ime of the Regionary Cata logues there were elevenimperial harh ccmplcxcs. T he amenities of these werccxtraord inar ily luxurious. They were cons rructed on aritanic scale . made of precious materials. filled wirhsuperh art , ami offercd no t on ly hor , cold, and warmwate r, but also exercse arcas, libraries, lecrurc halls, amian almost endless variery o f physical and mental purSUiL

Documents

Lost Architecture Ancient Rome