Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique de Maxence et Constantin, Rome

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique de Maxence et Constantin, Rome

Giovanni Paolo Pannini – The Piazza and Church of Santa Maria Maggiore.

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique de Maxence et Constantin, Rome

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Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique de Maxence et Constantin, Rome

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Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique de Maxence et Constantin, Rome

Michele Campeotto

Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique de Maxence et Constantin, Rome
Basilique de Maxence et de Constantin vue depuis le mont Palatin.
Lieu de construction	Regio IV Templum Pacis Velia
Date de construction	Début du ive siècle
Ordonné par	Maxence puis Constantin Ier
Type de bâtiment	Basilique
Le plan de Rome ci-dessous est intemporel. Localisation de la basilique dans la Rome antique (en rouge)
Coordonnées	41° 53′ 30″ nord, 12° 29′ 18″ est
Liste des monuments de la Rome antique

La Basilique de Maxence et Constantin (Basilica Maxentii et Constantini), ou Basilica Nova, fut commencée par l’empereurMaxence au début du iv^e siècle et terminée par Constantin I^er, vainqueur de Maxence, à la bataille du pont Milvius.

La basilique fut construite au bord de la Via Sacra, entre le Forum Romanum et le Temple de Vénus et de Rome, dans la Velia.

Histoire

Dans la Rome antique, les basiliques n’avaient pas de fonction religieuse, la basilique de Maxence et de Constantin abritait les activités judiciaires de la ville.

Le but de cette construction était de réaffirmer la puissance et la beauté de Rome.

Elle fut tout d’abord appelée Basilica Nova. Elle remplaça les Horrea Piperataria construits par Domitien et incendiés sous Commode en 191 ap. J.-C.

La basilique de Maxence et de Constantin fut la dernière des basiliques de Rome.¹

Architecture

Projet initial de Maxence

La technique utilisée pour l’édification de cette basilique est celle de l’opus caementicium et de la voûte concrète², parementés en brique ou couverts de marbre. La basilique tenait sur une énorme fondation rectangulaire de 100 mètres de long et 65 mètres de large, et était composée d’une nefcentrale de 80 mètres de long pour 25 mètres de large et 35 mètres de haut, et de deux bas-côtés de 16 mètres de large pour 24,5 mètres de haut. Ses trois travées sont séparées et articulées par huit colonnes monolithiques de marbre, de 14,5 mètres de haut pour 5,4 mètres de circonférence, les plus grandes de la Rome antique. Les trois nefs étaient construites suivant la direction est-ouest.

Le plafond était décoré par de profonds caissons hexagonaux et octogonaux et le toit était recouvert de tuiles de bronze doré.

L’entrée principale du projet de Maxence se trouvait à l’est, face au Colisée, tandis qu’une absideprolongeait vers l’ouest la nefcentrale. Le coin nord-ouest de la basilique joignait le mur du Forum de la Paix, bouchant de ce fait la voie de communication précédemment existante entre le Forum Romanum et la zone du Carinae (Subure). Maxence a donc construit un passage sous ce coin nord-ouest du bâtiment, d’environ 4 mètres de large pour 20 mètres de long.

La façade de la basilique construite par Maxence était côté est, et un vestibule de 8 mètres de profondeur longeait toute cette façade est. De ce vestibule, cinq entrées donnaient dans la basilique : trois dans la nefcentrale, et une dans chacun des bas-côtés.

Tête de la statue colossale de Constantin

Après sa victoire sur Maxence au pont Milvius en 312 ap. J.-C., Constantin I^er trouva la basilique inachevée, et décida d’en reprendre le chantier, mais en modifiant le projet initial. Il créa un nouvel axe nord-sud en construisant au sud un nouveau portique d’entrée sur la Via Sacra, et, en face, du côté nord, une seconde abside, aussi grande que la première (15 mètres de largeur). L’abside semi-circulaire de Constantin contenait seize places rectangulaires en deux rangées, avec un piédestal au centre. Elle était séparée de la nef par un entablement reposant sur deux colonnes de marbre, en formant ainsi une sorte de tribunal. Quant à l’abside de Maxence, Constantin y fit représenter une statue colossale de lui-même, en bronze et en marbre (tête ci-contre). Constantin fit en outre entièrement plaquer l’intérieur de la basilique d’immenses opus sectiles en marbres polychromes. Elle abritait un tribunal.

Envergure de la basilique

La grande épaisseur des murs (jusqu’à 6 mètres) et l’énorme taille et envergure du toit ont fait de ce monument l’un des plus remarquables de Rome. La magnificence de sa décoration intérieure était proportionnée à sa taille et à son caractère imposant. Elle fut édifiée à l’image des grandes salles des thermes, et non pas sur le plan basilical traditionnel à rangées de colonnes.

Ce monument est le dernier et le plus grand édifice d’époque impériale construit dans cette partie de Rome, au cœur de la ville. Il est probablement, en volume, la plus grande salle construite dans l’Antiquité.

Aujourd’hui

Deux tremblements de terre (en 847 et surtout en 1349) ont eu raison de la nef centrale, avec ses merveilleuses voûtes d’arêtescaissonnées de 25 par 25 m et 35 mètres de hauteur, ainsi que du bas-côté sud et des deux portiques. Il ne reste plus aujourd’hui en élévation que le bas-côté nord de l’édifice, y compris ses trois voûtes en berceautransversal, dont on peut admirer les caissons octogonaux.

Des fragments de marbre de la basilique, retrouvés au xv^e siècle, sont aujourd’hui conservés dans la cour du Palais des Conservateurs, et notamment les parties en marbre de la statue colossale de Constantin I^er.

Les colonnes monolithiques furent détruites, exceptée celle qui fut enlevée par Paul V en 1613, et qui fut placée sur la Piazza di S. Maria Maggiore pour ériger la colonne de la Paix, où elle se trouve toujours. La postérité architecturale de la basilique de Maxence est immense : au Moyen Âge déjà, on en réalise une copie à l’échelle 1/5^e, dans l’avant-nef de l’abbatiale Saint-Valérien et Saint-Philibert de Tournus (xi^e siècle). À la Renaissance, elle a été admirée par tous les grands architectes et copiée pour la nef de la basilique Saint-Pierre du Vatican. La construction baroque lui doit beaucoup. Aux xix^eet xx^e siècles, elle inspira encore l’architecture de plusieurs gares, en Europe et aux États-Unis.

En 1960, la Basilique fut utilisée comme site de compétition lors des Jeux olympiques d’été de 1960 pour les épreuves de lutte³.

Illustrations

• 

  Nef latérale nord. Voûtes avec plafond à caissons

• 

  Vue arrière montrant l’abside de Constantin I^er

• 

  Vue depuis la Via Sacra
• 

  Plan d’ensemble après les modifications de Constantin I^er

• 

  Aspect probable de l’intérieur de la Basilique de Maxence. À gauche, les trois arcs colossaux, subsistant de nos jours

Notes et références

Sur les autres projets Wikimedia :

• Basilique de Maxence et Constantin, sur Wikimedia Commons

1. ↑ « Plan de Rome » [archive], sur http://www.unicaen.fr (consulté le12 décembre 2017)
2. ↑ L’opus caementicium est une maçonnerie de blocage constituée par un mélange de mortier de chaux et de pierres tout venant appelées caementa – moellons, fragments de pierre, déchets de taille – coffré à la manière du pisé entre deux banches ou entre deux parements dressés avec soin faisant office de coffrage perdu. Les voûtes sont réalisées de manière similaire sur des cintres en bois, ce que l’on nomme « voûte concrète ». Quoique ressemblant au béton moderne, ces structures demeuraient maçonnées et non pas coulées
3. ↑ http://franceolympique.com/art/70-rome_1960.html#para_2 [archive]

•  Portail de l’architecture et d

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilique_de_Maxence_et_Constantin

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Michele Campeotto

Michele Campeotto

Giacobbe Giusti, Ballista

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Ballista

Roman cart-mounted carroballista

Giacobbe Giusti, Ballista

Roman ‘catapult-nest’ on Trajan’s Column

Giacobbe Giusti, Ballista

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Ballista

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Ballista

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Ballista

One talent ballista (26 kg weight projectile). The heaviest versions could shoot up to three talents (78 kg), possibly much more.^[1]

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v t e

The ballista (Latin, from Greek βαλλίστρα ballistra^[2]and that from βάλλω ballō, « throw »),^[3] plural ballistae, sometimes called bolt thrower, was an ancientmissile weapon that launched a large projectile at a distant target.

Developed from earlier Greek weapons, it relied upon different mechanics, using two levers with torsion springs instead of a tension prod (the bow part of a modern crossbow), offering much greater efficiency over tension-based weaponry. The springs consisting of several loops of twisted skeins. Early versions projected heavy darts or spherical stone projectiles of various sizes for siege warfare. It developed into a smaller precision weapon, the scorpio,^[4]and possibly the polybolos.

Greek weapon

 Greek and Roman artillery

The early ballista in Ancient Greece was developed from two weapons called oxybeles and gastraphetes. The gastraphetes (‘belly-bow’) was a handheld crossbow. It had a composite prod and was spanned by bracing the front end of the weapon against the ground while placing the end of a slider mechanism against the stomach. The operator would then walk forward to arm the weapon while a ratchet prevented it from shooting during loading. This produced a weapon which, it was claimed, could be operated by a person of average strength but which had a power that allowed it to be successfully used against armoured troops. The oxybeles was a bigger and heavier construction employing a winch, and was mounted on a tripod. It had a lower rate of fire and was used as a siege engine. With the invention of torsion springbundle technology, the first ballista was built. The advantage of this new technology was the fast relaxation time of this system. Thus it was possible to shoot lighter projectiles with higher velocities over a longer distance.

For an oxybeles, the rules of a torsion weapon demanded that the more energy could be stored, the thicker the prod and the heavier the projectile had to be to increase the amount of stored energy delivered to the projectile. The earliest form of the ballista is thought to have been developed for Dionysius of Syracuse, circa 400 BCE.

The Greek ballista was a siege weapon. All components that were not made of wood were transported in the baggage train. It would be assembled with local wood, if necessary. Some were positioned inside large, armoured, mobile siege towers or even on the edge of a battlefield. For all of the tactical advantages offered, it was only under Philip II of Macedon, and even more so under his son Alexander, that the ballista began to develop and gain recognition as both a siege engine and field artillery. Historical accounts, for instance, cited that Philip II employed a group of engineers within his army to design and build catapults for his military campaigns.^[5][6] There is even a claim that it was Philip II – with his team of engineers – who invented the ballista after improving Dionysius’s device, which was merely an oversized slingshot.^[7] It was further perfected by Alexander, whose own team of engineers introduced innovations such as the idea of using springs made from tightly strung coils of rope instead of a bow to achieve more energy and power when throwing projectiles.^[7] Polybiusreported about the usage of smaller, more portable ballistae, called scorpions, during the Second Punic War.

Ballistae could be easily modified to shoot both spherical and shaft projectiles, allowing their crews to adapt easily to prevailing battlefield situations in real time.

As the role of battlefield artillery became more sophisticated, a universal joint (which was invented just for this function) was integrated into the ballista’s stand, allowing the operators to alter the trajectory and firing direction of the ballista as required without a lengthy disassembly of the machine.

Roman weaponary

Giacobbe Giusti, Ballista

Reconstructed small ballista

Giacobbe Giusti, Ballista

Roman ‘catapult-nest’ on Trajan’s Column

Giacobbe Giusti, Ballista

Ballista bolt heads

After the absorption of the Ancient Greek city-states into the Roman Republic in 146 BCE, the highly advanced Greek technology began to spread across many areas of Roman influence. This included the great military machine advances the Greeks had made (most notably by Dionysus of Syracuse), as well as all the scientific, mathematical, political and artistic developments.

The Romans ‘inherited’ the torsion-powered ballista, which had by now spread to several cities around the Mediterranean, all of which became Roman spoils of war, including one from Pergamum, which was depicted among a pile of trophy weapons in relief on a balustrade.

The torsion ballista, developed by Alexander, was a far more complicated weapon than its predecessor and the Romans developed it even further, especially into much smaller versions, that could be easily carried.

Early Roman ballistae

The early Roman ballistae were made of wood, and held together with iron plates around the frames and iron nails in the stand. The main stand had a slider on the top, into which were loaded the bolts or stone shot. Attached to this, at the back, was a pair of ‘winches‘ and a ‘claw’, used to ratchet the bowstring back to the armed firing position.

The slider passed through the field frames of the weapon, in which were located the torsion springs (rope made of animal sinew), which were twisted around the bow arms, which in turn, were attached to the bowstring.

Drawing the bowstring back with the winches twisted the already taut springs, storing the energy to fire the projectiles. The bronze or iron caps, which secured the torsion-bundles were adjustable by means of pins and peripheral holes, which allowed the weapon to be tuned for symmetrical power and for changing weather conditions.

The ballista was a highly accurate weapon (there are many accounts of single soldiers being picked off by ballista operators), but some design aspects meant it could compromise its accuracy for range. The maximum range was over 500 yards (460 m), but effective combat range for many targets was far shorter.

The Romans continued the development of the ballista, and it became a highly prized and valued weapon in the army of the Roman Empire.

It was used, just before the start of the Empire, by Julius Caesarduring his conquest of Gaul and on both of his campaigns in subduing Britain.

First invasion of Britain

The first of Caesar’s invasions of Britain took place in 55 BCE, after a rapid and successful initial conquest of Gaul, in part as an expedition, and more practically to try to put an end to the reinforcements sent by the native Britons to fight the Romans in Gaul.

A total of eighty transports, carrying two legions, attempted to land on the British shore, only to be driven back by the many British warriors assembled along the shoreline. The ships had to unload their troops on the beach, as it was the only one suitable for many miles, yet the massed ranks of British charioteers and javeliners were making it difficult.

Seeing this, Caesar ordered the warships – which were swifter and easier to handle than the transports, and likely to impress the natives more by their unfamiliar appearance – to be removed a short distance from the others, and then be rowed hard and run ashore on the enemy’s right flank, from which position the slings, bows and artillery could be used by men on deck to drive them back. This manoeuvre was highly successful.
Scared by the strange shape of the warships, the motion of the oars, and the unfamiliar machines, the natives halted and retreated. (Caesar, The Conquest of Gaul, p.99)

Siege of Alesia

A four-wheeled carroballista drawn by armored horses, from an engraving illustrating a 1552 edition of the war-machine catalog De Rebus Bellicis(c. 400)

In Gaul, the stronghold of Alesia was under a Roman siege in 52 BCE, and was completely surrounded by a Roman fortification including a wooden palisade and towers. As was standard siege technique at the time, small ballistae were placed in the towers with other troops armed with bows or slings. The use of the ballista in the Roman siege strategy was also demonstrated in the case of the Siege of Masada.^[5]

Ballistae in the Roman Empire

During the conquest of the Empire, the ballista proved its worth many times in sieges and battles, both at sea and on land. It was even used to quell riots. It is from the time of the Roman Empire that many of the archaeological finds of ballistae date. Accounts by the finders, including technical manuals and journals, are used today by archaeologists to reconstruct these weapons.

After Julius Caesar, the ballista was a permanent fixture in the Roman army and, over time, modifications and improvements were made by successive engineers. This included replacing the remaining wooden parts of the machine with metal, creating a much smaller, lighter and more powerful machine than the wooden version, which required less maintenance (though the vital torsion springs were still vulnerable to the strain). The largest ballistae of the 4th century could throw a dart further than 1200 yards (1,100 m). The weapon was named ballista fulminalis in De Rebus Bellicis: « From this ballista, darts were projected not only in great number but also at a large size over a considerable distance, such as across the width of the Danube River. »^[8] Ballistae were not only used in laying siege: after ad 350, at least 22 semi-circular towers were erected around the walls of Londinium (London) to provide platforms for permanently mounted defensive devices.^[9]

Eastern Roman Empire

Ballista stones found at excavation site in Jerusalem

During the 6th century, Procopius described the effects of this weapon:

But Belisarius placed upon the towers engines which they call « ballistae ». Now these engines have the form of a bow, but on the under side of them a grooved wooden shaft projects; this shaft is so fitted to the bow that it is free to move, and rests upon a straight iron bed. So when men wish to shoot at the enemy with this, they make the parts of the bow which form the ends bend toward one another by means of a short rope fastened to them, and they place in the grooved shaft the arrow, which is about one half the length of the ordinary missiles which they shoot from bows, but about four times as wide…but the missile is discharged from the shaft, and with such force that it attains the distance of not less than two bow-shots, and that, when it hits a tree or a rock, it pierces it easily. Such is the engine which bears this name, being so called because it shoots with very great force^[10]

The missiles were able to penetrate body-armour:

And at the Salarian Gate a Goth of goodly stature and a capable warrior, wearing a corselet and having a helmet on his head, a man who was of no mean station in the Gothic nation, refused to remain in the ranks with his comrades, but stood by a tree and kept shooting many missiles at the parapet. But this man by some chance was hit by a missile from an engine which was on a tower at his left. And passing through the corselet and the body of the man, the missile sank more than half its length into the tree, and pinning him to the spot where it entered the tree, it suspended him there a corpse.^[11]

Cheiroballistra and manuballista

 Cheiroballistra

The cheiroballistra and the manuballista are held by many archaeologists to be the same weapon.^{[citation needed]} The difference in name may be attributable to the different languages spoken in the Empire. Latin remained the official language in the Western Empire, but the Eastern Empire predominantly used Greek, which added an extra ‘r’ to the word ballista.

The manuballista was a handheld version of the traditional ballista. This new version was made entirely of iron, which conferred greater power to the weapon, since it was smaller, and less iron (an expensive material before the 19th century), was used in its production. It was not the ancient gastraphetes, but the Roman weapon. However, the same physical limitations applied as with the gastraphetes.

Carroballista[edit]

Roman cart-mounted carroballista

 Carroballista

The carroballista was a cart-mounted version of the weapon. There were probably different models of ballista under the cheiroballistraclass, at least two different two-wheeled models and one model with four wheels. Their probable size was roughly 1.47 m width, i.e., 5 Roman feet. The cart system and structure gave it a great deal of flexibility and capability as a battlefield weapon, since the increased maneuverability allowed it to be moved with the flow of the battle. This weapon features several times on Trajan’s Column.

Polybolos

 Polybolos

Reproductions of ancient Greek artillery, including catapults such as the polybolos (to the left in the foreground) and a large, early crossbow known as the gastraphetes (mounted on the wall in the background)

It has been speculated that the Roman military may have also fielded a ‘repeating’ ballista, also known as a polybolos. Reconstruction and trials of such a weapon carried out in a BBC documentary, What the Romans Did For Us, showed that they « were able to shoot eleven bolts a minute, which is almost four times the rate at which an ordinary ballista can be operated ».^[12] However, no example of such a weapon has been found by archaeologists.

Archaeology and the Roman ballista

Metal components of the Ampurias Catapult, found in 1912 in the Neapolisof Ampurias

Metal components of a 4th-century ballista

Archaeology, and in particular experimental archaeology has been influential on this subject. Although several ancient authors (such as Vegetius) wrote very detailed technical treatises, providing us with all the information necessary to reconstruct the weapons, all their measurements were in their native language and therefore highly difficult to translate.

Attempts to reconstruct these ancient weapons began at the end of the 19th century, based on rough translations of ancient authors. It was only during the 20th century, however, that many of the reconstructions began to make any sense as a weapon. By bringing in modern engineers, progress was made with the ancient systems of measurement. By redesigning the reconstructions using the new information, archaeologists in that specialty were able to recognize certain finds from Roman military sites, and identify them as ballistae. The information gained from the excavations was fed into the next generation of reconstructions and so on.^{[citation needed]}

Sites across the empire have yielded information on ballistae, from Spain (the Ampurias Catapult), to Italy (the Cremona Battleshield, which proved that the weapons had decorative metal plates to shield the operators), to Iraq (the Hatra Machine) and even Scotland (Burnswark siege tactics training camp), and many other sites between.^{[citation needed]}

The most influential archaeologists in this area have been Peter Connolly and Eric Marsden^[13], who have not only written extensively on the subject but have also made many reconstructions themselves and have refined the designs over many years of work.

Middle Ages

With the decline of the Roman Empire, resources to build and maintain these complex machines became very scarce, so the ballista was supplanted initially by the simpler and cheaper onager and the more efficient springald.

Though the weapon continued to be used in the Middle Ages, it faded from popular use with the advent of the trebuchet and mangonel in siege warfare.

See also

• Harpax
• zh:床弩 – in Chinese case

Notes

1. ^ Soedel, Werner; Foley, Vernard (March 1979). « Ancient Catapults ». Scientific American. 240 (3): 120–28.
2. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert. « Ballistra ». A Greek-English Lexicon – via Perseus Tufts.
3. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert. « Ballo ». A Greek-English Lexicon – via Perseus Tufts.
4. ^ Warry, John (1995). Warfare in the Classical World: War and the Ancient Civilisations of Greece and Rome. London, United Kingdom: Salamander Books Ltd. p. 178. ISBN0-8061-2794-5.
5. ^ Jump up to:^ab Gabriel, Richard (2007). Soldiers’ Lives through History: The Ancient World. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 127. ISBN0313333483.
6. ^ McGowen, Tom (2006). Alexander the Great: Conqueror of the Ancient World. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers. p. 24. ISBN9780766025608.
7. ^ Jump up to:^ab Gurstelle, William (2004). Art of the Catapult: Build Greek Ballistae, Roman Onagers, English Trebuchets, and More Ancient Artillery. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. p. 51. ISBN1556525265.
8. ^ De Rebus Bellicis, Chapter XVIII: ballista fulminalis. Note: The modern width of the Danube is 1.5 km. During the Roman Empire, it was unlikely to have been less than 1.1 km, bearing in mind that Trajan’s Bridge is known to have been longer than 1.1 km.
9. ^ « Visible Roman London: City wall and gates ». Museum of London Group. Archived from the original on 19 February 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
10. ^ Procopius, Gothic war, chapter XXI
11. ^ Procopius, Gothic war, chapter XXIII
12. ^ Hart-Davis, Adam Discovering Roman TechnologyBBC History 17 February 2011. Accessed 21 November 2013
13. ^ Marsden, E.W. (1971). Greek and Roman Artillery. Technical Treatises (Oxford). Reprinted 1999 by Sandpiper

References

External images

Reenactor with manuballista, Retrieved 6 February 2008

Trigger of the polybolos, retrieved 6 February 2008

Side elevation of the polybolos, retrieved 6 February 2008

From above with magazin removed, retrieved 6 February 2008

Another view of the trigger, retrieved 6 February 2008

• Caesar (tr Handforth), 1982, The Conquest of Gaul, London: Penguin Books
• Campbell, D; 2003, Greek and Roman Artillery 399 BC – AD 363, Osprey
• Connolly, P; 1975, The Roman Army, Macdonald Educational
• Connolly, P; 1998, Greece and Rome at War, Greenhill Books
• Feugère, M; 2002, Weapons of the Romans, Arcadia
• Goldsworthy, A; 2003, The Complete Roman Army, Thames and Hudson
• Marsden, E.W; 1971, Greek and Roman Technical Treatises, Clarendon
• Warry, J. ;1995, Warfare in the Classical World, Salamander Books Ltd., London: United Kingdom. ISBN 0-8061-2794-5
• Wilkins, A; 2003, Roman Artillery, Shire Archaeology

• Roman Stone Throwing Ballista
• Ancient Greek Artillery Technology
• Reconstructions and Plans of Greek and Roman Artillery
• Plans For a Working Model Ballista
• The reconstruction of a full-size working ballista by BBC TV and the Discovery Channel
• [1]
• [2]
• [3]
• [4]

hide v t e Ancient mechanical artillery and hand-held missile weapons
Generic phrases	Greek and Roman artillery Ballista Catapult Torsion siege engine
Crew-served arrow-shooters	Carroballista Catapulta Oxybeles Polybolos Scorpio
Crew-served stone-projectors	Lithobolos Onager
Hand-held weapons	Cheiroballistra Crossbow Gastraphetes

• Projectile weapons
• Roman siege engines
• Ancient Greek artillery
• Roman artillery
• Greek inventions
• Obsolete technologies

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballista

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Baths of Caracalla

Giacobbe Giusti, Baths of Caracalla

Vasque des thermes de Caracalla, place Farnèse, Rome

Giacobbe Giusti, Baths of Caracalla

Taureau Farnèse.

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Baths of Caracalla

Torse du Belvédère.

Torso of the Belvedere, neo-attic artwork, 1st century CE. The inscription on the pedestal reads « made by Apollonios, son of Nestor, Athenian ». Museo Pio-Clementino (Inv. 1192), Vatican Museums, Rome.

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Baths of Caracalla

Baignoire en granit noir – Musée Pio Cristiano, Vatican

Giacobbe Giusti, Baths of Caracalla

CaracallaThermenMosaik

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Baths of Caracalla

CaracallaThermenMosaik

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Baths of Caracalla

Flore Farnèse, Musée archéologique de Naples

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Baths of Caracalla

One of the statues that adorned the baths was the Farnese Hercules, now at Naples

Hercule Farnèse.

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Baths of Caracalla

Détail d’une mosaïque.

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Baths of Caracalla

The Baths of Caracalla (reconstructive drawing from 1899)

Giacobbe Giusti, Baths of Caracalla

Mosaïque des Athlètes – Musée Pio Cristiano, Vatican

Giacobbe Giusti, Baths of Caracalla

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Baths of Caracalla

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Baths of Caracalla

Panoramica delle Terme di Caracalla

 

 

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Baths of Caracalla

Latin: Thermae Antoninianae Giacobbe Giusti, Baths of Caracalla
The baths as viewed from the south-west. The caldarium would have been in the front of the image.
Baths of Caracalla The location of the baths in Rome during Antiquity
Alternative name	Italian: Terme di Caracalla
Location	Rome, Italy
Region	Regione XII Piscina Publica
Coordinates	41°52′45.998″N12°29′35.002″ECoordinates: 41°52′45.998″N 12°29′35.002″E
Type	Thermae
Part of	Ancient Rome
Area	100,000 m2(1,100,000 sq ft)
Volume	8,000,000 L (1,800,000 imp gal; 2,100,000 US gal) (baths’ waters)[1]
Height	40 m (130 ft)[1]
History
Builder	Caracalla
Material	Marble, pozzolana, lime, tuff, basalt
Founded	probably 212-216/217 AD
Abandoned	circa 537 AD
Periods	Imperial
Site notes
Condition	in ruins
Public access	Limited
Architecture
Architectural styles	Ancient Roman
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name	Baths of Caracalla
Type	Cultural, artistic, historical, architectural, religious
Criteria	i, ii, iii, iv, vi
Designated	Listed: 1980 Extension: 1990 Minor modification: 2015
Part of	Historic Centre of Rome, the Properties of the Holy See in that City Enjoying Extraterritorial Rights and San Paolo Fuori le Mura
Reference no.	91ter
Documents	Historic Centre of Rome…
List of ancient monuments in Rome

The Baths of Caracalla(Italian: Terme di Caracalla) in Rome, Italy, were the city’s second largest Romanpublic baths, or thermae, likely built between AD 212 (or 211) and 216/217, during the reigns of emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla.^[2] They were in operation until the 530s and then fell into disuse and ruin.

However, they have served as an inspiration for many other notable buildings, including the Baths of Diocletian, Basilica of Maxentius, the original Pennsylvania Station(New York) and Chicago Union Station. Art works recovered from the ruins include famous sculptures such as the Farnese Bull and the Farnese Hercules.

Today the Baths of Caracalla are a tourist attraction.

History[edit]

Construction – 216–235

Construction of the baths was probably initiated by emperor Septimius Severus and completed during the reign of his son, Caracalla. They were inaugurated in AD 216. The baths were located in the southern area of the city, Regio XII, where members of the Severan family commissioned other construction works: the via nova leading to the baths and the Septizodium on nearby Palatine Hill.^[3]:7

For work to have been mostly completed in the time of Caracalla, workers would have had to install over 2,000 t (2,000 long tons; 2,200 short tons) of material every day for six years in order to complete it between 211 (when Severus died) and 216.^[4]

Work on additional decorations continued under Caracalla’s successors Elagabalus and Severus Alexander. The baths were likely mostly finished by 235. Later renovations were conducted under Aurelian (after a fire) and by Diocletian. Under Constantine the Greatthe caldarium was modified.^[3]:7–8

The building was heated by a hypocaust, a system of burning coal and wood underneath the ground to heat water provided by a dedicated aqueduct. The baths were free and open to the public.

5th century – destruction in 9th century

The baths were fully functional in the 5th century when they were referred to as one of the seven wonders of Rome. Olympiodorus of Thebes mentions a capacity of 1,600. This is interpreted to refer to the maximum number of simultaneous visitors, as the daily capacity is thought to have been 6,000 to 8,000 bathers.^[3]:8

The baths remained in use until the 6th century. In 537 during the Gothic War, Vitiges of the Ostrogoths laid siege to Rome and severed the city’s water supply. Shortly thereafter the baths were abandoned.^[5]Located too far away from the still populated area of Rome, the baths were mostly disused but in the 6th and 7th centuries were apparently used for the burials of pilgrims who died after being cared for in the nearby Xenodochium of Santi Nereo ed Achilleo. Some simple tombs from this era have been found inside the bath area.^[3]:8–9

Popes Adrian I, Sergius II and Nicholas I may have had some work done on the aqueduct through the 9th century.^[3]:9

The earthquake of 847 destroyed much of the building, along with many other Roman structures.^[6]

12th century – 19th century – other uses

At least since the 12th century the baths were used as a quarry for construction materials, and of decorative pieces to be reused in churches and palaces ( e.g. in Pisa Cathedral and Santa Maria in Trastevere).^[3]:9

During the 14th century, the area was used as vineyards and gardens. In the mid-16th century Pope Paul III had excavations conducted in the area during the construction of his new villa. In 1545-7 many large statues, made of marble and bronze, were recovered from the ruins. Later during the 16th century, the pope granted the area to the Roman Seminary of the Jesuits. It was used as a playground for children. Philip Neri may have brought children from his oratory here – he is believed to have commissioned the fresco Madonna supported by an angel still located in the natatio.^[3]:10–2

Between the 16th and 18th century interest in the structure was rekindled and several famous architects made drawings of the ruins (Andrea Palladio, Giovanni Battista Falda, Giambattista Nolli and Giuliano da Sangallo).^[3]:12

The aqueduct serving the baths was in use up to the 19th century. The Aqua Antoniniana aqueduct, a branch of the earlier Aqua Marcia also worked on under Diocletian, was specifically built to serve the baths.^{[citation needed]}

Modern times – excavation and restoration

In 1824, excavations at the baths were conducted by Count Egidio di Velo, whose findings included the mosaics showing athletes now at the Vatican Museums. Further work followed by Luigi Canina in the frigidarium (until the mid-19th century) and then by Battista Guidi (1860–7).^[3]:12

From 1866 to 1869 restoration work in the central part of the complex revealed a torso of Hercules, porphyr columns and figure-adorned capitals. In 1870 the area became the property of the Italian government and Pietro Rosa conducted excavations in the eastern palaestra. In 1878/9, Giuseppe Fiorelli discovered mosaics in the caldarium and western palaestra.^[3]:14

From the early 20th century, excavations expanded into the outer areas of the complex and downward, revealing the subterranean passages, including a mithraeum (see below). Systematic work on the galleries, started in the 18th and 19th centuries, resumed after 1901. On the eastern side more work was done in the late 1930s, when an opera stage was installed in the caldarium. Except for some sketches no documentation of these restorations survives.^[3]:14

Further restoration work took place in the 1980s, when thick vegetation and illegally built houses in the area were cleared away. The southern wall with its cisterns, the southwestern library and the octagonal hall known as the Temple of Jupiter were restored at that point. In 1998-9, the opera stage was dismantled and modern visitor facilities were added to the baths. They reopened to the public in 2001.^[3]:14

The baths were the only archaeological site in Rome to be damaged by an earthquake near L’Aquila in 2009.^[7] They were again damaged, though minor, in August 2016 by an earthquake in central Italy.^[8]

Description

Overview

The bath complex covered approximately 25 ha (62 acres). The complex is of rectangular shape, measuring 337 by 328 meters. Its construction involved the moving of a substantial amount of earth, as parts of the nearby hills had to be removed or leveled into platforms. Several million bricks were used in the construction. The baths contained at least 252 columns, 16 of which had a height of over 12 meters.^[3]:19

Water was carried to the baths by the then newly constructed acqua nova Antoniniana from the major acqua Marcia. The exact path of the aqueduct supplying the baths is not known as only a few segments have been discovered. The aqueduct connected to the southern side of the baths where it filled 18 cisterns. These in turn were connected by lead pipes with the baths proper.^[3]:20–1

The baths followed the « great Imperial baths » blueprint for Roman baths. They were more a leisure centre than just a series of baths. Besides being used for bathing, the complex also offered facilities for taking walks, reading/studying, exercise and body care. The main building stood in the centre with no connections to the surrounding walls, which housed the cisterns, two symmetrical libraries (south), two large exedras (east and west) and tabernae (shops) to the north. The surviving library measures 38 by 22 meters. Between the outer wall and the central complex were gardens (xystus).^[3]:25–7

The axis of the baths was laid out in a northeast to southwest fashion to make use of the sun’s heat. The caldarium faced southwest, the frigidarium northeast. Overall, the bath area was arranged along a single linear axis. However, dressing rooms and palaestra were arranged symmetrically on both sides of the building, giving easier access and facilitating the flow of people in and out of the thermal area, thus increasing the number of potential users of the baths.^[3]:22

The bath main building was 214 x 110 meters and the height to the top of the roof line was 44 meters (145 ft.); it covered 6.5 acres and could hold an estimated 1,600 bathers.^[9]

Interior

The Baths of Caracalla (reconstructive drawing from 1899)

The « baths » were the second to have a public library within the complex. Like other public libraries in Rome, there were two separate and equal sized rooms or buildings; one for Greek language texts and one for Latin language texts.^[10] The surviving library had three walls covered by niches (a total of 32) that housed the books. A larger niche in the middle of the southern wall likely contained a statue. A masonry ledge in front of the three other walls probably served as a bench. The floor is made from marble.^[3]:26–7

The baths consisted of a central frigidarium (cold room) measuring 58 by 24 m (190 by 79 ft) under three groin vaults 32.9 m (108 ft) high, a double pool tepidarium (medium), and a circular caldarium (hot room) 35 m (115 ft) in diameter, as well as two palaestras (gyms where wrestling and boxing were practiced). The northeastern end of the bath building contained a natatio or swimming pool.^[9] The caldariumhad seven pools, the frigidarium four, the tepidarium two. Next to the caldarium were saunas (laconica).^[3]:28

The central room was the frigidarium, whose high roof was supported by eight giant columns made from Egyptian granite. Walls and floor were made from marble. The hall served a dual purpose: It was a meeting place and transition area for visitors heading for other parts of the bath. It also housed the cold baths, in the form of four pools, two of which were connected to the tepidarium and two of which communicated with the natatio via some waterfalls. In the middle of the frigidarium was another circular pool (now at the Archaeological Museum at Naples) surrounding a fountain. It was flanked by two additional brick pools.^[3]:30–1

The caldarium was a circular room with marble floors and topped by a dome of almost 36 meters diameter, close to the size of the Pantheon‘s dome. The weight of the dome was carried by just eight masonry pillars. Between them were glass windows that helped heat the large room (and reduced the weight of the walls). Its seven pools measured 9.5 m by 5 m (depth of 1 m). Only six of these remain. The seventh was replaced by a small apse during the restoration by Constantine.^[3]:32–3

The Olympic-sized natatio pool measured 50 m by 22 m. The walls rose to more than 20 m and the northern façade was structured by three huge columns made from grey granite. Between those columns were niches on several levels which housed ornamental statues.^[3]:33

The natatio was roofless with bronze mirrors mounted overhead to direct sunlight into the pool area. The entire bath building was on a raised platform 6 m (20 ft) high to allow for storage and furnaces under the building.^[9]

Subterranean features

Subterranean tunnel with skylight

Discovered in 1912 by Ettore Ghislanzoni, the mithraeum at the baths is considered the largest documented gathering space for the worshippers of Mithra, the Persian god in vogue with the military and mostly lower class men, in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. The mithraeum was approximately 23 m (75 ft) long and 10 m (33 ft) wide with a cross-vaulted ceiling. It can be only roughly dated by the two main events associated with the baths: the mithraeum was created after the complex was completed circa AD 217 and it was probably no longer in use when the aqueduct supplying the complex was cut in the 530s.^[1][11]

The floor of the main room was covered with a black and white mosaic. Benches lined the walls. A fresco portraying Mithra (or a torch bearer) is on the western wall. The only other ornamentation was a marble block, roughly carved into the shape of a snake. In the floor near the entrance a circular pit was found covered with a marble slab, with a terracotta bowl containing the remains of staves of wheat. A rectangular hole in the floor gives access to a small tunnel that runs under the center of the main hall into an adjoining room, where there is an entrance/exit with staircase. This, a unique feature in a mithraeum, has been controversial. Most scholars view this as a fossa sanguinis, a ritual pit over which the bull at the center of the Mithraic mythology was slaughtered, bathing one or more initiates in its blood. Others think it was used as a sort of stage trap door allowing a person to stage a surprising entry into the room.^{[1][11][3]:40–3}

In a nearby room, a statue of Aphrodite Anadyomene was found in 1912. It is now located in the Museo Nazionale Romano at the Baths of Diocletian.^[3]:41,43

Apart from housing the mithraeum, the subterranean tunnels served to heat the baths and as sewers for the outflow of water. They were also used to store the fuel for the furnaces – which are estimated to have burned around 10 tons of wood per day. Storage capacity had been estimated at more than 2,000 tons of wood.^[3]:25

Overall, these tunnels ran for hundreds of meters underneath the main structure. They were lit by skylight-type windows that allowed the air to circulate, thus keeping the stored wood from rotting.^[3]:39

An underground water mill was excavated beginning in 1912. First thought to be medieval in origin it is now considered to date to Antiquity. It may have been a part of the original workings of the baths. Fire damage indicates it was burned in the 3rd century, but rebuilt with some alterations.^[3]:40

Dimensions

Plans of the baths (more here )

Principal dimensions

• Precinct maximum: 412 m × 393 m (1,352 ft × 1,289 ft)
• Internal: 337 m × 328 m (1,106 ft × 1,076 ft)
• Central Block overall: 214 m × 110 m (702 ft × 361 ft)
• Natatio (swimming pool): 54 m × 23 m (177 ft × 75 ft)
• Frigidarium: 59 m × 24 m (194 ft × 79 ft), height of 41 m (135 ft)
• Caldarium: 35 m (115 ft), height of 44 m (144 ft)
• Internal courts: 67 m × 29 m (220 ft × 95 ft)

Quantities of materials

• Pozzolana: 341,000 m³ (12,000,000 cu ft)
• Quick lime: 35,000 m³ (1,200,000 cu ft)
• Tuff: 341,000 m³ (12,000,000 cu ft)
• Basalt for foundations: 150,000 m³ (5,300,000 cu ft)
• Brick pieces for facing: 17.5 million
• Large Bricks: 520,000
• Marble columns in Central block: 252
• Marble for columns and decorations: 6,300 m³ (220,000 cu ft)

Estimated average labour figures on site

• Excavation: 5,200 men
• Substructure: 9,500 men
• Central Block: 4,500 men
• Decoration: 1,800 men

The 12 m (39 ft) columns of the frigidarium were made of granite and they weighed close to 100 t (98 long tons; 110 short tons).

Works of art

The baths were originally ornamented with high quality sculptures, estimated to have numbered more than 120. Despite their location in one of the city’s working class areas, of all the antique baths in Rome the Baths of Caracalla were found to have contained the most lavish assortment of statues. Although many were destroyed in the Middle Ages to make lime, beginning in the 16th century under Pope Paul III Farnese, sculptures were excavated from the area to serve as decorations in newly built palazzi.^[3]:47,51

Among the well-known pieces recovered from the Baths of Caracalla are the Farnese Bull (probably from the eastern palaestra) and Farnese Hercules (from the frigidarium), now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples; others are in the Museo di Capodimonte there. One of the many statues is the colossal 4 m (13 ft) statue of Asclepius.^[3]:47–8

Two granite tubs from the frigidarium were taken to Piazza Farnesewhere they still serve as fountains, made by Girolamo Rainaldi. A granite column from the natatio was taken to Florence by Cosimo I de’ Medici in Piazza Santa Trinita. It is now known as the Column of Justice.^[3]:51

• 

  The Farnese Bull, now at Naples

• 

  One of the statues that adorned the baths was the Farnese Hercules, now at Naples

Use as a cultural venue

Opera and concerts

The central part of the bath complex (the caldarium) was the summer home of the Rome Opera company from 1937 to 1993. In 2001, use of the venue by the opera resumed but it now uses a temporary movable stage outside of the main structure, which reduces the stress on the antique ruins.^[3]:14

It is also a concert venue, having achieved fame as the venue and backdrop for the first Three Tenors concert in 1990.

Sporting

The area was used for the Rome Grand Prix four times between 1947 and 1951.^[12][13]

At the 1960 Summer Olympics, the venue hosted the gymnasticsevents.

Visiting

The extensive ruins of the baths have become a popular tourist attraction. The baths are open to the public for an admission fee. Access is limited to certain areas/walkways to avoid additional damage to the mosaic floors.

Cultural impact

The original Pennsylvania Station, New York City (1916)

The Baths of Caracalla (and especially the central frigidarium) had a significant impact on the architecture of many later buildings. In Roman times, these included the Baths of Diocletian and the Basilica of Maxentius.^[3]:32

In the 19th and early 20th century, the design of the baths was used as the inspiration for several modern structures, including St George’s Hall in Liverpool and the original Pennsylvania Station (demolished in 1963) in New York City.

The main halls of Penn Station and Chicago Union Station made use of direct copies of the frigidarium’s architecture.^[3]:32

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References

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d Dowson, Thomas (22 November 2012). « Going Underground at the Baths of Caracalla – Archaeology Travel ». Archaeology Travel. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
2. ^ Scarre, Chris (1999). Scarre, Chris, ed. The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World: The Great Monuments and How They Were Built (1st ed.). London: Thames & Hudson. p. 178. ISBN 9780500050965.
3. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v wx y z aa ab ac ad ae af} Garbagna, Cristina, ed. (2016). The Baths of Caracalla guide. Mondadori Electa. ISBN 978-88-370-6302-3.
4. ^ Walker, Charles (1980). Wonders of the Ancient World. New York: Crescent Books. pp. 92–93. ISBN 9780517318256.
5. ^ « Rome Guide tourist information – Monuments · Caracalla Thermal Baths ». http://www.rome-guide.it.
6. ^ DeLaine, Janet (1997), The Baths of Caracalla: A study in the design, construction, and economics of large-scale building projects in Imperial Rome, (1st ed.), London: JRA, p. 169.
7. ^ « L’Aquila earthquake damaged ancient baths in Rome ». The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Limited. 6 April 2009. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
8. ^ Kennedy, Maev (24 August 2016). « Art experts fear serious earthquake damage to historic Italian buildings ». The Guardian. Retrieved 27 August2016.
9. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Roth, Leland M. (2007). Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning (2nd ed.). Boulder, Colo.: Westview. ISBN 9780813390451.
10. ^ DeLaine,(1997), The baths of Caracalla,(1st ed.), London: JRA. p. 191.
11. ^ Jump up to:^a b « Mithraeum at the Baths of Caracalla ». American Institute for Roman Culture. 29 November 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
12. ^ « More on Caracalla 1947 ». Caracalla 1947. Archived from the original on 2016-08-27. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
13. ^ Architectural Record, Volumes 19–20. F.W. Dodge Corporation. 1906. p. 454.

• 1960 Summer Olympics official report. Volume 1. pp. 76, 79.
• 1960 Summer Olympic official report. Volume 2. Part 1. p. 345.
• Caracalla Thermal Baths
• High-resolution 360° Panoramas and Images of Baths of Caracalla | Art Atlas

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Giacobbe Giusti, voie Appienne (Via Appia), Rome

 

Giacobbe Giusti, voie Appienne (Via Appia), Rome

 

Giacobbe Giusti, voie Appienne (Via Appia), Rome

 

Giacobbe Giusti, voie Appienne (Via Appia), Rome

 

Giacobbe Giusti, voie Appienne (Via Appia), Rome

 

Giacobbe Giusti, voie Appienne (Via Appia), Rome

 

Giacobbe Giusti, voie Appienne (Via Appia), Rome

 

Giacobbe Giusti, voie Appienne (Via Appia), Rome

Viandanti sull’Appia Antica. Dipinto del 1858 di Arthur John Strutt

Giacobbe Giusti, voie Appienne (Via Appia), Rome

Appia antica (cd. Tumulo dei Curazi)

Giacobbe Giusti, voie Appienne (Via Appia), Rome

Prima pietra miliare dell’Appia antica (riproduzione, l’originale è al Campidoglio File:Campidoglio, Roma – Miliario I.jpg) CIL X 6812: I / Imp(erator) Caesar / Vespasianus Aug(ustus) / pontif(ex) maxim(us) / trib(unicia) potestat(e) VII / imp(erator) XVII p(ater) p(atriae) censor / co(n)s(ul) VII design(atus) VIII CIL X 6813:Imp (rador) Nerva César / Augusto Pontifex / tribunicia Maximus / co potestate (n) s (ul) Pat III (o) / refecit patriae

 

Giacobbe Giusti, voie Appienne (Via Appia), Rome

 

Giacobbe Giusti, voie Appienne (Via Appia), Rome

 

Sepolcro di Hilarus Fuscus

 

Giacobbe Giusti, voie Appienne (Via Appia), Rome

Restes de la Voie Appienne à Rome, près de Quarto Miglio.

Giacobbe Giusti, voie Appienne (Via Appia), Rome

Fontaine sur la Voie Appienne à Formia.

Giacobbe Giusti, voie Appienne (Via Appia), Rome

Les deux colonnes marquant la fin de la Voie Appienne à Brindisi.

La voie Appienne (Via Appia) est une voie romaine de près de 500 km de longueur, partant de Rome, longeant la côte tyrrhénienne, traversant les terres de la Campanie et de la Basilicate pour terminer dans les Pouilles. Elle fut construite en 312 av. J.-C.. Elle joignait à l’origine Rome à Capoue, puis fut prolongée jusqu’à Brindes (Brundisium).

À l’issue de la Troisième Guerre servile en 71 av. J.-C., les esclaves sous le commandement de Spartacusfurent écrasés par Crassus, les 6 000 survivants furent crucifiés le long de la voie Appienne.

La voie Appienne est certainement la voie romaine la mieux conservée, et de nos jours de nombreux vestiges sont encore visibles. Son importance est confirmée par le surnom de « Reine des voies » (Regina Viarum) que lui donnaient les Romains, à l’origine de l’expression prendre « la voie royale »¹.

 

Historique

Les travaux de construction de la voie Appienne débutèrent en 312 av. J.-C., initiés par le censeurAppius Claudius Caecus, appartenant à la famille patricienne des Claudii. Il fit restructurer et élargir une voie préexistante qui reliait Rome à la colline d’Albano.

Le parcours original partait du sud de Rome, près des thermes de Caracalla, passait près des catacombes de Callixte, de saint Sébastien et de sainte Domitille, puis Ariccia, le forum Appio, Terracine, Fondi, Itri, Formia, Minturno (Minturnae), Mondragone(Sinuessa), et enfin Capoue qui était passée sous contrôle romain, Appius Claudius Caecus y voyant un facteur d’unité politique et économique entre les deux villes. La voie avait comme fonction principale d’envoyer le plus vite possible des troupes vers le sud de l’Italie, afin de consolider la domination de Rome sur cette partie de la péninsule². En 191 av. J.-C., elle fut prolongée vers Tarente et Brindisi, plus important port de commerce avec la Grèce et l’Orient à l’époque, et d’où embarquaient les légions pour l’Afrique et l’Asie mineure. D’une largeur très régulière de 4,1 m, elle était pavée de grandes dalles de basalte bombées permettant à deux chariots de se croiser, tandis qu’elle était bordée par des chemins de terre pour piéton qui pouvaient se restaurer, se rafraîchir et se reposer grâce aux tabernae et fontaines qui jalonnaient la route³.

La voie Appienne sous le règne de Trajan aurait subi des transformations pour relier de manière plus directe la ville de Bénéventà Canosa (Canusium) et Bari (Barium), formant la Via Appia Traiana.

Parcours de la Voie Appienne (en rouge).

• 
• 
• 

Première borne milliaire de la Voie Appienne aujourd’hui conservée au Capitole ; une copie de la borne est placée sur le lieu original.

Après la chute de l’Empire Romain la voie Appienne tomba en désuétude mais elle fut empruntée par des pèlerins chrétiens ou des Croisés pour rejoindre la Terre sainte⁴ ; au xviii^e siècle le Pape Pie VI ordonna sa restauration et son utilisation.

De nombreux tronçons de la voie originale ont été préservés jusqu’à nos jours et certains d’entre eux qui ont été modernisés sont encore ouverts au trafic automobile, comme aux environs de la ville de Velletri. Récemment, Jacques de Saint Victors’est efforcé de retrouver et de parcourir le tracé exact de l’antique Voie Appienne, depuis Rome jusqu’à la région des Pouilles. Il en a tiré un récit de voyage plein d’humour, dans lequel se mêlent les réflexions sur l’histoire romaine et l’Italie d’aujourd’hui⁵.

C’est sur cette voie qu’apparurent les premières bornes milliaires.

Promenade

Près du carrefour avec la via di Porta Latina, se trouve la villa du cardinal Bessarion (1403-1472), célèbre humaniste de la Renaissance. Construite au début du XIVe siècle, elle fut restaurée une première fois par le cardinal, à nouveau durant les années 1930.

On découvre ensuite le tombeau des Scipion, utilisé à partir du IIIe siècle, la Porte de Saint-Sébastien, les ruines circulaires de la tombe de Priscilla (Ier siècle ap. J.-C.). Au passage, on accède aux catacombes de Saint-Sébastien et de Domitille. C’est ensuite le tombeau de Cecilia Metella (Ier siècle av. J.-C.). Poursuivant son chemin entre les vestiges de tombeaux, on atteint, au niveau du,cinquième mille, la villa dei Quintilli (IIe siècle ap. J.-C.).

La nouvelle voie Appienne

 Via Appia Nuova.

Nouvelle voie Appienne.
Photo de James Anderson

Une nouvelle voie fut construite parallèlement à l’originale (reprenant parfois le tracé de la voie antique) en 1784 et nommée via Appia Nuova.

Vu l’intérêt historique et les nombreux sites archéologiques présents le long de la voie, il a été proposé plusieurs fois la création d’une aire protégée pour préserver et mettre en valeur toutes ces richesses.

Actuellement le Parc Régional de L’Appia Antica, créé le 10 novembre 1988, abrite une aire d’environ 3 500 hectares autour des villes de Rome, Ciampino et Marino.

Notes et références

1. ↑ Delphine Gaston, Nos 500 expressions populaires préférées, Larousse, 2013, p. 144
2. ↑ Klaus Brantl, Rome la splendide, Süddeutscher Verlag, 1965, p. 78
3. ↑ Mediterra, Presses de Sciences Po, 2014, p. 57
4. ↑ Jacques de Saint Victor, Via Appia, voyage sur la plus ancienne route d’Italie, Éditions des Équateurs, 2016, p. 77.
5. ↑ Jacques de Saint Victor, Id.

• Voie Appienne, sur Wikimedia Commons

Bibliographie

• (it) Rita Turchetti, Sulla Via Appia da Roma a Brindisi, L’Erma di Bretschneider, 2003
• (it) Attilio Stazio, Via Appia: da Roma a Brindisi attraverso Capua e Benevento, Edizioni del sole, 1987
• Jacques de Saint Victor, Via appia, Éditions des Équateurs, 2016, 313 p. (lire en ligne [archive])

Articles connexes

• Liste de voies romaines

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voie_Appienne

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Giacobbe Giusti, Archaeological excavation of ancient Aquinum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Archaeological excavation of ancient Aquinum

La testa di Ercole? (repubblica.it)

Giacobbe Giusti, Archaeological excavation of ancient Aquinum

La testa di Giulio Cesare? (repubblica.it)

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Archaeological excavation of ancient Aquinum

Giacobbe Giusti, Archaeological excavation of ancient Aquinum

 

https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2016/10/monumental-inscription-and-rare-mosaic.html#BimBbihXTBKuz6lG.97

Scoperta una testa di Giulio Cesare?

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

 

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Valeria Messalina

Giacobbe Giusti, Valeria Messalina

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Valeria Messalina

 Messalina (disambiguation).

Valeria Messalina Giacobbe Giusti, Valeria Messalina
Empress consort of the Roman Empire
Tenure	24 January 41 – 48
Born	25 January 17 or 20 Rome, Roman Empire
Died	48 (aged 31 or 28) Gardens of Lucullus, Rome, Roman Empire
Spouse	Claudius
Issue	Claudia Octavia, Empress of Rome Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus
House	Julio-Claudian (by marriage) gens Valeria (by birth)
Father	Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus
Mother	Domitia Lepida the Younger

Valeria Messalina^[1] ([waˈɫɛrja mɛssaːˈliːna], sometimes spelled Messallina; c. 17/20–48) was the third wife of the Roman Emperor Claudius. She was a paternal cousin of the Emperor Nero, a second-cousin of the Emperor Caligula, and a great-grandniece of the Emperor Augustus. A powerful and influential woman with a reputation for promiscuity, she allegedly conspired against her husband and was executed on the discovery of the plot. Her notorious reputation arguably results from political bias, but works of art and literature have perpetuated it into modern times.

Early life

Giacobbe Giusti, Valeria Messalina

Messalina holding her son Britannicus, Louvre

Messalina was the daughter of Domitia Lepida the Youngerand her first cousin Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus.^[2][3]Her mother was the youngest child of the consul Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus and Antonia Major. Her mother’s brother, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, had been the first husband of the future Empress Agrippina the Younger and the biological father of the future Emperor Nero, making Nero Messalina’s first cousin despite a seventeen-year age difference. Messalina’s grandmothers Claudia Marcella and Antonia Major were half sisters. Claudia Marcella, Messalina’s paternal grandmother, was the daughter of Augustus‘ sister Octavia the Younger by her marriage to Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor. Antonia Major, Messalina’s maternal grandmother, was the elder daughter of Octavia by her marriage to Mark Antony, and was Claudius’ maternal aunt. There was, therefore, a large amount of inbreeding in the family.

Little is known about Messalina’s life prior to her marriage in 38 to Claudius, her first cousin once removed, who was then about 47 years old. Two children were born as a result of their union: a daughter Claudia Octavia (born 39 or 40), a future empress, stepsister and first wife to the emperor Nero; and a son, Britannicus. When the Emperor Caligula was murdered in 41, the Praetorian Guard proclaimed Claudius the new emperor and Messalina became empress.

Reputation

With her accession to power, Messalina enters history with a reputation as ruthless, predatory and sexually insatiable. Her husband is represented as easily led by her and unconscious of her many adulteries. In 48 AD, he went away on a trip and was informed when he returned that Messalina had gone so far as to marry her latest lover, Senator Gaius Silius. While many would have ordered her death, the Emperor offered her another chance. Seeing that as weakness, one of his head officers went behind the Emperor’s back and ordered Messalina’s death. Upon hearing the news, the Emperor did not react and simply asked for another chalice of wine. The Roman Senate then ordered a damnatio memoriae so that Messalina’s name would be removed from all public and private places and all statues of her would be taken down.

Messalina working in a brothel: etching by Agostino Carracci, late 16th century

The historians who relay such stories, principally Tacitus and Suetonius, wrote some 70 years after the events in an environment hostile to the imperial line to which Messalina had belonged. Suetonius’ history is largely scandal-mongering. Tacitus claims to be transmitting ‘what was heard and written by my elders’ without naming sources other than the memoirs of Agrippina the Younger, who had arranged to displace Messalina’s children in the imperial succession and was therefore particularly interested in blackening her predecessor’s name.^[4] It has been argued that what passes for history is largely a result of the political sanctions that followed her death.^[5]

Accusations of sexual excess were a tried and tested smear tactic and the result of ‘politically motivated hostility’.^[6] Two accounts especially have added to her notoriety. One is the story of her all-night sex competition with a prostitute in Book X of Pliny the Elder‘s Natural History, according to which the competition lasted for 24 hours and Messalina won with a score of 25 partners.^[7] The poet Juvenal gives an equally well known description in his sixth satire of how the Empress used to work clandestinely all night in a brothel under the name of the She-Wolf.^[8] He also alludes to the story of how she compelled Gaius Silius to divorce his wife and marry her in his Satire X.^[9]

Ancestry

showAncestors of Messalina

Messalina in the arts

Peder Severin Krøyer, Messalina, 1881, Gothenburg Museum of Art

To call a woman « a Messalina » indicates a devious and sexually voracious personality. The historical figure and her fate were often used in the arts to make a moral point, but there was often as well a prurient fascination with her sexually-liberated behaviour.^[10] In modern times, that has led to exaggerated works which have been described as romps.^[11]

The ambivalent attitude to Messalina can be seen in the late mediaeval French prose work in the J. Paul Getty Museumillustrated by the Master of Boucicaut, Tiberius, Messalina, and Caligula reproach one another in the midst of flames. It recounts a dialogue that takes place in hell between the three characters from the same imperial line. Messalina wins the debate by demonstrating that their sins were far worse than hers and suggests that they repent of their own wickedness before reproaching her as they had done.^[12]

While Messalina’s wicked behavior towards others is given full emphasis, and even exaggerated in early works, her sexual activities have been treated more sympathetically. In the 1524 illustrations of 16 sexual positions known as I Modi, each was named after a couple from Classical history or myth, which included « Messalina in the Booth of Lisisca ». Although early editions were destroyed by religious censorship, Agostino Caracci‘s later copies have survived (see above).

Later painting and sculpture

One of the few avenues to drawing a moral lesson from the story of Messalina in painting was to picture her violent end. An early example was Francesco Solimena‘s The Death of Messalina (1708).^[13] In this scene of vigorous action, a Roman soldier pulls back his arm to stab the Empress while fending off her mother. A witness in armour observes calmly from the shadows in the background. Georges Rochegrosse‘s painting of 1916 is a reprise of the same scene.^[14] A mourning woman dressed in black leaves with her face covered as a soldier drags back Messalina’s head, watched by a courtier with the order for execution in his hand. The Danish royal painter Nicolai Abildgaard, however, preferred to feature “The Dying Messalina and her Mother” (1797) in a quieter setting. The mother weeps beside her daughter as she lies extended on the ground in a garden setting.^[15] A French treatment by Victor Biennoury (1823–1893) makes the lesson of poetic justice plainer by specifically identifying the scene of Messalina’s death as the garden which she had obtained by having its former owner executed on a false charge. Now she crouches at the foot of a wall carved with the name of Lucullus and is denounced by a dark-clothed figure as a soldier advances on her drawing his sword.^[16]

Two Low Countries painters emphasised Messalina’s depravity by picturing her wedding with Gaius Silius. The one by Nicolaus Knüpfer, dated about 1650, is so like contemporary brothel scenes that its subject is ambiguous and has been disputed. A richly dressed drunkard lies back on a bed between two women while companions look anxiously out of the window and another struggles to draw his sword.^[17]The later “Landscape with Messalina’s Wedding” by Victor Honoré Janssens pictures the seated empress being attired before the ceremony.^[18] Neither scene looks much like a wedding, but rather they indicate the age’s sense of moral outrage at this travesty of marriage. That was further underlined by a contemporary Tarot card in which card 6, normally titled “The Lover(s)”, has been retitled “Shameless” (impudique) and pictures Messalina leaning against a carved chest. Beneath is the explanation that “she reached such a point of insolence that, because of the stupidity of her husband, she dared to marry a young Roman publicly in the Emperor’s absence”.^[19]

Messalina, Eugène Cyrille Brunet(1884). Museum of Fine Arts of Rennes.

Later artists show scenes of more overt debauchery or, like the Italian A. Pigma in When Claudius is away, Messalina will play (1911),^[20] hint that it will soon follow. What was to follow is depicted in Federico Faruffini‘s The orgies of Messalina(1867–1868).^[21] A more private liaison is treated in Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida‘s Messalina in the Arms of the Gladiator(1886).^[22] This takes place in an interior, with the empress reclining bare breasted against the knees of a naked gladiator.

Juvenal’s account of her nights spent in the brothel is commonly portrayed. Gustave Moreau painted her leading another man onto the bed while an exhausted prostitute sleeps in the background,^[23] while in Paul Rouffio’s painting of 1875 she reclines bare-breasted as a slave offers grapes.^[24] The Dane Peder Severin Krøyer depicted her standing, her full body apparent under the thin material of her dress. The ranks of her customers are just visible behind the curtain against which she stands (see above). Two drawings by Aubrey Beardsley were produced for a private printing of Juvenal’s satires (1897). The one titled Messalina and her companion showed her on the way to the brothel,^[25] while a rejected drawing is usually titled Messalina returning from the bath.^[26]

Alternatively, artists drew on Pliny’s account of her sex competition. The Brazilian Henrique Bernardelli (1857-1936) showed her lying across the bed at the moment of exhaustion afterwards.^[27] So also did Eugène Cyrille Brunet‘s dramatic marble sculpture, dating from 1884 (see above), while in the Czech Jan Štursa‘s standing statue of 1912 she is holding a last piece of clothing by her side at the outset.^[28]

Stage productions

One of the earliest stage productions to feature the fall of the empress was The Tragedy of Messalina(1639) by Nathanael Richards,^[29] where she is depicted as a monster and used as a foil to attack the Roman Catholic wife of the English king Charles I.^[30] She is treated as equally villainous in the VenetianPietro Zaguri’s La Messalina (1656). This was a 4-act prose tragedy with four songs, described as an opera scenica, that revolved around the affair with Gaius Silius that brought about her death. Carlo Pallavicino was to follow with a full blown Venetian opera in 1679 that combined eroticism with morality.^[31]

During the last quarter of the 19th century the idea of the femme fatale came into prominence and encouraged many more works featuring Messalina. 1874 saw the Austrian verse tragedy Arria und Messalina by Adolf Wilbrandt^[32] which was staged with success across Europe for many years. It was followed in 1877 by Pietro Cossa‘s Italian verse tragedy, where Messalina figures as a totally unrestrained woman in pursuit of love.^[33] Another 5-act verse tragedy was published in Philadelphia in 1890,^[34] authored by Algernon Sydney Logan (1849-1925), who had liberal views on sex.^[35]

As well as drama, the story of Messalina was adapted to ballet and opera. Luigi Danesi’s 1884 ballet was made a fantastical spectacle at the Eden-Theatre in Paris, with its elephants, horses, massive crowd scenes and circus games in which rows of bare-legged female gladiators preceded the fighters.^[36][37] Isidore de Lara‘s opera Messaline, based on a 4-act verse tragedy by Armand Silvestre and Eugène Morand, centred upon the love of the empress for a poet and then his gladiator brother. It opened in Monte Carlo in 1899 and went on to Covent Garden.^[38] The ailing Henri de Toulouse-Lautrecsaw the Bordeaux production and was inspired to paint six scenes from it, including Messalina Seated^[39] and Messalina descending the staircase.^[40]

In 1914 there was a 3-act German Expressionist tragedy by Hermann Kesser, Kaiserin Messalina. And in 2009 the theme was updated by Benjamin Askew in his UK play In Bed With Messalina, which features her final hours.^[41]

Stars of stage and screen

From the last quarter of the 19th century onwards, the role of Messalina has been as much about the stardom of those who played her as about the social message of the works in which she appeared.^[42]The star’s name appeared in large print on the posters of the works in which she played. She was constantly featured in the gossip columns. Her role was iconised photographically, which she often inscribed for her admirers.^[43] Pictures of her as Messalina adorned the theatre magazines and were sold in their thousands as postcards. This was as true in drama and opera as it was of those who portrayed the empress in movies and television films or miniseries. The role itself added to or established their reputations. And, with the growing permissiveness of modern times, that might rather amount to notoriety for those adult films in which athletic stamina was more of a requirement than acting ability.

Giacobbe Giusti, Valeria Messalina

Hans Makart’s painting of Charlotte Wolter in Adolf Wilbrandt’s tragedy, Arria und Messalina

Wilbrandt’s Arria und Messalina was specially written for Charlotte Wolter, who was painted in her role by Hans Makart in 1875. There she reclines on a chaise-longue with the city of Rome lit by fire in the background. As well as a preparatory photograph of her dressed as in the painting,^[44] there were also posed cabinet photos of her in a plainer dress.^[45]Other stars were involved when the play went on tour in various translations. Lilla Bulyovszkyné (1833-1909) starred in the Hungarian production in 1878^[46] and Irma Temesváryné-Farkas in that of 1883; ^[47] Louise Fahlman (1856-1918) played in the 1887 Stockholm production,^[48] Marie Pospíšilová (1862-1943) in the 1895 Czech production.^[49]

In Italy, Cossa’s drama was acted with Virginia Marini in the role of Messalina.^[50]

Both the Parisian leads in Danesi’s ballet were photographed by Nadar: Elena Cornalba in 1885^[51] and Mlle Jaeger later.^[52] During its 1898 production in Turin, Anita Grassi was the lead.^[53]

Meyriane Héglon starred in the Monte Carlo and subsequent London productions of De Lara’s Messaline,^[54] while Emma Calvé starred in the 1902 Paris production,^[55][56] where she was succeeded by Cécile Thévenet.^[57] Others who sang in the role were Maria Nencioni in 1903, ^[58] Jeanne Dhasty in the Nancy (1903) and Algiers (1907) productions,^[59] Charlotte Wyns (1868-c.1917) in the 1904 Aix les Bains production,^[60] and Claire Croiza, who made her debut in the 1905 productions in Nancy and Lille.^[61]

Films

After a slow start in the first half of the 20th century, the momentum of films about or featuring Messalina increased with censorship’s decline. The following starred in her part:

• Madeleine Roch (1883-1930) in the French silent film Messaline (1910)^[62][63]
• Maria Caserini in the 1910 Italian silent film The Love of an Empress (Messalina).
• Rina De Liguoro in the 1923 Italian silent film Messalina, alternatively titled The Fall of an Empress.^[64] A cut version with dubbed dialogue was released in 1935.
• Merle Oberon in the 1937 uncompleted film of I, Claudius.^[65]
• María Félix in the 1951 Italian film Messalina. This also carried the titles Empress of Rome^[66] and The Affairs of Messalina.^[67]
• Ludmilla Dudarova during a flashback in Nerone e Messalina (Italy, 1953), which had the English title Nero and the Burning of Rome.^[68]
• Susan Hayward in the 1954 Biblical epic Demetrius and the Gladiators,^[69] a completely fictionalized interpretation in which a reformed Messalina bids a penitential public farewell to her Christian gladiator lover, Demetrius, and takes her place on the throne next to her husband, the new emperor Claudius.^[70]
• Belinda Lee in the 1960 film Messalina, venere imperatrice.^[71]
• Lisa Gastoni in the Italian L’ultimo gladiatore, also titled Messalina vs. the Son of Hercules (1963).^[72]
• Nicola Pagett in the 1968 ITV television series The Caesars.^[73]The series is noted for its historically accurate depiction of Roman history and personages, including a less sensationalised portrayal of Messalina.
• Sheila White in the 1976 BBC serial I, Claudius.^[74]
• Anneka Di Lorenzo in the 1979 film Caligula, and the 1977 comedy Messalina, Messalina, which used many of the same set pieces as the earlier-filmed, but later released Caligula.^[75] An alternative European title for the 1977 production was Messalina, Empress and Whore.^[76][77]
• Betty Roland in the Franco-Italian Caligula and Messalina (1981).^[78]
• Raquel Evans in the 1982 Spanish comedy Bacanales Romanas, released in English as My Nights with Messalina.^[79]
• Jennifer O’Neill in the 1985 TV series AD.^[80]
• Kelly Trump in the 1996 adult film Messalina (Les Orgies de Messaline).^[81]
• Sonia Aquino in the 2004 TV movie Imperium: Nero.^[82]
• Tabea Tarbiat in the 2014 film Nymphomaniac Volume II.

Novels

An early fiction concerning the Empress, La Messalina by Francesco Pona, appeared in Venice in 1633. This managed to combine a high degree of eroticism with a demonstration of how private behavior has a profound effect on public affairs. Nevertheless, a passage such as

Messalina tossing in the turbulence of her thoughts did not sleep at night; and if she did sleep, Morpheus slept at her side, prompting stirrings in her, robing and disrobing a thousand images that her sexual fantasies during the day had suggested

helps explain how the novel was at once among the most popular, and the most frequently banned, books of the century, despite its moral pretensions.^[83]

Much the same point about the catastrophic effect of sexuality was made by Gregorio Leti‘s political pamphlet, The amours of Messalina, late queen of Albion, in which are briefly couch’d secrets of the imposture of the Cambrion prince, the Gothick league, and other court intrigues of the four last years reign, not yet made publick (1689).^[84] This was yet another satire on a Stuart Queen, Mary of Modena in this case, camouflaged behind the character of Messalina.

A 16th-century cameo of Messalina and her children

A very early treatment in English of Messalina’s liaison with Gaius Silius and her subsequent death appeared in the fictionalised story included in the American author Edward Maturin‘s Sejanus And Other Roman Tales (1839).^[85] But the part she plays in Robert Graves‘ novels, I, Claudius and Claudius the God (1934–35), is better known. In it she is portrayed as a teenager at the time of her marriage but credited with all the actions mentioned in the ancient sources. An attempt to create a film based on them in 1937 failed,^[86] but they were adapted into a very successful TV series in 1976.

In 19th century France, the story of Messalina was subject to literary transformation. It underlaid La femme de Claude (Claudius’ wife, 1873), the novel by Alexandre Dumas fils, where the hero is Claude Ruper, an embodiment of the French patriotic conscience after the country’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. In contrast, his wife Césarine (the female Caesar) is a creature totally corrupt at all levels, who sells her husband’s work to the enemy and is eventually shot by him.^[87] Alfred Jarry‘s ‘pataphysical’ novel Messaline of 1901 (titled The Garden of Priapus in Louis Colman’s English translation), though lightly based on the historical account, is chiefly the product of the author’s fanciful and extravagant imagination and has been compared with the treatment of Classical themes by Art Nouveau artists.^[88]

In fact, Jarry’s was just one of five contemporary French novels treating Messalina in a typically fin de siècle manner. They also included Prosper Castanier’s L’Orgie Romaine (Roman Orgy, 1897), Nonce Casanova’s Messaline, roman de la Rome impériale (Mesalina, a novel of imperial Rome, 1902) and Louis Dumont’s La Chimère, Pages de la Décadence (The Chimaera, Decadent Pages, 1902). However, the most successful and inventive stylistically was Felicien Champsaur‘s novel L’Orgie Latine (1903) ^[89]Although Messalina is referenced throughout its episodic coverage of degenerate times, she features particularly in the third section, “The Naked Empress” (L’impératice nue), dealing with her activities in the brothel, and the sixth, “Messalina’s End”, beginning with her wedding to Silius and ending with her enforced death.^[90]

Sensational fictional treatments have persisted, as in Vivian Crockett’s Messalina, the wickedest woman in Rome (1924), Marise Querlin’s Messaline, impératrice du feu (The fiery empress, 1955), Jack Oleck‘s Messalina: a novel of imperial Rome (1959) and Siegfried Obermeier’s Messalina, die lasterhafte Kaiserin (The empress without principle, 2002). Oleck’s novel went through many editions and was later joined by Kevin Matthews’ The Pagan Empress (1964). Both have since been included under the genre « toga porn ».^[91] They are rivalled by Italian and French adult comics, sometimes of epic proportions, such as the 59 episodes devoted to Messalina in the Italian Venus of Rome series (1967-74). More recent examples include Jean-Yves Mitton’s four-part series in France (2011-13) and Dominici Arturo’s Messaline in the Succubi series (2014), in which « a woman without taboos or scruples throws light on pitiless ancient Rome ».^[92]

Contrasting views have lately been provided by two French biographies. Jacqueline Dauxois gives the traditional picture in her lurid biography in Pygmalion’s Legendary Queens series (2013),^[93] while the historian Jean-Noël Castorio (b.1971) seeks to uncover the true facts of the woman behind Juvenal’s 6th satire in his revisionist Messaline, la putain impériale (The imperial whore, 2015).^[94]

Sources

• Cassius Dio, Roman History, LX. 14–18, 27–31
• Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews XX. 8; The Wars of the Jews II. 12
• Juvenal, Satires 6, 10, 14
• Pliny the Elder, Natural History 10
• Plutarch, Lives
• Seneca the Younger, Apocolocyntosis divi Claudii; Octavia, 257–261
• Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars: Claudius 17, 26, 27, 29, 36, 37, 39; Nero 6; Vitellius 2
• Tacitus, Annals, XI. 1, 2, 12, 26–38
• Sextus Aurelius Victor, epitome of Book of Caesars, 4

References

• (in French) Minaud, Gérard, Les vies de 12 femmes d’empereur romain – Devoirs, Intrigues & Voluptés , Paris, L’Harmattan, 2012, ch. 2, La vie de Messaline, femme de Claude, p. 39-64.
• Tatum, W. Jeffrey; The Patrician Tribune: Publius Clodius Pulcher (The University of North Carolina Press, 1999).
• Mudd, Mary; I, Livia: The Counterfeit Criminal. the Story of a Much Maligned Woman (Trafford Publishing, 2012).
• Barrett, Anthony A. (1996). Agrippina: Sex, Power and Politics in the Early Roman Empire. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Klebs, E. (1897–1898). H. Dessau, P. Von Rohden, ed. Prosopographia Imperii Romani. Berlin.
• Levick, Barbara (1990). Claudius. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Dina Sahyouni,  » Le pouvoir critique des modèles féminins dans les Mémoires secrets : le cas de Messaline « , in Le règne de la critique. L’imaginaire culturel des mémoires secrets, sous la direction de Christophe Cave, Paris, Honoré Champion, 2010, p. 151–160.

Notes

1. Jump up^ Prosopographia Imperii Romani V 161
2. Jump up^ Prosopographia Imperii Romani V 88
3. Jump up^ Suetonius, Vita Claudii, 26.29
4. Jump up^ K.A.Hosack, « Can One Believe the Ancient Sources That Describe Messalina? », Constructing the Past12.1, 2011]
5. Jump up^ Harriet I. Flower, The Art of Forgetting: Disgrace and Oblivion in Roman Political Culture, University of North Carolina 2011, pp 182-9
6. Jump up^ Thomas A. J. McGinn, Prostitution, Sexuality, and the Law in Ancient Rome, Oxford University 1998 p 170
7. Jump up^ Online translation, X ch.83
8. Jump up^ Poetry in translation, VI.114-135
9. Jump up^ Translation by A. S. Kline, lines 329-336
10. Jump up^ Peter Maxwell Cryle, The Telling of the Act: Sexuality As Narrative in Eighteenth- And Nineteenth-Century France, University of Delaware 2001. Messalina chapter, p. 281ff
11. Jump up^ ‘Jack Oleck’s Messalina is a full-on romp in the salacious world of Imperial Rome’; My nights with Messalina is a stupid little romp, and quite good at it too’
12. Jump up^ Wiki-Commons
13. Jump up^ Getty Museum
14. Jump up^ Fine Art Library
15. Jump up^ Wiki-Commons
16. Jump up^ Wiki-Commons
17. Jump up^ Wiki-Commons
18. Jump up^ Wiki-Commons
19. Jump up^ European art portal
20. Jump up^ [1]
21. Jump up^ Wiki-Commons
22. Jump up^ Wiki-Commons
23. Jump up^ Museum of Art
24. Jump up^ Art Value
25. Jump up^ Tate Art Gallery
26. Jump up^ Wikipaintings
27. Jump up^ Wiki-Commons
28. Jump up^ Wiki-Commons
29. Jump up^ Online text
30. Jump up^ Lisa Hopkins, The Cultural Uses of the Caesars on the English Renaissance Stage, 2008 pp 135-7
31. Jump up^ Wendy Heller, Emblems of Eloquence: Opera and Women’s Voices in Seventeenth-Century Venice, University of California 2003, pp.277-97
32. Jump up^ Google Books
33. Jump up^ Google Books
34. Jump up^ Online Archive
35. Jump up^ Collecting Delaware Books
36. Jump up^ Sarah Gutsche-Miller, Pantomime-Ballet on the Music-Hall Stage, McGill University thesis, 2010,p.36
37. Jump up^ Magazine illustration
38. Jump up^ Poster
39. Jump up^ Wikipaintings
40. Jump up^ Wikipaintings
41. Jump up^ British Theatre Guide
42. Jump up^ p.342
43. Jump up^ Thomas F. Connolly, Genus Envy: Nationalities, Identities, and the Performing Body of Work, Cambria Press 2010, pp.102-3
44. Jump up^ [2]
45. Jump up^ Austrian picture archive
46. Jump up^ Poster
47. Jump up^ Poster
48. Jump up^ photographic portraits on Wiki-Commons and Alamy
49. Jump up^ Cabinet photograph
50. Jump up^ Photo
51. Jump up^ Gallica
52. Jump up^ Gallica
53. Jump up^ Programme
54. Jump up^ Postcard
55. Jump up^ Archived score.
56. Jump up^ Photo on Pinterest
57. Jump up^ Photographs
58. Jump up^ Postcard,
59. Jump up^ Postcard
60. Jump up^ “Charlotte Wyns” at Art Lyrique
61. Jump up^ Photograph on Wiki-Commons
62. Jump up^ Frédéric Zarch, Catalogue des films projetés à Saint-Étienne avant la première guerre mondiale, Université de Saint-Etienne, 2000, p.209
63. Jump up^ Poster
64. Jump up^ Poster
65. Jump up^ Flickr
66. Jump up^ Film poster
67. Jump up^ Poster
68. Jump up^ Archivo Storico del Cinema
69. Jump up^ Poster with Hayward in the foreground
70. Jump up^ Martin M. Winkler, Cinema and Classical Texts: Apollo’s New Light, Cambridge University 2009, p.232
71. Jump up^ The German poster
72. Jump up^ Poster and stills
73. Jump up^ Publicity poster
74. Jump up^ Still from the brothel scene
75. Jump up^ IMDB – Messalina, Empress of Rome (1977)
76. Jump up^ Gary Allen Smith, Epic Films: Casts, Credits and Commentary, McFardland 2004, p.168
77. Jump up^ Poster
78. Jump up^ Poster on Pinterest
79. Jump up^ Poster
80. Jump up^ TV photo
81. Jump up^ Poster on film database
82. Jump up^ Publicity photo
83. Jump up^ Wendy Heller, Emblems of Eloquence: Opera and Women’s Voices in Seventeenth-Century Venice, University of California 2003, pp.273-5
84. Jump up^ Google Books
85. Jump up^ pp.82-110
86. Jump up^ William Hawes, Caligula and the Fight for Artistic Freedom, Jefferson NC 2009, pp.14-16
87. Jump up^ Epelorient
88. Jump up^ The Nineteenth Century in Two Parts, Syracuse University 1994 p.1214
89. Jump up^ Archived online; there has also been a recent translation as The Latin Orgy.
90. Jump up^ Marie-France David-de Palacio, Reviviscences romaines: la latinité au miroir de l’esprit fin-de-siècle, Peter Lang, 2005, p.232
91. Jump up^ Joanne Renaud, in Astonishing Adventures Magazine 5, 2009, pp.52-5
92. Jump up^ Comics & Antiquité
93. Jump up^ Messaline
94. Jump up^ Histoire pour tous

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messalina

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Theatre of Marcellus

Giacobbe Giusti, Theatre of Marcellus

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Theatre of Marcellus

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Theatre of Marcellus

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Theatre of Marcellus

Giacobbe Giusti, Theatre of Marcellus

Situation du théâtre sur le plan de Rome d’Italo Gismondi.

Giacobbe Giusti, Theatre of Marcellus

Fragment d’un masque de théâtre sculpté.

Giacobbe Giusti, Theatre of Marcellus

Fragment d’un chapiteau corinthien.

Giacobbe Giusti, Theatre of Marcellus

Palazzo Savelli prenant appui sur des passages du théâtre.

Giacobbe Giusti, Theatre of Marcellus

Fenêtres du Palazzo Savelli-Orsini au-dessus du deuxième étage.

Giacobbe Giusti, Theatre of Marcellus

Détail de l’arcade et des deux ordres superposés : premier étage dorique et deuxième étage ionique.

Giacobbe Giusti, Theatre of Marcellus

Voûte de l’ambulacre.

Theatre of Marcellus Giacobbe Giusti, Theatre of Marcellus
Theatre of Marcellus (above)
Location	Regione IX Circus Flaminius
Built in	13 BC
Built by/for	Julius Caesar Augustus Caesar / Marcus Marcellus
Type of structure	Roman theatre (structure)
Related	List of ancient monuments in Rome
Theatre of Marcellus

The Theatre of Marcellus (Latin: Theatrum Marcelli, Italian: Teatro di Marcello) is an ancient open-air theatre in Rome, Italy, built in the closing years of the Roman Republic. At the theatre, locals and visitors alike were able to watch performances of drama and song. Today its ancient edifice in the rione of Sant’Angelo, Rome, once again provides one of the city’s many popular spectacles or tourist sites. Space for the theatre was cleared by Julius Caesar, who was murdered before its construction could begin; the theatre was advanced enough by 17 BC that part of the celebration of the ludi saeculares took place within the theatre; it was completed in 13 BC and formally inaugurated in 12 BC by Augustus.^[1]

The theatre was 111 m in diameter and was the largest and most important theatre in Ancient Rome;^[2] it could originally hold between 11,000 and 20,000 spectators.^[1][2]It was an impressive example of what was to become one of the most pervasive urban architectural forms of the Roman world. The theatre was built mainly of tuff, and concrete faced with stones in the pattern known as opus reticulatum, completely sheathed in white travertine. However, it is also the earliest dateable building in Rome to make use of fired Roman brick, then a new introduction from the Greek world.^[3]

The network of arches, corridors, tunnels and ramps that gave access to the interiors of such Roman theatres were normally ornamented with a screen of engaged columns in Greek orders: Doric at the base, Ionic in the middle. It is believed that Corinthian columns were used for the upper level but this is uncertain as the theatre was reconstructed in the Middle Ages, removing the top tier of seating and the columns.^[1]

Like other Roman theatres in suitable locations, it had openings through which the natural setting could be seen, in this case the Tiber Island to the southwest. The permanent setting, the scaena, also rose to the top of the cavea as in other Roman theatres.

Giacobbe Giusti, Theatre of Marcellus

End section, showing later redevelopment

The theatre fell out of use in the early 4th century and the structure served as a quarry for e.g. the Pons Cestius in 370 AD. However, the statues located inside the building were restored by Petronius Maximus in 421 and the remaining structure still housed small residential buildings. In the Early Middle Ages the theatre was used as a fortress of the Fabii and then at the end of the 11th century (when it was known as templum Marcelli), by Pier Leoni and later his heirs (the Pierleoni). This saved the complex from further destruction. The Savelli held it in the 13th century. Later, in the 16th century, the residence of the Orsini, designed by Baldassare Peruzzi, was built atop the ruins of the ancient theatre. By the 19th century, rises in the street level meant that almost half the ground floor was below it.

Now the upper floors are divided into multiple apartments, and its surroundings are used as a venue for small summer concerts; the Portico d’Ottavia lies to the north west leading to the Roman Ghetto and the Tiber to the south west.

In the 17th century, the English architect Sir Christopher Wren explicitly acknowledged that his design for the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford was influenced by Serlio‘s engraving of the Theatre of Marcellus.

Copies

A 1:100 scale model of the theatre is found in Room IX of the Museo della Civiltà Romana in Rome.^[4]

Giacobbe Giusti, Theatre of Marcellus

• 

  The arcade wall exposed

• 

  Along the arcades

• 

  Appearance in 1575

• 

  G.B. Piranesi‘s etching of a Doric bay]]

References

Theatre of Marcellus (Rome).

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Leland M. Roth 1993 Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History and Meaning (Westview Press: Boulder, CO ISBN 0-06-430158-3 and Cassius Dio 53.30.5., pp 230-31
2. ^ Jump up to:^a b Cartwright, Mark. « Theatre of Marcellus ». Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia Limited. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
3. Jump up^ Blagg, T.F.C., « Brick and tile » section, in « Architecture, 1, a) Religious », section in Diane Favro, et al. « Rome, ancient. » Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed March 26, 2016, subscription required
4. Jump up^ « Room XI: Augustus », Museo della Civiltà Romana [1]

• High-resolution 360° Panoramas and Images of Theater of Marcellus | Art Atlas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_Marcellus

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus, Fiel of Mars

Giacobbe Giusti, Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus, Fiel of Mars

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus, Fiel of Mars

Giacobbe Giusti, Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus, Fiel of Mars

Giacobbe Giusti, Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus, Fiel of Mars

Giacobbe Giusti, Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus, Fiel of Mars

 

Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus Giacobbe Giusti, Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus, Fiel of Mars
Location	Field of Mars [1]
Built in	Between 122 and 115 BC
Built by/for	Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus
Type of structure	bas-relief
Related	List of ancient monuments in Rome
Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus

The Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus, more properly called the Statuary group base of Domitius Ahenobarbus, is a series of four sculpted marble plaques which probably decorated a base which supported cult statues in the cella of a Temple of Neptune located in Rome on the Field of Mars.

The frieze is dated to the end of the second century BC,^{[n 1]} which makes it the second oldest Roman bas-relief currently known.^{[n 2]} However, there is also a contemporaneous relief depicting a Roman navalbireme with armed marines,^[1] from a temple of Palastrina built c. 120 BC.^[2]

The sculpted panels are still visible today, with one portion on display at the Louvre (Ma 975^{[m 1]}) and another at the Glyptothek in Munich (Inv. 239). A copy of this second piece can be seen at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

Context

The base was found in the Temple of Neptune built near the Circus Flaminius,^{[a 1][n 3]} by the Field of Mars. Remains of this temple may have recently been discovered under the church of Santa Maria in Poblicolis, but their identification remains uncertain.^[3]

Antiquity

The reliefs seem to have been produced during the construction of a Temple of Neptune on the Field of Mars. A general, probably Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, vowed to build a temple for the god of the sea after a naval victory, perhaps the one won off Samos in 129 or 128 against Aristonicus who had attempted to oppose the donation of Pergamon to Rome by the will of King Attalos III. The construction of the temple (or restoration of a pre-existing temple) only dates to 122 BC, the year in which Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus attained the consulship.^[3][4]

The reliefs, from the base of the cult statue, which originally consisted only of mythological scenes were brought to completion after Domitius Ahenobarbus’ censorship in 115 BC with a fourth panel. Other hypotheses however suggest the censorships of L. Valerius Flaccus and Marcus Antonius, who could equally be connected with the motifs of the reliefs.^[5]

In 41 BC, Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus (descendant of the aforementioned), a supporter of the Republican party and of the assassins of Caesar had an aureusminted on the occasion of a victory over a supporter of Octavian, which featured the image of his ancestor on the obverse and a tetrastyle temple on the reverse, with the inscription NEPT CN DOMITIUS L F IMP (Cn. Domitius, son of Lucius, Imperator, to Neptune.^{[m 2]}

Renaissance

The reliefs are mentioned in 1629 and 1631 after having been uncovered during the works undertaken by the Roman Santacroce family between 1598 and 1641, which included notably the construction and expansion of a palace near the Tiber by the architect Peparelli. The reliefs had been reused as decoration in the palace courtyard,^[5] where they are attested in 1683.^[6]

Description

Cast of the mythological panels, Pushkin Museum.

Despite their common name, the reliefs probably did not originally form part of an altar, but a large rectangular base (5.6 m long, 1.75 m wide, and 0.8 m high),^[7] intended to support the cult statues.^[3] These included works attributed to the Greek sculptor Scopas,^{[n 4]} like the important statuary group featuring Neptune, Thetis, Achilles, the Nereids, Tritons and Phorcys with sea monsters and other fantastic creatures.^{[a 1]}

The reliefs consist of two large panels on the long sides of the base and two smaller panels for the short sides. The large panel conserved in the Louvre is typical of Roman civic art and depicts a scene which one would only find at Rome in this period: the census. The other three panels depict a mythological theme in a Hellenistic style: the marriage of Neptune and Amphitrite. Given the difference in style, subject and material, it is thought that the two friezes are not contemporary.^[6] The mythological frieze seems to have been executed earlier, covering the three visible sides of the base, which would originally have been connected to the back wall of the cella. Some years later, the base would have been shifted away from the wall, freeing the fourth side for the panel depicting the census.^[3][7]

Historic scene

The historic panel of the base, 5.65 metres long, 0.80 metres high and 0.015 metres thick, is a bas relief of Parian marble, depicting the different stages in a census of the Roman citizen body.^[3] The relief, which is one of the first examples of the continuous narrative style,^{[m 3]} is read from left to right and can be divided into three scenes: the recording of the Roman citizens in the register of the censor, the purification of the army before an altar dedicated to Mars and the levy of the soldiers.

Historic face of the base of Domitius Ahenobarbus.

Giacobbe Giusti, Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus, Fiel of Mars

Registration of Roman citizens.

First scene

At the very left of the bas-relief, an official involved in the census(the iuratoror « oath taker ») records the identity and the property holdings of a man standing before him, holding wax tablets in one hand and stretching out the other, in the gesture of the oath (professio). His statements are recorded in a codex, made up of two wooden tabulae, which the iurator has on his knees. Six more of these codices can be seen stacked at his feet.^{[m 4]}The identity of this man is not absolutely certain, his identification as the iurator is challenged by a detail: he appears to be wearing calcei, special shoes reserved for individuals of Senatorial rank. So he might even be one of the two censors.^[6]

This scene marks the beginning of the Roman census, the period when all Roman citizens were recorded. Based on each individual’s wealth, the censor, the Roman magistrate here shown to the right of the citizen performing the professio, determined who would sit in the senate and who would serve in the military, which the Romans considered an honour. The censor is depicted with one hand on the shoulder of a fourth person who wears a toga. By this gesture (the manumissio), the censor accepts his declaration and renders his judgement (the discriptio), which concluded the process of assigning the individual to a class. The citizen points to an infantryman with his hand, indicating to him the centuria to which he belongs.^{[m 5]} The scene might depict the censorate of Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus and L. Caecilius Metellus in 115 BC.

Second scene

Purification of the army.

Levy of the army.

A religious scene follows, the ceremony of the lustrum, which legitimated the censusand is presided over by one of the two censors, who touches the altar of Mars with his right hand. Mars is represented in full armour to the left of the altar. At right, three sacrificial victims are led up, the bull, the ram and the pig (the suovetaurilia) which were to be sacrificed in honour of the god in order to secure good fortune for the departure of the troops. The censor is helped during the ceremony by young assistants (camilla), one in the process of pouring the lustral water. Behind Mars, two musicians accompany the sacrifice, one playing the lyre and the other the tibia. The same to accompany the camillus who stands behind the altar and sings the precatio (prayer).^{[m 6]} The second censor advances behind the victims, holding a standard (vexillum).^[3]

Third scene

Finally, at the far right of the bas relief there are two infantrymen and a horseman (eques) with his horse. Along with the other two infantrymen depicted in the first and second scenes, the scene recalls the existence of four classes of mobalisable infantry (pedites) and a class of cavalry formed from the aristocracy.^[3]

Mythological scene

The panels bearing the mythological scene, a marine thiasos of late Hellenistic style, are made of a different marble derived from Asia Minor.^[7][3] They are conserved at the Munich Glyptothek. The reliefs probably depict the marriage of Neptune and Amphitrite.

Marine thiasos on the reliefs of Domitius Ahenobarbus, front panel.

At the centre of the scene, Neptune and Amphitrite are seated in a chariot drawn by two Tritons who dance to music. They are accompanied by a multitude of fantastic creatures, Tritons and Nereideswho form a retinue for the wedding couple. At the left, a Nereid riding on a sea-bull carries a present. To her right, the mother of Amphitrite, Doris, advances towards the couple, mounted on a sea-horse and holding wedding torches in each hand to light the procession’s way.^{[m 7]} To her right is an Eros, a creature associated with Venus. Behind the wedding couple, a Nereid, accompanied by two more Erotes and riding a hippocamp, carries another present.

Notes and references

Notes

1. Jump up^ The armour of the soldiers and horseman (from before the Marian Reforms of 107 BC), permits the scene to be dated to the second century BC (Coarelli (1968) and Stilp (2001))
2. Jump up^ The first appears on the column erected by the consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus in honour of his victory at the Battle of Pydna in 168 BC
3. Jump up^ The context of the reliefs, their function and their date are not known with precision; numerous contradictory hypotheses have been produced on this subject.
4. Jump up^ The identity of the sculptor behind the statuary group is debated; the work is sometimes attributed to Scopas « the Elder » and sometimes to Scopas « the Younger » (Scopas Minor), a second century sculptor of the same name, and sometimes to neither sculptor without any other name being suggested. Only the Greek origin of sculptor seems to have consensus.

References

Modern sources :

1. Jump up^ From the Temple of Fortuna Primigenia in Praeneste (Palastrina), now in the Museo Pio-Clementino in the Vatican Museums, see: D.B. Saddington (2011) [2007]. « the Evolution of the Roman Imperial Fleets, » in Paul Erdkamp (ed), A Companion to the Roman Army, 201-217. Malden, Oxford, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN978-1-4051-2153-8. Plate 12.2 on p. 204.
2. Jump up^ Coarelli, Filippo (1987), I Santuari del Lazio in età repubblicana. NIS, Rome, pp 35-84.
3. ^ Jump up to:^abcdefgh Cels Saint-Hilaire 2011.
4. Jump up^ Coarelli 2007, p. 267.
5. ^ Jump up to:^ab Coarelli 1968.
6. ^ Jump up to:^abc Stilp 2001.
7. ^ Jump up to:^abc De Chaisemartin 2003.

Other modern sources :

1. Jump up^ Bas-relief de Domitius Ahenobarbus au Louvre sur la base Atlas.
2. Jump up^ M. Crawford, Roman Republic Coinage, Cambridge, 1974, p. 525
3. Jump up^ André Piganiol, Ara Martis dans Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire, Vol. 51, 1934, p. 29
4. Jump up^ Ségolène Demougin, La mémoire perdue : à la recherche des archives oubliées, publiques et privées, de la Rome antique, Publications de la Sorbonne, 1994, p. 132
5. Jump up^ Elisabeth Deniaux, Rome, de la Cité-Etat à l’Empire : institutions et vie politique, IIème-Ier siècle av. J.-C., Hachette Éducation Technique, 2001
6. Jump up^ J. Paul Getty Museum, Thesaurus Cultus Et Rituum Antiquorum, Getty Publications, 2004, p. 407
7. Jump up^ Albert Grenier, Le Génie romain dans la religion, la pensée, l’art, Albin Michel, 1969, p. 278

Ancient sources :

1. ^ Jump up to:^ab Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 36.26

Bibliography

Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus.

General Works

• Cels Saint-Hilaire, Janine (2011). La République romaine: 133-44 av. J.-C. (in French). Armand Colin.
• De Chaisemartin, Nathalie (2003). Rome – Paysage urbain et idéologie: Des Scipions à Hadrien (IIe s. av. J.-C.-IIe s. ap. J.-C.) (in French). Armand Colin.
• Coarelli, Filippo (2007). Rome and environs: an archaeological guide. University of California Press. ISBN978-0-520-07961-8.

Analysis of the reliefs

• Stilp, Florian (2001). Mariage et Suovetaurilia: étude sur le soi-disant  » Autel de Domitius Ahenobarbus «  (in French). Rome: Giorgio Bretschneider.
• Coarelli, Filippo (1968). « L' » Ara di Domizio Enobarbo  » e la cultura artistica in Roma nel II secolo a.C. ». Dialoghi di Archeologia (in Italian). 3: 302–368.
• Torelli, Mario (1992). Typology and Structure of Roman Historical Reliefs. University of Michigan Press. pp. 5–16.

• Temple of Neptune, Rome

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altar_of_Domitius_Ahenobarbus

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Pont Milvius, II° siècle av. J.-C., Rome

Giacobbe Giusti, Pont Milvius, II° siècle av. J.-C., Rome

Ponte Milvio.

Pont Milvius Giacobbe Giusti, Pont Milvius, II° siècle av. J.-C., Rome
Pont Milvio sur le Tibre
Géographie
Pays	Italie
Région	Latium
Commune	Rome
Coordonnées géographiques	41° 56′ 08″ N, 12° 28′ 01″ E
Fonction
Franchit	Tibre
Fonction	Routière
Caractéristiques techniques
Longueur	136 m
Portée principale	18,55 m
Largeur	36 m
Hauteur	20,75 m
Matériau(x)	Pierre et Macon
Construction
Construction	iie siècle av. J.-C.
Géolocalisation sur la carte : Rome (Voir situation sur carte : Italie)

Le pont Milvius(en italien Ponte Milvio, dans l’usage familier des Romains Ponte Mollo — littéralement pont mou — aussi, en latin : pons Milviusou pons Mulvius) est l’un des ponts les plus importants sur le Tibre. Situé dans l’actuel quartier de Flaminio, à 3 kmdu centre historique de Rome, là où la via Flaminia et la via Cassia se rejoignent pour franchir le fleuve, c’était le pont d’accès obligé à Rome pour tout voyageur venant du nord.

Historique

Giacobbe Giusti, Pont Milvius, II° siècle av. J.-C., Rome

Le pont Milvio au xvii^e siècle, gravure de Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

Le pont fut construit par le consul Caius Claudius Nero en -206 à la suite de la défaite infligée aux Carthaginoisà la bataille du Métaure. En 109 av. J.-C. le censeur Marcus Aemilius Scaurusrestaura l’ancien pont¹. En 312, l’empereurConstantin battit son rival Maxenceentre ce pont et Saxa Rubra (en)lors de la célèbre bataille du pont Milvius.

Le pont fut rénové durant le Moyen Âge par le moine Acuzio puis, en 1429, le pape Martin V demanda à l’architecte Francesco da Genazzano de réparer l’ouvrage qui s’écroulait. Quatre siècles plus tard, en 1805, la reconstruction de l’entrée triomphale fortifiée fut confiée à Giuseppe Valadierpar le pape Pie VII.

Le pont fut partiellement détruit en 1849par les troupes de Giuseppe Garibaldi dans le but de ralentir les troupes françaises du général Oudinot. Le pape Pie IX le fit restaurer dès l’année suivante et l’agrémenta d’une sculpture, l’Immaculée, s’ajoutant à une précédente œuvre de Francesco Mochi figurant Jean Népomucène. Depuis 1978, le pont est réservé aux piétons, la circulation automobile ayant été totalement détournée sur le Pont Flaminiovoisin.

Usages

Les cadenas accrochés au lampadaire du pont Milvio.

Les rives du fleuve accueillent tous les dimanches sous le pont un marché des antiquités. Depuis 2006, à la suite des héros du romancier Federico Moccia(de l’ouvrage et du film Ho voglia di te)², les couples d’amoureux ont pris l’habitude d’accrocher des cadenas d’amourau lampadairecentral du pont avant d’en lancer la clé derrière eux dans le Tibre³. Le lampadaire a dû être remplacé après qu’il eut ployé sous le poids des cadenas en avril 2007.

Bibliographie

• (en) Colin O’Connor, Roman Bridges, éd. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994

Notes et références

1. ↑ De viris illustribus, 72, lire en ligne [archive]
2. ↑ Tre metri sopra il cielo, publié en 1992, réédité en 2004 et dont un film éponyme fut tourné la même année
3. ↑ Eric Le Bian, in lepetitjournal.com, 10/07/07, article en ligne [archive]

Voir aussi

Sur les autres projets Wikimedia :

• Pont Milvius, sur Wikimedia Commons

• Liste des ponts de Rome

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_Milvius

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Romana del Tellaro, Sicily

Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Romana del Tellaro, Sicily

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Romana del Tellaro, Sicily

Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Romana del Tellaro, Sicily

Entrance of the site
Shown within Italy
Location	Noto, Province of Syracuse, Sicily, Italy
Type	Dwelling
History
Periods	Roman Imperial
Cultures	Roman
Site notes
Condition	Restored
Ownership	Public
Management	Soprintendenza BB.CC.AA. di Siracusa
Public access	Yes
Website	www.villaromanadeltellaro.com

The Villa Romana del Tellaro is a Roman villadating from the late Roman Empire on Sicilyin southern Italy.^[1] It is located south of Noto in the province of Syracuse.

History and description

The remains of the villa were found in 1971 in a fertile agricultural area, on a low elevation near the Tellaro river. The site was located on a farm dating from the 17th to the 19th century.

The central building was constructed around a large peristyle. The section of the porch on the north side had a floor which was decorated with mosaics. They show laurel wreathesforming circles and octagons with geometric and floral motifs. They border two other rooms that retain figurative mosaics.

In the first of these rooms a very damaged mosaic contains a panel with scenes of the ransom of the body of Hector. In this scene Odysseus, Achilles and Diomedes, identified by inscriptions in Ancient Greek, are weighing the body of the hero. The figure of Priam is lost, but the legs of Hector’s body can be seen partially on the right side of the scales. The gold of the ransom is visible on the left side. This event was not mentioned in the Iliad by Homer and is probably derived from a tragedy of Aeschylus. The mosaic floor in the second room shows a hunting scene with a banquet in the open air among the trees. The female figure in the scene is the personification of Africa.

The scenes on the mosaic found in the second room are reminiscent of the mosaics in the Villa Romana del Casale near Piazza Armerina. However, this mosaic has more stylized figures and two-dimensional, uncertain proportions, making the effect very different. The mosaics were probably the work of craftsmen from North Africa. Based on numismatic evidence, they were made in the second half of the fourth century CE.

The villa today

The villa has seen renewed interest in recent years, mainly due to a series of reconstruction projects and redevelopment of the site. On 15 March 15, 2008, over thirty years after the excavations, it was finally inaugurated and made accessible to the public.

Behind the villa lie vineyards, where the traditional grapes of the region are still grown. These include Nero d’Avola, Muscat and Albanello Bianco which are increasingly difficult to find today.

Gallery

• 

  The ransom of Hector‘s body

   

Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Romana del Tellaro, Sicily

• 

  Hunting scene

   

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Romana del Tellaro, Sicily

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  Satyr

• Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Romana del Tellaro, Sicily

  

  Geometric motif

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  Tiger

Further reading

• Dunbabin, Katherine M. D. (2001). Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 142–143. ISBN9780521002301.
• Sfameni, Carla (2004). « Residential Villas in Late Antique Italiy: Continuity and Change ». In Bowden, William; Lavan, Luke; Machado, Carlos. Recent Research on the Late Antique Countryside. Late Antique Archaeology. 2. Leiden: Brill. pp. 335–375. ISBN9789004136076.
• Voza, Giuseppe (1982). « Le ville romane del Tellaro e di Patti in Sicilia e il problema dei rapporti con l’Africa ». 150-Jahr-Feier Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Rom: Ansprachen und Vorträge, 4–7 Dezember 1979. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts – Römische Abteilung (in Italian). 25. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern. pp. 202–209. ISBN3805305583.
• Voza, Giuseppe (2003). I mosaici del Tellaro, lusso e cultura nel sud est Sicilia (in Italian). Erre Produzioni. ISBN9788887909067.

Villa del Tellaro (Noto).

• Official website
• Description on the website of the Region of Sicily

hide v t e Archaeological sites in Sicily
Province of Agrigento	Heraclea Minoa Akragas Valle dei Templi –Temple of Concordia –Temple of Heracles –Temple of Juno –Temple of Olympian Zeus
Province of Caltanissetta	Gela Bosco Littorio Greek baths of Gela Gibil Gabib Monte Bubbonia Polizzello archaeological site Sabucina Vassallaggi
Province of Catania	Aetna (city) Katáne Palike Sant’Ippolito (Caltagirone)
Province of Enna	Centuripe Morgantina Villa Romana del Casale
Province of Messina	Abacaenum Halaesa Naxos Ancient theatre of Taormina Tindari Villa Romana di Patti
Province of Palermo	Entella Grotta dell’Addaura Hippana Ietas Himera Pirama Soluntum
Province of Ragusa	Akrillai Hybla Heraea Kamarina Kaukana
Province of Syracuse	Akrai Santoni Casmenae Cava del Rivettazzo Colonne di San Basilio Helorus Netum Megara Hyblaea Syrakousai Roman amphitheatre of Syracuse Altar of Hieron Ear of Dionysius Galermi Aqueduct Greek Theatre of Syracuse Grotta del Ninfeo Temple of Athena Temple of Apollo Necropolis of Cassibile Necropolis of Pantalica Thapsos Villa Romana del Tellaro
Province of Trapani	Eryx/Erice Drepanum Halyciae Grotta del Genovese Monte Polizzo Motya Segesta Selinunte Temple C Temple E Temple F Cave di Cusa Roman furnaces in Alcamo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Romana_del_Tellaro

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com