Stanford Digital Forma Urbis Romae Project

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  • BIBLIOGRAPHY

    This bibliography is work in progress; our aim is to build a comprehensive post-1960 bibliography to accompany the progressive release of our database of fragments over the next few years. Links to specific fragments are included, but please note that only 435 fragments are currently available, so not all the fragments in question can be seen at this time. We welcome suggestions of scholarly works we have missed. Please send e-mail to Tina Najbjerg (najbjerg@alumni.princeton.edu) or to Jennifer Trimble (trimble@stanford.edu).

  • Frequently Cited Abbreviations
  • Archaeological Papers Cited


    FREQUENTLY CITED ABBREVIATIONS

  • AG 1980
    Rodríguez Almeida, Emilio. Forma Urbis Marmorea. Aggiornamento Generale 1980 (Rome 1981).
    The second major twentieth-century publication of the Severan Marble Plan, this is an invaluable compendium of research on the Plan between 1960 and 1980. Volume I includes an updated bibliography, new observations about the inscriptions and about the placement and distribution of the marble slabs, an analysis of the reconstruction of the Plan, and a discussion of all fragments that includes several new matches. The line drawings of all the fragments in Volume II should be used with care, as they contain errors.
  • Atlas of Rome
    Italo Novelli, ed. Atlas of Rome (New York 1992). Translated from the Italian edition, Atlante di Roma (Venice 1991), by C. Heffer and D. Kerr.
    Invaluable photographic map of the city of Rome. The aerial photographs are complemented by feature maps of the same area. These include detailed information such as height above sea level and names of streets.
  • Bellori 1673
    G. P. Bellori. Fragmenta vestigii veteris Romae ex lapidibus Farnesianis nunc primum in lucem edita cum notis (Rome 1673).
    This first attempt to publish the surviving fragments was hampered by the loss of numerous of the fragments recovered in 1562. Many had by then been used as building materials in the construction of the "Secret Garden" between the Farnese palace and the Tiber. Bellori worked partly from the drawings published by Orsini and partially from the extant fragments. As he unwittingly copied fragments already drawn, duplications occurred in the resulting publication. It was revised and re-edited several times to include minor and formerly "lost" fragments. The final edition was published much later, in 1764, as Ichnographia veteris Romae XX tabulis comprehensa...accesserunt aliae VI tabuale ineditae cum notis. Click here to view the 1673 edition on line (the site includes the complete text as well as all the plates).
  • CIL
    Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (1863-).
    Large volumes with transcriptions and interpretations (some in Latin) of all known Latin inscriptions from different periods and different regions of the Roman Empire. To see an index, click here.
  • Claridge 1998
    Claridge, Amanda. Rome. An Oxford Archaeological Guide (Oxford - New York 1998).
    With contributions by Judith Toms and Tony Cubberley. Based on extensive scholarship and current research, Claridge's book is the most up-to-date and most comprehensive archaeological guide to Rome in English. The many plans and reconstruction drawings make it a valuable tool for scholars and laypeople alike.
  • Cod. Vat. Lat. 3439
    Codex Vaticanus Latinus 3439, f. 13-23.
    Several sets of drawings of fragments of the Forma Urbis Romae were made in the years following its discovery in 1562. This codex, kept in the Vatican Library, contains in folios 13-23 the largest and most accurate group of these Renaissance drawings of the map. They are reproduced in plates 1-14 of PM 1960. They may have been made by the architect Giovanni Antonio Dosio, although some scholars suggest there were more than one engraver (PM 1960, p. 43, with references). What motivated the choice of these particular fragments is not clear. The fragments were drawn between one quarter and one eighth of their actual size. The drawings were done in pencil and then inked, at which point occasional mistakes crept in. There is evidence of two different hands, at least at the inking stage; one is neater and more confident than the other. The incisions and inscriptions were much more accurately and completely rendered than were the outlines of the fragments. Sometimes the outlines appear to have been added after a drawing of the surface was finished, without reference to the actual fragment; this appears to be the case of all those outlines done in haematite. For some fragments that are now lost, the Renaissance drawings are the only surviving record. For others, heavily damaged since the 16th c., the drawings record the fragments in a more complete state. On the accuracy of the drawings, see PM 1960, pp. 43-51, and esp. 50-51. See also the discussion in Reynolds 1996. For an index of all lost fragments known from the Renaissance drawings in Stanford's database, click here.
  • Jordan 1874
    Jordan, Henric. Forma Urbis Romae. Regionum XIIII (Berlin 1874).
    This monumental work was essentially the first scientific publication of the Severan Marble Plan. Jordan began the project in 1866, collaborating with scholars such as Rodolfo Lanciani, but did not publish it until 1874. The publication was an impressive attempt to gather all the known information about the map and record it in an organized manner. Jordan here tackled the daunting task of imposing order upon a confused mass of material that already by then included not only the existing pieces, but fragments that had been lost and found, often in incomplete bits, marble copies of formerly lost pieces that often did not match the originals, marble copies of still lost fragments, and drawings of existing and lost pieces. In the Prolegomena (pp. 1-56), Jordan analyzes the history of the fragments, the origin and the making of the map, its date (Severan) and then discusses the representation of different types of public and private buildings on the map. Pages 49-54 present a useful list of monuments in each of the 14 regions based on the two versions of the Regionary Catalogues, the Notitia and the Curiosum. The section called Enarratio et Adnotatio Tabularum (pp. 57-66) briefly identifies each drawing in each plate and provides a bibliography for each piece. This is followed by a synopsis of fragment numbers in this and earlier publications by Bellori, Piranesi, and Canina. The final section consists of 37 plates of handsome, shaded drawings of the fragments, organized by regions. Renaissance drawings appear as miniature line drawings next to the partially preserved fragments. Plate 35 is a drawing of the aula wall with measurements; plate 37 represents Jordan's attempt to position identified fragments on the wall. Written in Latin, the text of Jordan's publication is hardly user friendly today; the drawings, however, are crisp and clear and exhibit fewer mistakes than those in AG 1980. One interesting error is Jordan's rendering of fr. 4b in pl. 10, no. 45, which depicts a section of the Templum Divi Claudi: according to PM 1960, p. 63, the bottom edge of fr. 4b is a slab edge; Jordan, however, did not render it as such. He drew it with a rough and uneven bottom edge and included in outline the plaster part (by then missing) that had been reconstructed and attached to the lower right edge of the fragment in 1742 based on a false assumption by the engraver of Renaissance drawing Cod. Vat. Lat. 3439, fo 17r, which showed the fragment as having an uneven bottom edge with two projecting corners (click here to see the Renaissance drawing). The discovery of numerous reused fragments in the Via Giulia in 1888 (186 pieces) and 1899 (451 fragments) rendered Jordan's work incomplete only a few decades after its publication.
  • LTUR
    Steinby, Eva Margareta, ed. Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae (Rome, vol. 1 [1993], vol. 2 [1995], vol. 3 [1996], vol. 4 [1999], vol. 5 [1999], vol. 6 [Index][2000]).
    The newest and most authoritative topographical dictionary of ancient Rome. Detailed entries are written by distinguished scholars, often those involved with the excavations of the individual monuments. Entries are supplemented by a great number of reproductions of archaeological plans, Renaissance drawings, and FUR fragments. Entries are mainly in Italian.
  • Platner-Ashby 1929
    Platner, Samuel Ball and Ashby, Thomas. A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (London 1929).
    Before LTUR and Richardson 1992, this dictionary was the main resource for the monuments of ancient Rome.
  • PM 1960
    Carettoni, Gianfilippo; Colini, Antonio; Cozza, Lucos; and Gatti, Guglielmo, eds. La pianta marmorea di Roma antica. Forma urbis Romae (Rome 1960).
    Since 1960, this has been the fundamental reference work on the Severan Marble Plan of Rome. It marked the first photographic presentation of all the known fragments and offered the most comprehensive and scientific review to date of the fragments and the Plan itself. Only 400 copies were printed, however, so this work is difficult to find outside specialized research libraries. Volume one includes a bibliography (Carettoni), a history of the fragments (Colini), a list of fragments reproduced in Renaissance drawings (Carettoni), detailed study and decriptions of identified, non-identified, and lost fragments, a list of inscriptions (Colini), a thorough study of the aula, the wall, and the marble slabs (Cozza), a technical analysis of the Plan (Gatti), a discussion of its date, scope, and precedents (Gatti), and a reconstruction (Gatti). The first volume also includes helpful concordances that relate the fragments to the numbering systems of earlier publications, as well as indices that organize the fragments by number, thickness, epigraphy, building typology, and topography.
    Volume two reproduces the Renaissance drawings (pls. 1-14) but is mostly taken up by black and white photographs of the 712 incised fragments known to the authors, in three groups: complexes and monuments with known locations (pls. 15-32), complexes and monuments with unknown locations (pls. 33-34), and fragments with non-identified topography (pls. 35-60). Plate 61 (a-b) is Cozza's detailed drawing of the wall of the aula on which the Plan hung. Finally, plate 62 (a-b) is Gatti's schematic reconstruction of the marble slabs in situ with drawings of the identified fragments (both existing and known only from Renaissance drawings) superimposed onto the wall.
  • Richardson 1992
    Richardson, Jr., Lawrence. A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Baltimore and London 1992).
    Readers of English only, and those without access to the expensive LTUR volumes, may find this topographical dictionary a useful resource.
  • (back to top)

    ARCHAEOLOGICAL PAPERS CITED

  • Bollmann 1998
    Bollmann, Beate. Römische Vereinshäuser. Untersuchungen zu den Scholae der römischen Berufs-, Kult- und Augustalen-Kollegien in Italien (Mainz 1998).
    This is a detailed examination of Roman scholae or meeting halls of professional and/or religious organizations (collegia), from the Republican period to the 4th century, in Rome, Ostia, and other Italian cities. The author first investigates the history, social standing, purpose and activities of these organizations; she then attempts to classify the buildings in which these collegia met and proceeds to discuss the sculptural decoration in the scholae. To determine the architectural shape of scholae in Rome, Bollmann makes extensive use of the evidence provided by the Severan Marble Plan, especially frs. 11d (cat. no. A25, fig. 15), 28c (cat. no. A26, fig. 16), 4b (cat. no. A3, fig. 61), 24a (cat. no. A21, fig. 67), 10i (cat. no. A6, fig. 70), and 25a (cat. no. B2, fig. 73).
  • Castagnoli 1985
    Castagnoli, Ferdinando. "Un nuovo documento per la topografia di Roma antica." Studi Romani 33 (1985) 205-211.
    The existence of a temple to Castor and Pollux in circo Flaminio is attested by Vitruvius and by the 16th-century discovery of two statues of the Dioscuri (now flanking the stairs to the Campidoglio) near the church of San Tommaso and close to the Tiber. Comparison of the recently discovered Via Anicia map, which depicts the temple, with frs. 32i and 32gh of the Severan Marble Plan locates the building. On the via Anicia plan, the temple is shown as having the pronaos on the long side, as described by Vitruvius. Two windows flank the central staircase, in front of which sits a circular altar. The open space in front of the temple is the paved area of the Circus Flaminius. On either side and behind the temple there are shops and perhaps storerooms (whose owners are indicated with inscriptions), demonstrating that the S side of the Circus was flanked by commercial structures in the Imperial period. Further to the south runs a porticoed street, rendered as a line with small rectangles lining the N side of the line. Below the street, the edge of the Tiber is indicated. On the right, between t he street and the edge of the river, the W end of a structure is visible. A street runs along the W side of the temple towards the river. Along the line of the porticoed street, the numbers XCVIIII, VI, LIII and LI appear at irregular intervals. These numbers must indicate the distance in feet of each straight section of the river's edge, which consists of the portico. Thanks to Rodríguez-Almeida's positioning of frs. 32gh and i on the Severan Marble Plan, it is now possible to locate the temple of Castor and Pollux to the area near the church of S. Tommaso dei Cenci. In addition, the porticoed street on the Via Anicia plan coincides more or less with the actual vie della Regola and della Fiumara (pl. 11). The author, however, challenges M. Conticello de' Spagnolis' positioning of the temple immediately underneath the church (BullCom 91 [1986] 91-96) and proposes instead to locate it ca. 20-30 m. further to the east, in an area now covered partially by a modern building and partially by Via delle Cinque Scuole. First of all, in this position, the temple would align better with the Porticus Octavia on the Severan Marble Plan and, secondly, the street west of the temple would coincide precisely with the great drain dell'Olmo. The Via Anicia map is of the same scale as the Severan Marble Plan (1:240), suggesting that both were drawn from the same cadastral map, perhaps dating to the first half of the second century CE. A comparison between the two marble maps can demonstrate how faithfully each copied the prototype. The orientation is not the same in the two maps: The Via Anicia plan is oriented north/northeast; the Severan Marble Plan southeast. Perhaps the original cadastral map was oriented towards the south, and each plan was turned to the orientation most advantages for its purpose. The delineation of the Tiber, and the inclusion of proprietors' names and river edge measurements in the Via Anicia plan suggest that it served as a guide for river commerce or for the administration of the river.
  • Cecamore 2002
    Cecamore, Claudia. "Le Curiae Veteres sulla Forma Urbis Marmorea e il pomerio romuleo secondo Tacito." Römische Mitteilungen 109 (2002) 43-58.
    Cecamore develops Cozza's reconstruction of the inscription on fragment group 452ab, 452c, and 452d as CVRIAE VETAERES. She reviews the various possible reconstructions of the inscription and discusses what the sixth letter might be, taking into account the kinds of errors found on the Plan's inscriptions and the observable conventions concerning the location of inscriptions and the types of words used. Having concluded that the inscription probably indicates the Curiae Vetaeres, she reviews what we know of this building, its possible comparanda outside Rome, and curiae in general. Excavation and ancient textual sources place the building near the NE corner of the Palatine; Cecamore places these fragments on slab VIII-5 (the slab containing the Septizodium and the eastern half of the Circus Maximus). The smooth back, thickness of the slab, and veining all match, as do the orientations of the buildings and streets between the newly located fragment and the known buildings on that part of the Palatine. If this position is correct, the fragment also depicts part of the triumphal way.
  • Cecamore 1999
    Cecamore, Claudia. "Faustinae Aedemque Decernerent (SHA, Marcus, 26). Les Fragments 69-70 de la Forma Urbis et la Première Dédicace du Temple de la Vigna Barberini." Mélanges de l'École Française de Rome, Antiquité 111 (1999) 311-349.
    Cecamore suggests that the temple and colonnade depicted on frs. 70a, 70b, 70c and 103 represent the Temple of the Deified Faustina on the Palatine, rededicated in 221 CE to Elagabalus. She convincingly reconstructs the temple (fr. 103) as having been surrounded on three sides by double colonnades (frs. 70a and 70b). This identification is supported by the inscription on fragments 70a and 70c, by the author's comparison with the 2nd cent. CE structures excavated in the Vigna Barberini on the Palatine, by her close study of the original location on the wall of the dowel hole on the back of frs. 70a and 70c, and by the similarity between these fragments and known parts of slab VII-11 of the Plan, to which this location corresponds.
  • Cecamore 1994-95
    Cecamore, Claudia. "Apollo e Vesta sul Palatino fra Augusto e Vespasiano." Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 96 (1994-95) 9-32.
    In this article, Cecamore proposes a series of solutions to the problematic topography of the area around the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine. Based on brick stamps, inscriptions and 16th-century drawings, she suggests that the nymphaeum under the triclinium of the so-called Domus Flavia belonged to the Domus Aurea and that the remains of a circular feature above it are Vespasianic in date. The walls surrounding this circular structure align perfectly with the Temple of Apollo (fig. 5). The discovery of Flavian lamps and Claudian coins in the fill of a Republican house situated on the upper terrasse west of the Temple of Apollo indicates that the burial of the Republican structure cannot be connected to the construction of the House of Augustus, as has been argued, but must be of a post-Claudian and pre-Domitianic date. This careful reassessment of the archaeological remains allows Cecamore to reconstruct two symmetrical spaces on either side of the Temple of Apollo, which she proposes are from a Vespasianic restructuring of the temple, perhaps undertaken in connection with the centennial of the temple in 72 CE but soon obliterated by the Domitianic construction of the "Domus Flavia" above. After a detailed discussion of the evidence for the existence of a round Temple to Vesta on the Palatine in the area Apollinis, the author argues in favor of such a Palatine temple, the construction of which she suggests was undertaken by the senate during the time of Augustus. This temple, then, must be the circular building next to the Temple of Apollo and the house of Augustus that was restored by Vespasian and subsequently buried underneath the "Domus Flavia." Finally, Cecamore discusses E. Rodríguez-Almeida's identification of FUR fragments 20fg, 20e, and 20h as the area Apollinis on the Palatine (see AG 1980, pp. 99-100). She points out, as Rodríguez-Almeida himself admitted, that the proposed position of these fragments does not allow the square monument with the dual stairs depicted there to be matched to any known archaeological remains in front of the Temple to Apollo. Nor can the square feature be identified with the statue base mentioned by Propertius and shown in Augustan coins, as Rodríguez-Almeida had argued, because the area completely changed in the Flavian period. The square feature, however, matches perfectly a brick foundation discovered within the Flavian compound southwest of the temple. If this identification is correct, the FUR fragments must be moved north (down and to the left on the map). In this position, there is a good correspondence between the back wall of the S portico in fr. 20h and the corner visible just south of the libraries (fig. 21).
  • Ciancio Rossetto 1996
    Ciancio Rossetto, Paola. "Rinvenimenti e restauri al portico d'Ottavia e in piazza delle Cinque Scole." Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 97 (1996) 267-278.
    Ciancio Rossetto here summarizes the most recent excavations of the facade and the SE corner of the Porticus Octaviae. Of special interest is the discovery that the entrance of the porticus went through 3 phases: In the republican period it was rectangular and flush with the back and front edges of the S portico. In the Augustan period, it was made to project out from the face of the S portico by the addition of a podium to the center of the latter. Finally, in the Severan period, a platform was added to the (entire?) front of the S portico, and the propylaeum was made to project out in the back and further out in front. The excavations also show that the S portico of the building consisted of a double row of colonnades in the Augustan period, and that it was closed off and rebuilt as a wall and an outer colonnade in the Severan period. This demonstrates that frs. 31u, 31z (missing), 31bb, and 31cc of the Severan Marble Plan depict the Porticus Octaviae in its Augustan, not Severan, phase. The final section of the article discusses the relationship of the temple remains discovered in Piazza delle Cinque Scole to the Temple of Castor and Pollux depicted in the Via Anicia plan.
  • Coarelli 1998
    Coarelli, Filippo. "The Odyssey frescos of the Via Graziosa: a proposed context." Papers of the British School at Rome 66 (1998) 21-37.
    Coarelli here focuses on the date and context of the famous Odyssey frieze, which was discovered in 1848 in a building underneath the Via Graziosa. Redating the calendar associated with the frieze to a pre-Julian date allows Coarelli to confirm H.G. Beyen's date of the paintings to mid-1st cent. BCE - a date that corresponds well with the style of the masonry of the building as recorded in the 19th-cent. excavation notes and drawings. Based on the 19th-cent. descriptions, he suggests that the paintings came from a large domus on the slopes of the Cispius that faced the Via Patricius. Corealli furthermore proposes that this domus appears on fr. 11e of the Severan Marble Plan - a fragment located to this very area by E. Rodríguez-Almeida (Rodríguez-Almeida 1975-76). Finally, based on a somewhat tenuous connection between the Papirii family and the divinity Mefitis, whose temple is known to have been located on the Cispian Hill and which the author situates next to the Odyssey house (fig. 8), Coarelli associates the Odyssey domus with the Papirii and suggests that the domus Papiria belonged to this particular family throughout the Republic and as late as the Antonine period.
  • Coarelli 1997
    Coarelli, Filippo. Il Campo Marzio (Rome 1997).
    This is the fundamental publication on the archaeology of the Campus Martius. In Section 1, Coarelli explores the boundaries of the Campus Martius, the origins of the name, and the earliest known purposes of the area. In Sections 2 and 3 he discusses the specific monuments known to have been located in campo and in circo, respectively. The reconstructed plans and epigraphical sources included in these sections are especially helpful. In Section 4, Coarelli explores the building programs of Pompey the Great and of Julius Caesar in the Campus Martius, and in appendices 1 and 2 he briefly discusses the presence there of two specific building types, tombs and theaters.
  • Coarelli 1992
    Coarelli, Filippo. "Aedes Fortis Fortunae, Naumachia Augusti, Castra Ravennatium. La via Campana Portuensis e alcuni edifici adiacenti nella Pianta Marmorea Severiana." Ostraka 1 (1992) 39-54.
    Fragment groups 28, 33 and 34 depict an extensive swathe of the city on the right bank of the Tiber; they cover what is ca. 700 x 300m of what is now Trastevere. This article focuses on three structures among those incised on these fragments.
    1) The large round feature at the lower left of group 28 (fr. 28a) is usually interpreted as a funerary monument (PM 1960, p. 88), but the surrounding buildings all appear to be public, making this an exceptional tomb. The circular feature protrudes into the front of the surrounding rectangular enclosure; this looks to the author more like a monumental temple entrance. Moreover, the location is marked; the Via Campana-Portuensis changes its course directly in front of this round structure (to return to its original course ca. 270m farther south), and on the circular structure's south side is the only visible opening into a large open space behind the street-side buildings. Coarelli proposes that this is the Temple of Fors Fortuna at the first mile of the Via Campana.
    2) The great open space at the lower right of the same slab (frs. 28b and 28c), which seems to continue on frs. 33abc, and 34c, was identified in 1942 as the Naumachia Transtiberina of Augustus; this was not accepted by PM 1960. Coarelli finds that other proposed locations for this Naumachia simply aren't extensive enough; here there is both sufficient space and the arrival of the Aqua Alsietina, built for the Naumachia. Indeed, the deviation of the Via Campana here and farther to the south may be linked to the construction of the Naumachia, which needed all available space. What may be an atrium house with a small peristyle alongside the Via Campana entrance into the Naumachia may represent the preserved nucleus of the villa of Caesar's Horti, in which the Naumachia was built. The Naumachia's northern edge is clearly visible at the middle right edge of group 33, giving a total length of ca. 540m, a good correspondence to the 533m reported in the Res Gestae 12.23. To the north, a warehouse intrudes into the area of the Naumachia and should therefore postdate it; the Plan offers precious evidence of the state of the Naumachia in the Severan period. He places the Nemus Caesarum, where the Aqua Alsietina came out and where the monument to Lucius and Gaius stood, just to the north of the Naumachia.
    3) The building aligned N-S at middle left of fragment group 33, with a double courtyard, each one surrounded by tabernae, was already interpreted by E. Rodríguez-Almeida as an ergastulum or barracks rather than a warehouse (AG 1980, pp. 119-120). Coarelli estimates that it housed 600-1000 people; given its location, orientation, and apparent early date (1st c. CE), he suggests that this was functionally linked to the Naumachia, and may have housed the Castra Ravennatium, who were known to be in Trastevere and connected to the complex. The double courtyard perhaps suggests that two cohorts were present; after the abandonment of the Naumachia (ca. 80AD?), they seem to have functioned as the local port and river police.
  • Coarelli 1977
    Coarelli, Filippo. "Il Campo Marzio occidentale. Storia e topografia." Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome, Antiquité 89.2 (1977) 807-846.
    Coarelli here sets out to investigate in detail the little-known western section of the Campus Martius. That the area was a separate entity in antiquity is suggested by two inscriptions that seem to define the area as that between the Tiber, the Euripus of the Baths of Agrippa, and in a line between the stagnum Agrippa and the Tiber, and by the NW-SE orientation of streets and buildings in the area, which to this day is different from the E-W axis of the central Campus Martius. Arguing that this area was located within in the pomerium at least by the Claudian period, and noting that it was oriented like the Circus Flaminius, Coarelli attributes a "triumphal function" to it (p. 822). Monuments situated within this area included the Navalia, the arsenal, and the pons Agrippae (now the Ponte Sisto). The NE corner of the area was delineated by the stagnum Agrippae (whose S edge, Coarelli argues, is visible in FUR fr. 39ac just south of the Hecatostylum) and to the north, it was defined by the course of the Euripus between the Tiber and the Stagnum. The nature and exact course of the Euripus have been determined by archaeological excavations in several spots (figs. 12-16). The 3.35 m wide and 1.70 m deep canal was accompanied on its W side by two parallel walls (perhaps coinciding with the pomerium): one, built in opus reticulatum, followed the canal at a distance of 3.20 m; the other, a tufa wall in opus quadratum, at a 6 m distance. Coarelli suggests that fr. 252ac of the FUR depicts a section of the canal, and that the rectangle visible between the double lines in that fragment represents a podium for a statue base, measuring ca. 2.50 x 3 m. The dots that frame the canal probably represent trees as opposed to columns. He associates a statue base discovered near the course of the Euripus underneath the SIP palace with the base depicted on the FUR fragment and suggests (without attempting to prove this posited location within the map itself) that fr. 252 be located in this area of the Campus Martius on the FUR (pp. 834-837). (Note that E. Rodríguez-Almeida's convincing positioning of fr. 252, now 37gi, in slab IV-6 [Rodríguez-Almeida 1978-80a] has since made Coarelli's identification of the canal depicted in this fragment as the Agrippan Euripus impossible.) The principal sanctuary in the western section of the Campus Martius was the Tarentum; Coarelli associates this building, whose precise location is known, with a rectangular area depicted in FUR fr. 672abcd. Here, it is flanked by two small temples. Other structures known to have been located in this area are the training grounds for horses, the Trigarium, and their stables, the stabula factionum. The location of the latter was solidified when Rodríguez-Almeida positioned the vicus Stabularius in this area on the FUR (Rodríguez-Almeida 1970-71 ). Finally, Coarelli suggests that the building remains discovered underneath the Palazzo Farnese belonged to a public structure that was related to the nearby stabula factionum.
  • Coarelli 1968
    Coarelli, Filippo. "Il tempio di Bellona." Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 80 (1968) 37-72.
    Coarelli discusses a number of buildings whose identity and location now can be established thanks to G. Gatti's correct location of the Circus Flaminius (see Gatti 1960 and Gatti 1961). He reaffirms that the Temple of Iuno Regina must be inside the Porticus Octaviae; that the Temple of Apollo is the one next to the Theater of Marcellus; and that the three temples underneath the San Nicola in Carcere are those of Janus, Spes, and Juno Sospita. The remains of a Republican temple in Via delle Botteghe Oscure cannot be those of the Temple of Bellona but must belong to the Temple of the Lares Peremarini, which sources tell was situated inside the Porticus Minucia. That the porticus around the temple in Via delle Botteghe Oscure is the Porticus Minucia is proven by L. Cozza's positioning of FUR fragment 35ff.
    Finally, Coarelli identifies the remains of an unknown temple next to that of Apollo in the Forum Holitorium as the Temple of Bellona. Ancient sources suggest that the Temple of Bellona, founded in 296 BCE by Appius Claudius Ciecus, was located not far from the pomerium and the walls of the city, that it was situated close to the Temple of Apollo, near the Theater of Marcellus, and that one could see the curved (according to Coarelli the SE) end of the Circus Flaminius from it. In addition, we know the Temple of Bellona was in circo which is assumed to mean that it had the same orientation as the Circus Flaminius. The only buildings known to be in circo without having the same orientation as that of the circus Flaminius are the Temple of Apollo and the "tempio ignoto" right next to it. These two are on a N-S orientation, which is what F. Castagnoli has proven was typical of the most ancient buildings on the Campus Martius. Of the temples known to be "in circo" only two were founded earlier than the Circus Flaminius: those of Apollo and Bellona. This confirms that the "unknown temple" next to the Temple of Apollo is the Temple of Bellona.
  • Colini 1944
    Colini, Antonio Maria. "Storia e Topografia del Celio nell'antichità." Atti della Pontifica accademia romana d'archeologia. Serie 3. Memorie, vol. 7 (Rome 1944).
  • Conticello De' Spagnolis 1986
    Conticello De' Spagnolis, M. "Nuove osservazioni sull'area del tempio dei Dioscuri in Circo Flaminio." Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 91 (1986) 91-96.
  • Cozza 1990
    Cozza, Lucos. "Adonaea nella Pianta marmorea severiana." Analecta Romana Instituti Danici 19 (1990) 233-237.
    FUR fr. 68ab must belong with frs. 46acd and 46b (the Adonaea) for the following reasons: a) they have similar type of rough backs, b) they are of same thickness (52-62 mm), c) the ductus is by the same engraver, d) the veining of the Proconnesian marble falls in the same direction (NB. the veining direction of fr. 68ab in PM 1960, pl. 35 is not exact - see fig. 1 for the correct veining line), e) both are from a slab edge (and both have a clamp hole). The architectural corner visible in fr. 68a is thus opposite the corner of the Adonaea in fr. 46d and the center of the semi-circular exedra in 68ab coincides with the principal axis of the Adonaea in fr. 46 which falls along the center of the euripus (fig. 1). The direction of the inscription in fr. 46, ADONAEA, indicates that these fragments were either positioned along the top or the left edge of the slab. The addition of fr. 68ab to the structure of the Adonaea in frs. 46 confirms that the latter cannot be identified with the Hall of Adonis in Domitian's palace on the Palatine, mentioned by the Severan writer Philostratus (Apoll. 7.32). Neither of the possible orientations of frs. 46 and 68 allows for the semi-circular exedra to be incorporated into the existing architecture in the Vigna Barberini on the Palatine, as has been proposed. Philostratus' "Hall of Adonis" should perhaps be interpreted as smaller, mobile gardens in planters as opposed to a large, architecturally fixed structure. The Adonaea on the FUR is probably located somewhere in the Campus Martius, as has been proposed.
  • Cozza 1989
    Cozza, Lucos. "Sul Frammento 212 della Pianta Marmorea." Journal of Roman Archaeology 2 (1989) 117-119.
    Cozza suggests that fragment 212b, which displays the letters ANVS, belonged to the area immediately in front of the Basilica Aemilia in the Roman Forum, represented by fr. 16e on slab VI-5. This would correspond with evidence provided by ancient textual sources, according to which a small temple of Janus stood at the Forum end of the Argiletum. The smooth back and thickness of this fragment also match the identified fragments from slab VI-5: 16a, 16b, 16d, and 16e.
  • Cozza 1968
    Cozza, Lucos. "Pianta marmorea severiana: nuove ricomposizioni di frammenti." In Quaderni dell'Istituto di Topografia Antica della Università di Roma. Studi di Topografia Romana 5 (1968) 9-22.
    In this important article Cozza joins FUR fr. 35ff with fr. 35ee and suggests that its fragmentary inscription, MINI, identifies the quadriporticus in fr. 35dd, remains of which have been discovered along the Via Celsa, the Via delle Botteghe Oscure, and the Via San Nicola de' Cesarini, as the porticus Minucia. The temple in fr. 35ee Cozza associates with the Temple of the Lares Permarini which is known to have been situated in the porticus Minucia. Remains of this temple, which was vowed by L. Aemilius Regillus in 190 BCE and dedicated by M. Aemilius Lepidus in 179 BCE, were unearthed under the Via delle Botteghe Oscure. The discovery of marble revetment from the temple with carvings of the Flavian period supports this identification, as ancient sources relate that Domitian repaired the porticus Minucia Vetus in the Campus Martius.
    Based on the thickness of the pieces, on the quality of the marble, on the veining direction, depth of incisions, and in one case, on visible guidelines, Cozza also joins fr. 37l to the Porticus of Pompey group in slab IV-6; he adds frs. 10wxy and 10z to the Bath of Trajan complex in slab VIII-3; he matches fr. 33d with group 33abc in slab V-17, fr. 29h with the Basilica Ulpia group 29a-g, fr. 417c with 417ab, fr. 421ab with frs. 421c, and 421d fr. 570 with fr. c of 543bcd; and finally he joins frs. 457, 458, 470, and 482.
  • Ferrea 2002
    Ferrea, Laura. Gli dei di terracotta. La ricomposizione del frontone da Via di San Gregorio (Rome 2002).
    The beautifully executed catalogue illustrates in detail the history, restoration, and identification of large architectural terracottas that were discovered in 1878 along Via di San Gregorio, in the valley between the Palatine and the Caelian hills. Ferrea devotes a section of the catalogue (pp. 61-73) to locating the Temple of Mars whose pediment the terracottas once adorned. The statues were intentionally removed from the temple, destroyed, and deposited near the Via San Gregorio, suggesting that the temple was somewhere close by. Two hypotheses have prevailed thus far: The temple must have been located in the Campus Martialis on the Caelian Hill, known to have served as a place for military exercises when the Campus Martius was flooded. Or it was situated outside the Porta Capena, in Regio I, as recorded by ancient authors and by the Regionary Catalogues. The latter thesis has been considered problematic because it places the temple far from the spot where the statues were deposited. Based on 16th-c. maps of Rome and an extant stretch of wall behind the San Gregorio, Ferrea demonstrates that the Servian wall made a turn towards the precinct of San Gregorio (also argued by R. Lanciani in 1871), and that the area behind this church, a short distance from the statue deposit, in fact was outside the walls, not inside as has generally been assumed. FUR frs. 200a, 200b, 674ac, and 674b confirm the location of a sacred area of Mars on this slope of the Caelian. The similar style and ductus of the letters [---]AR[---] in fr. 674b and [---]IS in fr. 200b, as well as a visible guide line in both, suggest they belong to a single inscription. A Renaissance drawing of fr. 674abc complete the AR in 674b as AREA MAR[---]. Imprecise rendering of fr. 674ac by the Renaissance engravers probably accounts for the slight misalignment of the lines in the fragments. Ferrea locates fr. 200ab along the top edge of slab XI-6 and 674abc in the upper right corner of slab X-5 (fig. 66). They thus occupy the area just south of the Temple of Claudius on the Caelian. The period engraved after the final S in fr. 200ab, rare on the Marble Plan, must signify that the inscription continued below, since the open space to its right coincided with the top of the Plan. The inscription in the second line probably named the temple itself, which must have been depicted in the area right behind the Church of San Gregorio.
  • Ferrea 1998
    Ferrea, Laura. "Il Monumento Funerario del Console Ser. Sulpicius Galba." Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 99 (1998) 51-72.
    Ferrea discusses the excavation, restoration, and identity of the funerary monument of Ser. Sulpicius Galba, consul in 144 BCE, and confirms its location S of the Porticus Aemilia, as suggested by its position on fr. 24c of the FUR.
  • Gatti 1989
    Gatti, Guglielmo. Topografia ed edilizia di Roma antica (Rome 1989).
    Several of Gatti's fundamental writings on the Marble Plan are collected in this volume, including Gatti 1979, 1961, 1960, 1938, 1937 and 1934.
  • Gatti 1979
    Gatti, Guglielmo. "Il Teatro e la Crypta di Balbo in Roma." Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome, Antiquité 91 (1979) 237-313 (= Gatti 1989, 183-259).
    This lengthy article is a detailed exposition of the facts that led Gatti to propose that the Theater of Balbus, consisting of the theater itself and an adjoining portico, the crypta Balbi, was situated in an area that is now bordered on the north by the Via delle Botteghe Oscure, on the west by the Via and Piazza Paganica, and on the south by the Via dei Delfini (fig. 10). It is the second response to the continued criticism by G. Marchetti Longhi of this thesis, which Gatti made public almost two decades earlier in two brief articles (see Gatti 1960 and Gatti 1961). In Section 1, Gatti recounts the ancient sources relating to the theatrum and crypta Balbi; in Section 2 he discusses earlier hypotheses on the location of the theater; and Section 3 is a detailed account of the theater and its location as witnessed by FUR fr. 30abc and surrounding fragments. Section 4, the focus of the article, is dedicated to showing the actual remains found in the proposed area of the theater (shown in numerous photos, plans, and elevations) and how they relate to Gatti's reconstruction of the building complex, based on the FUR fragments. Especially helpful drawings are Gatti's reconstruction of the theater complex with the actual remains shown in black (fig. 10) and a plan showing the ancient remains in relation to modern buildings and topography (fig. 48).
  • Gatti 1961
    Gatti, Guglielmo. "Ancora sulla vera posizione del Teatro di Balbo e del Circo Flaminio." Palatino 5.1-2 (1961) 17-20 (= Gatti 1989, 179-182).
    In response to strong doubts expressed especially by G. Marchetti Longhi concerning the proposed relocation of the Theater of Balbus and the Circus Flaminius (see Gatti 1960), Gatti here confirms his thesis that the Theater of Balbus was located along the Via delle Botteghe Oscure and that the Circus Flaminius was situated west of the Theater of Marcellus. In addition to reiterating the arguments from his 1960-article, Gatti points to specific remains that match the architecture of the crypta Balbi as seen in FUR fr. 30abc. These include a semi-circular exedra behind the church of S. Caterina dei Funari, walls of tufa and travertine along Via delle Botteghe Oscure and Via dei Delfini that correspond exactly with the N and S sides of the Crypta Balbi, and a brick wall southeast of the exedra which matches a wall delineated in fr. 30def. In addition, the orientation and outline of the buildings around the Piazza Margana follow those of the ancient buildings. G. Marchetti Longhi's addition of the cavea of the theatrum Balbi to the S side of the crypta Balbi in the FUR fragment is not acceptable because: 1) the concentric arcs do not correspond to the lines emerging from the S side of the crypta, 2) this scenario proposes that the cavea emerged straight from the sides of the portico without an intermediary scaenae which is unlike the known architecture of the Theaters of Pompey and Marcellus, and 3) the cavea would have interfered with the back wall of the Porticus Octaviae and Philippi. Facing strong opposition from Marchetti Longhi on this point, Gatti also reiterates his arguments from 1960 on the relocation of the Circus Flaminius to the area west of the Theater of Marcellus. Especially helpful is Gatti's drawing on p. 18 [= p. 180] of his proposed location of these buildings on the FUR.
  • Gatti 1960
    Gatti, Guglielmo. "Dove erano situati il Teatro di Balbo e il Circo Flaminio?" Capitolium 35.7 (1960) 3-12 (= Gatti 1989, 169-178).
    In this ground-breaking article, Gatti relocates the Theater of Balbus and the Circus Flaminius. The theatrum Balbi as depicted in fr. 30abc of the FUR cannot be associated with the remains discovered on Monte Cenci as shown in PM 1960 pl. 62. The edge of the FUR fragment and the orientation of its inscription demonstrate that the orientation of the Theater of Balbus differed from the remains in via di S. Maria de’ Calderari. These remains are in line with the Porticus of Octaviae and Philippi but not with the Porticus of Pompey which is the orientation the Balbus theater ought to have. The joining of frs. 398ab to the theatrum Balbi fragment demonstrates with certainty that the monument could not have been located on the Monte Cenci: The new fragments would have "pushed" the theater in fr. 30abc into the Tiber. Gatti instead locates the theatrum Balbi south of the Via delle Botteghe Oscure (fig. 10) and adds that the portico shown behind the stage of the theater in fr. 30abc is the famous Crypta Balbi. He identifies the theatrum and crypta Balbi complex with remains between the Via delle Botteghe Oscure and the Piazza Mattei, formerly assumed to be those of the Circus Flaminius. These remains cannot be of the Circus Flaminius because: 1) the different building material of the cavea and the rest of the building indicates that this was not one building but two different ones; 2) ancient remains of a completely different type were discovered where the foundation of the circus ought to have been, had it been located in this area; 3) two arched entrances were discovered which would fit well with the architecture of a theater but not of a circus, which would have had more than just two entrances; 4) there is no evidence of a spina. Repositioned to the lower right corner of slab V-11, the theatrum Balbi fragments make a perfect join with those already positioned there, and the architecture of the crypta depicted in the fragment, such as the semi-circular exedra, matches actual remains between the Via delle Botteghe Oscure, Via Caetani, and Via dei Delfini. Ancient sources confirm Gatti's identification and location of the theatrum Balbi in this space: According to Suetonius (Aug., 29.5) theatrum Balbi was constructed during the reign of Augustus; this date matches the opus reticulatum construction of the cunei discovered under the Palazzo Mattei Caetani. The theater's location close to the Tiber is confirmed by Cassius Dio's statement (54.25.2) that the building had to be approached by boat during a flood in 13 BCE. According to the Regionary Catalogs the Theater of Balbus had half the seating capacity of the Theater of Marcellus, and the remains of the cavea of the former indeed witness a much smaller building. Finally, the triumphal route of Titus and Vespasian in 81 CE "between the two theaters" (Joseph., Bell. Jud., 7.5.4) can now be reconstructed exactly as being between the theaters of Marcellus and Balbus. Gatti then relocates the Circus Flaminius to an area by the Tiber that was bordered on the southwest by the Tiber, on the southeast by the Theater of Marcellus, and on the northeast by the Porticus Octaviae and Philippi (fig. 10). This is the only spot devoid of ancient construction and large enough to accommodate the circus. The discovery of a large square paved with travertine blocks in this area, between S. Angelo in Pescheria and Piazza Giudea, coincides well with the ancient sources according to which the circus Flaminius was paved in imperial times and thus transformed into a large piazza. This thesis also fits with the evidence provided by FUR fragment 31ii which can now be joined with the group that shows the fronts of the Porticus Octaviae and Philippi (fig. 9); it has the same color and veining direction. The line in fr. 31ii continues in fr. 31cc. The location of the Circus Flaminius in this spot fits the evidence that the Temple of Apollo, the Theater of Marcellus, and the temples of Juno Regina, of Iuppiter Stator, and of Hercules Musarum were "in circo," i.e. close to the circus. Finally, the discovery of statues of Castor and Pollux in this area indicates that the temple of the Dioscuri, also known to have been "in circo," must have been nearby.
  • Gatti 1938
    Gatti, Guglielmo. "Il portico degli Argonauti e la basilica di Nettuno." Atti del III Convegno Nazionale di Storia dell'Architettura 16 (Rome 1938) 61-73 (= Gatti 1989, 107-119).
    Building upon evidence presented in two earlier articles (Gatti 1934 and Gatti 1937), Gatti here sets out to prove what had been proposed in 1912 by V. Lundström: that the Porticus of Neptune [Stoa of Poseidon], a structure built by Agrippa in 25 BCE and adorned with painted images of the Argonauts (Cass. Dio 53.27.1), is identical to the porticus Argonautarum, listed with the porticus Meleagri in the Regionary Catalogues in Regio IX, and that it is to be associated with the W portico of the Saepta Iulia. To prove this, Gatti uses a combination of ancient sources: FUR fragments frs. 36b, 35uv, and 35nozaa demonstrate that the porticus Meleagri is the E portico of the Saepta (Gatti 1937); Pliny (NH 36.29) notes that the Saepta was filled with works of art, including sculptural groups of Olympos and Pan and of Achilles and Chiron; and Martial (2.14.5-6) refers to the Saepta as exhibiting images of the sons of Philyra (=Chiron) and of Aeson (=Jason, leader of the Argonauts). Gatti further suggests that the buildings referred to as the porticus agrippiana (schol. ad Iuv. 6.154) and the Poseidonion (Cass. Dio. 66.24) are identical to the porticus Argonautarum and that the Basilica of Neptune, which Hadrian repaired (SHA Hadr. 19.10) must be a building close to the latter. This is also suggested by the Regionary Catalogues in which the Basilica of Neptune is listed immediately after the Pantheon. Excavations south and east of the Pantheon have revealed a N-S wall with niches facing east. It is generally assumed that Hadrian built this wall to support the Pantheon, but it probably also functioned as the back wall of the porticus Argonautarum and thus the Saepta, which Hadrian also restored. Gatti suggests that the remains of a large aula west of this wall and south of the Pantheon is the Basilica of Neptune, and not part of the Baths of Agrippa, as generally assumed (reconstruction in fig. 7). The marine motifs in the frieze of this aula might support this identification.
  • Gatti 1937
    Gatti, Guglielmo. "I Saepta Iulia nel Campo Marzio." L'Urbe 2.9 (1937) 8-23 (= Gatti 1989, 89-104).
    In 1934, Gatti successfully disproved that the large building of opus incertum by the Tiber, depicted in FUR fragments 23 and 24a-c was to be associated with the Saepta Iulia (Gatti 1934). In this equally important article, the author follows up upon his earlier argument with the suggestion that the Saepta Iulia is to be identified with a structure visible in FUR frs. 35bb, gg, hh, lpqr, nozaa, uv, and the missing 36a. Ancient sources relate that the arcus Virginis terminated in front of the Saepta and that the Iseum lay next to it. Since excavations have uncovered the end of the aqueduct near the via del Seminario and have unearthed a plethora of Egyptian artefacts between via Pie' di Marmo and piazza S. Macuto, the Saepta Iulia must have occupied an area nearby. Gatti then demonstrates that C. Hülsen and V. Lundström's earlier organizations of the FUR fragments listed above are slightly incorrect, and that the Saepta is the large open structure seen west of the Porticus Divorum and the Serapaeum and north of the Diribitorium on the Plan, exactly as suggested by excavations. Gatti confirms Lundström's reading of PORTIC[US] M[ELEA]GRI but suggests that the letters [...]AE[...] and [...]VLI[...] in frs. 36a, 35nozaa, and 35bb read [S]AE[PTA I]VLI[A] as opposed to Lundström's AE[DES I]VLI[ORUM]. The author concludes that the Saepta occupied the space bordered by the Iseum and the Villa Publica to the east, the Baths of Agrippa and the Pantheon to the west, the Diribitorium to the south, and the via del Seminario to the north. Combining the evidence presented by the FUR fragments, ancient sources, and archaeological excavations, Gatti demonstrates that the Saepta was an open space that was bordered to the east and the west by two covered porticos. The E portico of the Saepta can then be associated with the Porticus Meleagri, known from the Regionary Catalogues to have been located in Regio IX.
  • Gatti 1934
    Gatti, Guglielmo. "'Saepta Iulia' e 'Porticus Aemilia' nella 'Forma' Severiana." Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 62 (1934) 123-149 (= Gatti 1989, 57-88).
    In this ground-breaking article Gatti delivers three major proposals concerning the Marble Plan: He concludes that the scale of the Plan is 1:240. He then suggests that the building depicted in FUR fragments 23 and 24b and 24c is the Porticus Aemilia and not the Saepta Iulia, as long believed. The letters ]LIA in frs. 23 and 24b are not the last three letters of the name IU[LIA] but of AEMI[LIA]. The remains of a large structure near the Tiber, S of the Aventine, is to be identified with the Porticus Aemilia (pl. 4 shows Gatti's famous reconstruction of the building by the Tiber). The opus incertum construction of this building matches the date of the Porticus Aemilia, which, according to Livy (35.10.12), was built by the aediles M. Aemilus Lepidus and M. Aemilius Paulus in 192 BCE. Finally, Gatti challenges the identification of the large building depicted in FUR frs. 24a-c as the Statio Coh. I Vigilum. The architecture of the structure, parts of which were excavated, suggests it was used for storage of grain, and its proximity to the funerary monument of Servius Sulpicius Galba (discovered in 1885 and visible as a small square in fr. 24c) is a strong indication that the building is to be identified with the Horrea Galbana (pl. 2).
  • Hülsen 1914
    Hülsen, Christian. "La rappresentazione degli edifizi Palatini nella 'Forma Urbis Romae' dei tempi Severiani." Dissertazione alla Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia 11 (1914) 101-120.
    The author, one of the early 20th-century experts on the Severan Marble Plan, here identifies frs. 20a, 20b, 20c, and 20d as sections of the imperial buildings on the Palatine Hill. His thesis that frs. 333, 391, 363, and 35q also depicted Palatine structures, namely the Hippodrome and the Domus Augustiana, have since been proven incorrect (PM 1960, pp. 77-78). Building upon an earlier thesis by Lanciani, who proposed that the Roman Forum and the Palatine were carved on a larger scale (1:200) than the rest of the Severan map, Hülsen here suggests that the Palatine structures were depicted on a scale of 1:220, whereas the scale used everywhere else on the Plan was 1:250. G. Carettoni has since refuted the idea that these areas were carved on a different scale than the rest of the Map: he demonstrated that of those buildings on the Forum whose depiction on the FUR was complete enough to warrant precise measurements, some were carved precisely on a scale 1:240, while others were not (PM 1960, pp. 75-76). He used the same argument to refute the thesis presented here by Hülsen, noting that the sparse and fragmentary depictions of the Palatine buildings on the Plan do not allow for precise measurements either way (PM 1960, p. 78). In the remainder of the article, Hülsen argues that the Temple of Apollo -- not the Adonaea as represented in fr. 44 of the FUR -- must have been located on the S end of the Palatine, in the area of the Vigna Barberini.
  • Insalaco 2003
    Insalaco, Antonio. "Rilettura di un gruppo di frammenti della Forma Urbis." In A. Englen (ed.), Caelius 1: Santa Maria in Domnica, San Tommaso in Formis e il Clivus Scauri (Rome 2003) 106-112.
    The author reexamines the topography between the S. Gregorio and the piazza dei Ss. Giovanni and Paolo based on frs. 5Aa, 5Abcd, 5Ae, and 5Af of the FUR. The fragments depict three trapezoidal porticos and a large building, surrounded by tabernae, which is labeled SEVERI ET AN/TONINI AV[G]G/NN. The street that flanks the porticos on the southeast is labeled [CLI]VVS VICTORIAE. Based on certain physical aspects of the fragment, the authors of PM 1960 tentatively positioned the fragment group to an area on the map that corresponds to the western slope of the Caelian Hill, between the templum Divi Claudi and the Circus Maximus. E. Rodríguez-Almeida subsequently confirmed this position. This position does not, however, correspond precisely with the ancient topography of the area around S. Gregorio. This is not surprising, as it has long been known that this area of the Plan is distorted; in fact, the templum Divi Claudi is 21 degrees off its correct position and thus exhibits the greatest skewing known on the map. Insalaco suggests that this skewing towards the east, which translates into approximately 40 m. on the ground, also caused the misalignment between the buildings depicted in frs. 5A and the topography of the S. Gregorio area. He demonstrates this by rotating the fragment 21 degrees counterclockwise and showing the consequential correspondences between certain elements on the fragment and on the ground. A short section of the Clivus Scauri, for example, excavated in 1890, matches the wide street, flanked by north-facing shops on both sides, that runs to the left of the SEVERI ET AN/TONINI AV[G]G/NN inscription. The course of the Vicus Trium Ararum corresponds to the street depicted right above the main inscription. A building faced with shops in the Piazza dei Ss. Giovanni and Paolo aligns with the point where the street labeled Clivus Victoriae joins with the Clivus Scauri. The paved area discovered under the monastery of S. Gregorio probably corresponds to the northeast side of the great piazza that must have existed in front of the Septizodium. The SW side of this piazza is visible in fr. 7abcd. It must have been a great nodal point, onto which flowed several streets: Via Appia, Vicus Piscinae Publicae, the vici that corresponded to the Via dei Cerchi and Via di S. Gregorio, and the Vicus Trium Ararum and the Clivus Victoriae. The author associates this piazza with the ad Septem Vias, mentioned in Medieval sources as being located in front of the Septizodium. A fifth corresponding element is the trapezoidal building divided into three separate porticos, surrounded by outward-facing shops; since the shops do not open onto the internal courtyards, it is probably not a ware house, as was once believed, but a grandiose market. A section of these shops is visible today underneath the S. Gregorio. The brickwork and preserved wall paintings date them to the beginning of the 3rd century. The pre-existing streets and buildings caused their trapezoidal shape. There are enough similarities between the ground plan of these shops and those that face the Vicus Trium Ararum in front of the three trapezoidal porticos in frs. 5A to indicate that they are the same: their position, proportions, and the fact that they seemed to have been backing onto a courtyard. There are also some inconsistencies in the orientation, however, which the author explains as a change in the original building plans during the course of construction in order to incorporate the preexisting architecture. Since these shops were constructed at the same time as the Marble Plan was being carved, they would not have appeared in the surveys on which the engravers of the map based their work. Insalaco suggests that the carvers instead relied on an architectural project drawing of the shop complex, one that was then changed during the course of construction. He concludes that positioning frs. 5A correctly demonstrates the existence of a large, commercial quarter in the area of S. Gregorio, probably attributable to Septimius Severus and Caracalla, as G. Gatti hypothesized. Like the Septizodium, this commercial quarter on the slopes of the Caelian would have flanked Severus' Piazza ad Septem Vias and thus have played a vital role in the emperor's attempt to create a monumental entrance to the city from the south.
  • Jordan 1874
    Jordan, Henri. Forma Urbis Romae Regionum XIIII (Berlin 1874).
    Jordan's publication of the Plan is a systematic study (in Latin) that includes chapters on the history of the fragments; the origins, setting and function of the Plan; and the various types of Roman architecture illustrated on the Plan. It contains a synopsis of the fragment numbers assigned by Jordan, Bellori, Piranesi, and Canina and color coded drawings of all the incised fragments: grey for extant fragments, yellow for fragments known only through modern marble copies, and white line drawings for fragments known only from Renaissance drawings.
  • Koller-Levoy 2005
    Koller, David and Levoy, Marc. "xxx" Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma. Suppl. (forthcoming 2005)
  • Koller-Trimble-Najbjerg-Gelfand-Levoy 2005
    Koller, David, Trimble, Jennifer, Najbjerg, Tina, Gelfand, Natasha, and Levoy, Marc. "Fragments of the City: Stanford's Digital Forma Urbis Romae Project." In L. Haselberger and J. Humphrey (edd.), Imaging Ancient Rome: Documentation – Visualization - Imagination. Proceedings of the Third Williams Symposium on Classical Architecture. JRA suppl. (forthcoming 2005).
  • Lanciani 1893-1901
    Lanciani, Rodolfo. Forma Urbis Romae (Milan 1893-1901).
  • Lanciani 1899
    Lanciani, Rodolfo. "I nuovi frammenti della Forma Urbis." Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 27 (1899) 3-21.
    Lanciani's article is a response to the discovery of 451 fragments of the FUR in the demolition of walls of the Secret Garden of the Farnese Palace along the Via Giulia in the 1880's and 90's. He includes photographs of 28 of these rediscovered fragments, but does not attempt to identify them. The article is mainly an outline of the excavation history of all the FUR fragments and a discussion of the value of their publications.
  • Lloyd 1982
    Lloyd, R. B. "Three monumental gardens on the Marble Plan." American Journal of Archaology 86 (1982) 91-100.
    The author examines the large, formal gardens that appear inside the porticoed courtyards of the Temple of Peace, the Temple to the Deified Claudius, and the Adonaea on the Severan Marble Plan. In the Temple of Peace, depicted in FUR fragments 15ab, 15c, and 16a, 3 parallel rows of connected rectangles flank the central altar. Each of the rectangles measure ca. 5 m. in width and 12-20 m. in length; the channels that connect them are 2 m. long and 1 m. wide. According to the author, the rectangles are too large to represent hedges and shade trees are usually indicated with dots on the FUR (here, he refers to PM 1960, p. 202). Quoting examples from painted wall fragments in Campania, Lloyd proposes that the rectangles in Vespasian's forum represented flower beds surrounded by low marble fences. (NB. The current excavations in the Forum of Vespasian have unearthed remains of these rectangles. The brick features seem to have been used as bases for statuary. Rows of clay pots for plants and flowers surrounded these podia and drainage channels of marble ran along their base. Click here to see images of the excavated remains).
    The Claudianum, depicted in FUR frs. 4b and 5a-h, consists of a large, rectagular courtyard or podium in the center of which the temple itself is positioned. Long, narrow strips (recessed double lines) create clamp-shaped frames around the temple. The strips are traversed by two paths: one along the central E-W axis, another along the central N-S axis. The 1 m. wide strips are too narrow to represent flower beds and cannot depict trees. Comparison to the extensive garden at the villa at Fishbourne demonstrates, however, that the elongated features inside the Claudianum most likely were hedges consisting of bushes and flowering shrubs. The cistern-like tanks in the buttress wall on the N side of the Claudianum may have served an extensive watering system similar to that discovered at Fishbourne.
    The building called the Adonaea is only known from FUR frs. 46acd, 46b, and the missing 46e. The author reconstructs the Adonaea as a T-shaped structure, surrounded on the sides by walls, on one end by a row of columns, and by a deep, colonnaded porch at the top of the T (fig. 2). The three inner rows of dotted lines contain too many dots to represent columns, they are too dense to depict large trees, and the small potted plants and herbs that formed part of the worship of Adonis were temporary offerings and would probably not have been included on the Marble Plan. Based on a description of the festival of Adonis in Theocritus 15, Lloyd suggests that the 3 inner lines of dots represented rows of stakes or small columns that held up grapevines, thus essentially creating a double arbor or vineyard underneath which the participants would dine al fresco. The long rectangular feature in the center of the Adonaea in Rome must be the pool of a euripus, surrounded by semicircular and square niches for statuary or fountains. The 16 lines divided evenly on either side of the pool probably represented low beds or hedges planted with herbs for use in the cult. That the shrine of Adonis, essentially a funerary monument, should be surrounded by vineyards in which dining took place is not surprising; numerous inscriptions and a passage from Petronius' Satyricon (71) prove the existence of such funerary gardens and their use for feasting. Whether the Adonaea depicted in the FUR is to be identified with the Hall of Adonis, supposedly part of Domitian's palace complex on the Palatine, or is to be located somewhere else in Rome remains uncertain.
  • Lott 2004
    Lott, J. Bert. The Neighborhoods of Augustan Rome (Cambridge 2004).
  • Lugli 1992
    Lugli, Piero Maria. "Considerazioni urbanistiche sulla Pianta Marmorea del Foro della Pace." Bollettino di Archeologia 16-18 (1992) 19-31.
  • Lugli 1961
    Lugli, G. "Sessanta anni di studi per ricostruire sei ettari di Roma antica." Capitolium 36 (1961) 8-14.
  • Manacorda 2002
    Manacorda, Daniele. "Un nuovo frammento della Forma Urbis e le calcare romane del Cinquecento nell'area della Crypta Balbi." Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome, Antiquité 114.2 (2002) 693-715.
    In 2001, a new fragment belonging to the Severan Marble Plan was discovered during the construction of a subterranean passageway along the Via delle Botteghe Oscure, destined to connect to the underground path near the Museo della Crypta Balbi (see Mancini-Ricci-Manacorda 2002). The significance of the discovery is increased by the fact that this is the first FUR fragment to have emerged in a stratigraphic investigation far from the Templum Pacis and its surrounding area (not counting the numerous pieces that were discovered in a wall belonging to the Farnese "Secret Garden" by the Tiber). An examination of the history of the buildings in the area shows that several lime kilns were active there during the 15th and the 16th centuries, a clear indication of why the fragment ended up here. The smooth back of the fragment itself (fig. 3) shows traces of a clamp hole or a tassello; it is approximately 0.55 to 0.57 cm thick, and there are no discernible veining lines. The well-preserved front depicts a series of large rooms with a common back wall. Parallel to this back wall the incomplete letters [---]REA are written, perhaps to be interpreted as [HOR]REA or [A]REA. The smooth back, the thickness of the piece, the size and style of the letters, and the architecture provide clues that may allow us to match this new fragment to still unidentified pieces of the Marble Plan. Good candidates for matches may be frs. 256, 260, 266, and 269, none of which has yet been assigned to a specific slab. There is, however, no physical match between the new fragment and any surviving or lost fragments (the latter group is known from Renaissance drawings). The new fragment was probably one of the many pieces that were discovered in 1562 in a garden behind the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian. For some reason, it was not transferred to the Farnese palace like most of its companion pieces, but ended up in the Via delle Botteghe Oscure, destined to be burned in one of the many active lime kilns there. While it escaped this fate, chances are that many other FUR fragments were destroyed in these kilns.
  • Manacorda 1990
    Manacorda, Daniele. "Il tempio di Vulcano in Campo Marzio." Dialoghi di Archeologia 8 (1990) 35-51.
  • Mancini-Ricci-Manacorda 2002
    Mancini, D., Ricci, M., Manacorda, D. "La Forma Urbis alla Crypta Balbi: Novità dagli scavi." Archeo 207 (2002) 38-44.
  • Najbjerg - Trimble 2005
    Najbjerg, Tina and Trimble, Jennifer. "The Severan Marble Plan since 1960." Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma. Suppl. (forthcoming 2005)
  • Palombi 1997
    Palombi, Domenico. Tra Palatino ed Esquilino: Velia, Carinae, Fagutal. Storia Urbana di tre quartieri di Roma antica. Rivista Dell'Istituto Nazionale d'Archaeologia e Storia dell'Arte, suppl. 1. (Rome 1997).
    Palombi takes up an existing suggestion and reconstructs the inscription on fr. 672abcd as IN TEL(LURE), used in imperial times as a toponym for an area near the Argiletum (pp. 149-153). Based on similar letter size, guidelines, paleography and quality of the incisions, he positions fr. 577 (-LV-) next to 672, filling out the inscription (fig. 62). He further identifies the AEDE(S) on fr. 672 as the Temple of Tellus itself (pp. 153-159), rejecting Coarelli's location of that temple just east of the Compitum Acilium (Coarelli, in L'Urbs, pp. 22-35). This suggestion raises the problem of matching the textual attestations of a single temple with the visual evidence of twin temples; he suggests that the second is most likely a temple of Ceres. Based on this identification, and taking into account the slab edge, wedge hole (tassello), smooth back and orientation of the inscriptions, frs. 672 and 577 are placed along the upper left edge of slab VII-9 (the slab just to the left of the Templum Pacis slab).
  • Pedroni 1992
    Pedroni, Luigi. "Per una lettura verticale della Forma Urbis Marmorea." Ostraka 1.2 (1992) 223-230.
    Pedroni examines the V-shaped staircase symbols on the Plan, focusing on the transverse bars that appear on many of them; he proposes that the number of bars indicated how many upper floors were present. These bars can number from 1 to 6 (there is a useful tabulation of his study of the V-shaped symbols on the Plan, the number of bars, and the fragments on which they appear on pp. 226-227). An exploration of the textual and archaeological evidence for Roman housing, included legislated heights of buildings, allows for this suggestion. The author is not able to explain convincingly why so many V-symbols have no bars, or why 5- and 6-bar examples are so rare; nor does he investigate the possibility of different heights within a single building, or the spatial distribution of these symbols.
  • Reynolds 1996
    Reynolds, David West. Forma Urbis Romae: The Severan Marble Plan and the Urban Form of Ancient Rome (PhD Diss. University of Michigan, 1996).
    The contribution of this dissertation, apart from being a recent and wide-ranging study of the Plan in English, lies in Reynolds' attempt to chart new ground in the study of the Plan and the urban fabric of Rome. He provides a study of non-monumental architecture on the Plan (chapter 3) and combines data from the Plan and the fourth-century Regionary Catalogues to assess elements of the urban structure of Rome (chapter 4). The dissertation also includes useful analyses of the accuracy of the Renaissance and later drawings of FUR fragments, and analyzes the Plan's significance within Roman mapping and surveying traditions.
  • Richardson 1987
    Richardson, Lawrence, Jr. "A Note on the Architecture of the Theatrum Pompei in Rome." American Journal of Archaeology 91 (1987) 123-126.
    The structure that extends from the outer arc of the Theater of Pompey in fr. 39f is generally identified as the Temple of Venus Victrix. In this article, Richardson challenges this identification and suggests that the feature depicts a tree-lined avenue that led from Pompey's house to his theater. He points out the following in support of this thesis: there is no similarity between this structure and known temples on the Plan; it is, in fact, more similar to the plantations or pools in the nearby porticus (fr. 39ac); the structure is skewed in relation to the axis of the theater which would not make sense if it were a building at the top of the cavea; had the feature been a temple, it would have intruded upon the space of the cavea on the Plan; and, finally, there are no archaeological remains of the sturdy (and very tall) foundation needed for such a temple.
  • Richardson 1980
    Richardson, Lawrence, Jr. "The Approach to the Temple of Saturn." American Journal of Archaeology 84 (1980) 51-62.
    G. and P.M. Lugli's reconstruction of the Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum from 1947 shows the approach to the temple as consisting of two rectangular platforms framing each side of a narrow, central staircase that widens at the top to span the width of the entire podium. In this reconstruction, the Aerarium was situated underneath the E platform and reached through a small door in the E wall of the temple podium. Richardson here claims that this reconstruction is incorrect, mainly because it is based on a misreading of the lost FUR fragment 19 which, he proposes, does not depict the Temple of Saturn, of the deified Vespasian, and of Concordia in the Roman forum. The general plan of these three buildings is known today, and what is rendered in the Renaissance drawing of the missing fragment does not match these remains: The triangular area in front of the presumed Temple of Saturn seems to be approached by stairs, which is unlikely as the clivus Capitolinus rises here; if the lines that frame this triangular area represent a precinct boundary, then where is the entry?; there are too few front steps shown in the drawing - in comparison to the Temple of Castor, there should be many more; and the line of the podium is not indicated here although it is included in fr. 18d which shows the S wall of the temple. The rendering of the Temple of Vespasian in fr. 19 also does not correspond to reality: It is situated incorrectly in relationship to the Temple of Saturn, and it shows no columns or steps in front. Finally, the Renaissance drawing shows the supposed Temple of Corcordia as having columns along the side, which is incorrect; it does not repeat the famous T-shape of the building; and the imposing frontal staircase is missing. The author does not think it likely that the Renaissance draftsman could have made so many mistakes, and concludes that the fragment belongs some where else on the Marble Plan. He proposes that the [---]ORDIA inscription in fr. 19 refers not to [CONC]ORDIA but to [VENUS VERTIC]ORDIA. The temple to Venus Verticordia must have been sitauted some where between the Circus Maximus and the Aventine Hill, an area that corresponds to slabs VIII-6 and VII-14 on the Marble Plan. Hardly any fragments have been located in this area of the Plan, and there is thus ample space to position fr. 19 here. The stairs in front of the Temple of Saturn probably spanned the entire width of the podium.
  • Richardson 1976
    Richardson, Lawrence, Jr. "The evolution of the Porticus Octaviae." American Journal of Archaeology 80 (1976) 57-64.
    Richardson here argues two things: a) G. Gatti's identification of the extensive 2nd cent. BCE structure by the Tiber as the Porticus Aemilia (Gatti 1960 and 1961) is erroneous. The building does not have the form of a porticus and it is not situated outside the Porta Trigemina (we know from Livy 35.41.10 that the Porticus Aemilia was located outside this gate). The remains by the Tiber are more reminiscent of a warehouse (he later suggests they are those of the Porticus Minucia Frumentaria [Richardson 1992, pp. 315-316]), and the Porticus Aemilia must have been a insignificant building, probably of wood, that disappeared by the early Empire.
    b) The premise of the second argument is the problem of identifying the Porticus Octavia. Festus (188L) records that there were two buildings in Rome by the name of Porticus Octavia: One was built by Augustus' sister Octavia near the Circus Flaminius, and one was built in 168 BCE by Cn. Octavius next to the Theater of Pompey and it was restored by Augustus. In an attempt to reconcile the ancient accounts, Richardson suggests that Cn. Octavius' Porticus Octavia was a single-wing portico that faced the Circus Flaminius and stood in front of the temples to Iuno Regina and Juppiter Stator. Then Q. Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus built a three-sided portico behind the Porticus Octavia, thus creating a quadriporticus around the two temples. The Porticus Metelli was considered a separate entity from the Porticus Octavia. Octavian restored the Porticus Octavia in 33 BCE, and his sister Octavia rebuilt the remaining three sides a decade later and included a library with the name of her son, Marcellus, and she named the new curia, the schola, and the three wings of the porticus after herself. The inscription in FUR fragment 31u, which generally is believed to name the two large quadriporticus across from the Circus Flaminius, the porticus Octaviae and Philippi, refers only to the E porticus, the Porticus Octaviae, dedicated to Octavia and her son, and it reads OCTAVIAE ET FILI, not OCTAVIAE ET FILIPPI. That this is the correct reading is suggested by the fact that there is not enough space in the inscribed field for the latter interpretation. The problem that Festus situates the Porticus Octavia next to the Theater of Pompey remains.
  • Rickman 1971
    Rickman, Geoffrey. Roman granaries and store buildings (Cambridge, England, 1971).
    The author examines the archaeological evidence for granaries and store buildings in Rome, Ostia, and in the provinces. For Ostia and the provinces, he relies mainly on the archaeological remains; the scarcity of remains of this type of buildings in Rome, however, forces the author to rely on the evidence provided by the Severan marble plan (pp. 87-122). The only excavated horrea in Rome is the Horrea Agrippiana; despite certain inconsistencies, it was for years associated with a structure depicted in fragment group 42, until this identification was firmly rejected by the authors of PM 1960. The architecture of the Horrea Galbana is known mainly from fragment group 24 of the FUR and from a few scattered late 19th-c. excavations. Having discussed the meagre remains of the Horrea Piperataria and Horrea Seiana and a few unidentified structures, Rickman concentrates on the evidence for horrea presented by the FUR, thus building upon the work of R.A. Staccioli (Staccioli 1962). Some of the horrea on the marble plan are easily identified, either because they are labeled, such as the Horrea Lolliana in fr. 25 and the building labeled SUMMI CH[ORAGI] in fr. 3 which was probably used for storing theatrical machinery and equipment; or because their ground plan compares well to the excavated remains from Ostia. Frs. 28, for example, depict several monumental horrea on the banks of the Tiber and across the Via Portuense. More are visible in frs. 33abc and 34. Rickman, however, rejects Staccioli's identification of warehouses in slab VI-7 (fr. 27), counterarguing that the lack of urban planning in the area and of a secure environment makes it more likely to have been shops and insulae. A building of unusual design in fr. 44 is labeled Horrea Candelaria and must be accepted as showing the ground plan of a ware house. Fr. 92 clearly shows part of a horrea. Rickman concludes that some of Staccioli's identifications are more certain than others; he considers the identification of buildings in frs. 421, 543, 548, and 563 as horrea secure, those in frs. 123, 163, 165, 184, and 185 less so.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 2002
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. Formae Urbis Antiquae: le mappe marmoree di Roma tra la Repubblica e Settimio Severo (Rome 2002).
    In his latest work, Rodríguez-Almeida first surveys the cartographic tradition in Rome. He then discusses the existence and reconstruction of a pre-Augustan map of Rome, based on the writings of Livy (V.55.5) and Varro (De Ling. Lat., V.45-47, 50-56). In chapters 3-5, the author examines seven maps of the Augustan period or in the Augustan tradition: the so-called pianta "del priorato" or "dell'Aventino," "di Tivoli," "di Perugia," "di Via della Polveriera," "di Via Anicia," "di Amelia," and "della necropoli di Porto." He devotes a separate chapter to a little-known and at the time of his writing still unpublished marble map discovered in 1995 in the Forum Transitorium (fig. 20 is author's own drawing). The style of the engraving and the partial inscriptions on this pre-domitianic map lead the author to believe that it dates to the late Republican period. The disppointingly brief final chapter focuses on the map to which Rodríguez-Almeida has devoted most of his life: the Severan Marble Plan of Rome. The author recounts the history of the map's discovery and publication and touches upon its date and the problem of its function. Unlike some of the other maps discussed in this book, the Severan Marble Plan did not serve as a great cadastral map for public use, nor as a fiscal or administrative map for the city government. What is certain, however, is that there existed smaller, precise, cadastral maps to which the Severan surveyers referred when they created this large-scale map. The piecing together of such smaller maps explains why the details engraved on the Severan map generally are extremely precise, while the angles of monuments and city sections on occasion are skewed and incorrect. While the text of this chapter adds nothing new to the scholarship on the Severan map, fig. 24 is a schematic rendering of the map that reflects a new numbering system of the 150 slabs, first proposed by the author in 1994 (see Rodríguez-Almeida 1994). In addition, a large foldout plan of the map (pl. 12) shows fragments added since 1960 - colorcoded according to author. Notably missing from this plan are the convincing matches proposed by Claudia Cecamore (Cecamore 1999 and 2002) and Laura Ferrea (Ferrea 2002).
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 2001
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. Topografia e vita romana: da Augusto a Costantino (Rome 2001).
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 2000
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "A proposito della Forma marmorea e di altre formae." Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome, Antiquité 112.1 (2000) 217-230.
    1. Certain characteristics of slab III-12 enable the author to locate frs. 278ab , 289, 280ab in this very slab (fig. 5). Frs. 286ab, 287, 292, 296, 307ab, and 374 may also belong.
    2. Fig. 6 is a drawing of one of the 23 new FUR fragments that were discovered in 1998 in the ongoing excavation of the Forum Pacis (click here for more information about the excavation). The drawing precedes the official publication of the new fragments (in preparation by the Sovraintendenza).
    3. S. Rizzo (Archeo 1999, p. 10-11) published a recently discovered marble fragment on which a section of the Forum of Augustus is engraved. Concerned that future scholars may mistake the new piece as belonging to the FUR Rodríguez-Almeida makes the following observations about the fragment and its publication: 1) unlike the FUR, the new fragment is not an area map; 2) the archaeological context provides a terminus post quem non of the 10th/11th c.; 3) the suggestion that the piece is incompletely engraved and therefore a reject is unsubstantiated; 4)the argument that the Forum Transitorium had not yet been built when this fragment was engraved because the stairs that joined it to Forum of Augustus do not appear, does not hold. The plan was perhaps designed to show only the architecture of Augustus' forum; 5) the arch depicted is erroneously attributed to Gaius and Lucius Caesar--it can only be that of Germanicus; 6) the assumption that this new fragment proves that some of the pieces of the Severan Marble Plan are in reality from a similar Vespasianic plan is without foundations; 7) the Via Anicia plan has nothing in common with another fragment, recently discovered in the Forum Transitorium (to be published by the author in his second large publication on the FUR, forthcoming). According to Rodríguez-Almeida, inconsistencies between the overall scale of the plan and the existing remains (figs. 8-9) indicate that the new fragment was never intended to depict the entire plan of the Forum but only a very small section of its NE corner. The plan may therefore represent an architect's sketch, used as guide in the construction of a small feature in this section of the forum, perhaps the arch of Germanicus which was put up in 18 CE. The Augustan-Tiberian date of the engraving technique supports this thesis.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1995-96a
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Euristica materiale e Forma marmorea. Alcuni falsi problemi." Atti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia: Rendiconti 68 (1995-96) 3-20. The author here challenges the proposal by M. Steinby (Steinby 1989) and others that fr. 18a, depicting the Temple of Castor in the Roman forum, as well as fr. 38 (Baths of Agrippa) belong to an earlier, probably Vespasianic, version of the marble plan.
    1. The pieces of the FUR were scattered over a large area in medieval times. The fact that fr. 18a was discovered near the monument it depicts is a strange coincidence but does not prove that it did not belong to the Severan marble plan. The dark color of fr. 38 does not indicate it belonged to a different map; this was simply caused by exposure to intense heat from a fire. The "thin incisions" of same fragment are merely an optical illusion caused by the extreme wear of its surface. Contrary to the statement by the proponents of an earlier, Vespasianic plan, frs. 18a and 38 were not the only fragments discovered far from the aula of the Forum Pacis: At least 10 were discovered in the Forum Romanum and in the forum of Caesar, 37 are of unknown provenience, and hundreds were rediscovered in the walls of the Farnese "Secret garden." Besides, the author has discovered a hithertoo unnoticed clamphole in fr. 38 which positions it securely in slab III-10, as proposed in PM 1960, p. 98.
    2. The insertion of fr. 18c into a plaster copy, fr. 18bc, based on a Renaissance drawing, has made it impossible to prove the author's suggestion, first proposed in AG 1980, p, 98, that frs. 18a and 18bcd were located on two different slabs, with the edges of slabs VI-6 and V-11 separating the Temple of Castor from the Basilica Iulia. The size of the Basilica Iulia, however, which spans the height of the horizontal slab VI-6, makes it impossible to squeeze the Temple of Castor into the same slab.
    3. The 3 differences in the rendering of the Temple of Castor in frs. 18a and 18bc (podium rendered with a double line on E side, with a single line on W side; colonnade adjoining the line of the podium on the E side, separate from it on the W side; and columns adjoining the back edge of the podium in fr. 18a but separate from it in 18bc) are difficult to explain, but there are many such anomalies on the FUR, and to conclude from this that 18a belongs to a separate map is too hasty.
    4. The author corrects his positioning of frs. 18a and 18bc based on new observations (fig. 7). Close vicinity of wedge holes (tasselli) to slab edges is a characteristic of the FUR; they range from 10 to 22 cm (the tassello in fr. 24, which is 40 cm from the slab edge, may be modern). The tassello in fr. 18a, which is 8-10 cm from the proposed edge is therefore not unusual, as has been suggested.
    5. It has been argued that fr. 18a must belong to a Vespasianic map because the rooms that are shown at an oblique angle in the building behind the Temple in Castor in the fragment must be pre-Domitianic. Rodríguez-Almeida, however, insists they belong to Domitian's palace, and the reason the walls are rendered oblique while the front is parallel to the back of the Temple of Castor, is because the Severan engravers had problems combining the separate surveys for Regio 8 and 10, the joining of which occurred right at this point. Furthermore, fr. 18a is of proconnesian marble like the rest of the FUR fragments; this type of marble was not in use in Rome before the Antonine period. The known marble maps of Rome that pre-date the Severan Plan are not of proconnesian marble, and their scope, engraving technique, and precise renderings that include proprietary names and measurements, are undeniably different from those of the FUR.
    6. The style of the letter "T" in fr. 18a is unique on the FUR; the orthography of the "R" is repeated in fr. 38 only. This does not, however, justify a Flavian date for these two fragments; in fact, the style of the letters "A" and "M" in fr. 38 is of late date.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1995-96b
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Aemiliana." Atti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia: Rendiconti 68 (1995-96) 373-383.
    In this article, Rodríguez-Almeida proposes that the enigmatic Aemiliana were located south of the Aventine, in the area of the Emporium.
    A. The author first summarizes the evidence he considers certain: the name Aemiliana is a patronym, the feature was located outside the pomerium (Varro, RR, 3.2.6), it was connected to the grain dole (annona), it consisted of a large quarter or complex of buildings of different use (including residential), it was damaged perhaps twice by fire and must have been located in an urban area, and it was located near the Tiber (CIL 15.7150). Despite his assertion to the opposite in LTUR I, pp. 19-20, the author is now convinced that the Aemiliana are identical to the praedia Aemiliana Tigillini (Tacitus, Ann. 15.40); it may, in fact, have been located in the same area as other large, mixed-use complexes, named praedia on the FUR, outside the porta Trigemina, near the porticus Aemilia. Varro's use of the adverb aut signals two analogous urban situations, but not neccessarily neighboring; we should therefore not assume that the Aemiliana were near the porta Flumentana.
    B. Recent research on the annonia and the location of the porticus Minucia frumentaria have overcomplicated matters by assuming that the archive, administration, and physical distribution of the grain dole had to take place/be located in the same area. The author suggests that once the grain recipient had had his name recorded in the temple of the Nymphs, he would go to the porticus Minuciae to receive his ticket, and thereafter to the Porticus Aemilia where his ticket would direct him to one of the 50 openings, and here he would receive his grain portion.
    C. The baths of Tigillinus (Mart., Epigr. 3.20) were probably part of the praedia Aemiliana Tigillini, and Martials's wording indicates they were not located in the Campus Martius. According to Tacitus, the fire of 64 CE burned in two stages. The first began near the circus Maximus and destroyed most of the city, leaving only 4 regions unharmed. Those who blamed the fire on Nero considered the second fire, which burned in an area that was more open and less residential, even more infamous than the first, because it started in the praedia Aemiliana of Tigillinus, Nero's debauched and much-hated friend, and was thus a sure sign that Nero, desiring to free an even larger area for his new city, was the instigator. Rodríguez-Almeida suggests that the second burning happened on the south slopes of the Aventine and in the area of the Emporium just south of it. This was one of the few places the first fire had not reached, and it was occupied mainly by warehouses and markets, thus corresponding well with Tacitus' description. This area was repaired immediately by Galba after Nero's death and Galba may even have entrusted Tigellinus with the rebuilding of the important buildings. The praedia Aemiliana Tigillini were probably located in this area. The bath complex visible in FUR fr. 25a is perhaps to be identified as the balnea Tigillini.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1994a
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "La ricostruzione della Forma Urbis Marmorea: Qualche proposta di metodo." Journal of Ancient Topography = Rivista di Topografia Antica 4 (1994) 109-118.
    The author suggests that future scholarship on the FUR include a data bank of information about all the fragments, as well as casts "in resine leggere." To facilitate the renumbering of fragments included in future matches, he proposes two solutions: 1) Retain the current numbers of groups 1 through 41; assign all remaining slabs a number in sequence from 42, beginning in the upper left corner and finishing in lower right corner. 2) Assign new numbers to ALL 150 slabs, from upper left to lower right corner. (NB. Stanford's Digital Forma Urbis Romae Project fulfills three of Rodríguez-Almeida's wishes: Its core is a database with information about all fragments, including digital 3D models, and the slab map system in our viewer has been adapted from his proposal #2.)
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1994b
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Il frammento 565 della Forma marmorea." Ostraka 3 (1994) 417-426.
    1. Fragment 565 adjoins fr. 10wxy from the Baths of Trajan; they fit together with a "lock" of the marble. The angle created between a faint guideline and the marble veining helps place the fragment. Comparison with the Baths of Trajan caldarium group (10x-w) shows the same angle between the veining and the guideline, an orthogonal guideline dividing the space into symmetrical halves, the same architectonic structure, and the same thickness. The fragment perhaps depicts the tepidarium, elaborated architecturally as a passageway between the caldarium and frigidarium. It shows that this room had, at both ends, a double passageway with central body, elaborated on the 'outside' of the room and flat on the 'inside'. On the caldarium end, the caldarium side was niched/apsidal, and the side facing the intervening room was flat. At the far end, on the frigidarium side, the interior was again flat, and the far side was elaborated with two columns and flanking antae with columns at the end.
    2. This increases our knowledge of the internal layout of the Baths and of the way in which the Marble Plan deformed certain architectural features with respect to the actual topography. Comparison to drawings of the building made in the Renaissance shows that the overall ordering is the same, but details are quite different. The incisions on the FUR represent the spaces in a schematic manner, in a "drastic but effective" simplification (p. 422). There are additional disparities--for example, the FUR shows the natatio as much more rectangular than the practically square Renaissance version. There are also places where the FUR provides information we do not have otherwise.
    3. Frs. 497, 498, 504ab share characteristics with frs. 10A, such as micaceous veining ("serie fitta di righe erosive lievemente lucicanti per la presenza di mica," p. 425), and a similar treatment of the slab edge ("il bordo di lastra smusato per uno spazio di ca. 4 centimetri di ampiezza," p. 425). Fr. 493 in particular shows the same thickness, similar veining, and the same treatment of the slab edge, as well as topographic continuity in the incisions.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1994c
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Marziale in marmo." Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome: Antiquité 106.1 (1994) 197-217.
    I. One of the two pitchers carved in high relief in the frieze of the Temple of Vespasian in the forum Romanum, dedicated in 86 CE, depicts in the top register a gladiator (venator) fighting a lioness and a panther; in the bottom register, a bull locks horns with a rhinocerous. Martial's detailed description of the games held at the inauguration of the Flavian amphitheater in 80 CE, Spectaculorum liber, included the battle between a famous venator, Carpoforo, and a lion and a leppard, and between a rhinocerous and a bull. The author suggests the second pitcher commemorates the highlights of these games.
    II. Three marble statues, discovered in the Roman theater at Tarraco, are now in the archaeological museum in Barcelona. The acephalous, life-sized statues, almost certainly from the same workshop, are remarkably similar: they represent 3 cuirassed men, standing barefoot with the weight on the right leg and with the heavy military cloak draped over the left arm. The aegis of Minerva that each figure wears above the cuirass indicates, according to Rodríguez-Almeida, that they belonged to a sculptural program of the Domitianic period. That Domitian's own military cuirass actually depicted the aegis of his patron goddess, similar to that worn by the 3 statues in Barcelona, is witnessed by Martial's detailed description of it (Mart., 7.1, 7.2). The statues were either 3 copies of a statue of Domitian, or they depicted him and Vespasian and Titus.
    III. Martial opens the second verse of his Spectaculorum liber, which honors the Flavian building program in the area previously occupied by Nero's Golden House, with a reference to pegmata that crescunt in the middle of the road. Martial is here not refering to the ruin of a Neronian feature, as has been suggested, but instead to the scaffolding that must have been "growing up" around the many new Flavian buildings in the Colosseum valley in 80 CE, when Martial wrote the epigram. A marble slab, perhaps funerary, that was discovered underneath the Palazzo della Cancelleria, shows a circular structure under construction (fig. 9). The building is covered and surrounded with pegmata, and the slab is thus a unique representation of a situation simiilar to the one described by Martial.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1992-94
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Le zone in circo e in campo secondo la FUM." Atti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia: Rendiconti 1992-94.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1993
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "De la Forma Urbis Marmorea, en torno al Collis Capitolinus." In R. T. Scott and A. R. Scott, eds., Eius virtutis studiosi. Classical and postclassical studies in memory of F.E. Brown (Washington 1993) 31-43. NB. The article is in Spanish.
    1. The author observes two grooves, hitherto unnoticed, below and to the left of the row of columns in fr. 499 (fig. 1); the 1 cm-wide grooves are similar to the recessed lines that designate the cella walls of temples elsewhere on the FUR. As is typical for FUR fragments that have been exposed to great heat, the veining is not visible; saw marks (zigrinature) show up clearly on the smooth back, however. The thickness, smooth back, damaged surface, and zigrinature of fr. 499 place it securely in slab V-12. Fragments previously located along the top left edge this slab, frs. 31a , 31b, and 31c, show two small temples separated from two long ramps by a thick, double-lined wall. L. Cozza recognized the stepped ramps as the centum gradus on the west side of the Capitoline hill, but did not venture to identify the temples nor the arch that straddles the top ramp. Similar saw marks and thickness locate fr. 499 (proposed new number = 31kk) just above the Capitoline group (fig. 3). It thus depicts the access ramp, one of the "one hundred steps," on the SW slopes of the collis Capitolinus, just above the sacred area of San Omobono (fig. 8). The temple in the new fr. 31kk, which was peripteral sine postico and thus typically Republican, was oriented at an oblique angle to the Temple to Jupiter. Its dimensions suggest there were at least 12 columns along the sides and that it was hexastyle. Remnants of travertine columns and a colossal female head (figs. 5-6), perhaps brought down to the area of San Omobono by a landslide, are possibly to be associated with this temple. Among the 4 known Capitoline temples dedicated to a female divinity, the Temple of Fides best matches the architectural criteria of the structure in fr. 31kk. NB. The argument presented in section 1 is a repetition and development of Rodríguez-Almeida 1991b.
    2. The slight deformations in the topography on the Severan Marble plan must have been caused by the engravers when they mosaicked together the surveys of different sections of the city. Attempts to adjust these errors are visible throughout the map, and overall, the accuracy is astonishing. One major error is the Templum Divi Claudii which is oriented 21° off course. The author has discovered the vague traces of a hitherto unnoticed concentric circle with a diameter of 3.1 cm in fr. 31eno, in the blank space between the Theater of Marcellus and the temples of Apollo and of Bellona in slab V-12 (fig. 9). Also visible around it are two vague guide lines. Lines extending from the center of the Temple of Apollo, the N edge of the Circus Flaminius, and the 45-degree radius of the Theater of Marcelllus form a perfect, equilateral triangle around the circle (fig. 10). On the FUR, however, the Theater of Marcellus is located 30 meters too far to the west and has been turned 13° clockwise from its correct orientation. Its middle radius is not parallel to the E side of the Porticus of Octavia, as shown on the FUR (fig. 11). Fig. 12 shows the real distances and orientation of the structures in question. The concentric circle must be the remains of compass mark, later incompletely erased, by which triangulation was performed to lay out the buildings on the map.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1992
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Novità minori dalla Forma Urbis marmorea." Ostraka 1 (1992) 55-80.
    1. A second aqueduct is observed at the edge of fr. 517. By comparison with the actual course of aqueducts in Rome, this fragment is placed toward the upper left corner of the Plan, i.e. outside the Esquiline Gate.
    2. Frs. 200a and 200b are reconstructed to read TIBERIS and placed just south of the Emporium (the warehouse and port district south of the Aventine hill) in Slab VIII-9. The inscription on fr. 216 is read as ]MINA[, perhaps to be reconstructed as "collis [VI]MINA[LIS]." Its thickness suggests it belonged to the top or middle part of the Plan. Frs. 195 and 196 are put together to spell the letters DAE.
    3. There are very few rough-backed slabs; they descend in a slanting pattern from the top of the wall (fig. 17). This is surely because when rough-hewn blocks of marble were sawn into slabs, only the two "heel" ends of the block had a rough side, while all the inner slabs from a single block were equally smooth on front and back. Several joins are made on the basis of fragments with rough or potentially rough backs: frs. 134 and 667; frs. 97 and 84; frs. 327ab and 324; frs. 661a, 661b, and 666.
    4. The join of frs. 330 and 284, based on a wedge hole (tassello) on the back, results in the complete floor plan of an insula, somewhat similar to one excavated underneath the Palazzo Piombino along the Via Lata.
    5. "Scalini" are explained as sawing irregularities on the backs of certain slabs; those on slabs V-12, VI-7, IV-5 and III-12 are especially visible. The scalini on slab VII-7 (fig. 16) confirm Rodríguez-Almeida's argument that frs. 11b, 11c, 11d, 11e, 11fgh, and 11i, belong to this slab.
    6. Based on rough backs, future identifications may be possible for frs. 138, 165, 157, 70, and 46. Fr. 110 is identified as part of the Baths of Titus.
    7. Signs of heat damage and erosion on the surface of frs. 556 561, 577, 590, 594ab, 598, and 673, indicate they belong to slab VII-10 which depicted the Forum Pacis. Fr. 594ab may adjoin 673, depicting horrea that stood on the site of the later Basilica of Constantine and Maxentius.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1991-92
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Diversi problemi connessi con la lastra n. 37 della Forma Urbis Marmorea e con la topografia in circo e in campo." Atti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia: Rendiconti 64 (1991-92) 3-26.
    A. With G. Gatti having located the Circus Flaminius correctly ( Gatti 1961), and F. Coarelli having discovered that the terms in circo and in campo refer to buildings that either align themselves with (or are perpendicular to) the Circus Flaminius or have an E-W orientation in the Campus Martius (Coarelli 1981), as if placed along the two legs of a 30° angle (fig. 1), it should now be possible to match structures with the designations in circo or in campo to buildings excavated within the legs of the triangular area (the "area anceps"), based on their orientation. Five temples, known to be in campo, have already been identified. According to Coarelli, the temple found in Via delle Botteghe Oscure is that of the Nymphs, and Temples A-D in the Largo Argentina are those of Iuturna, of Fortuna Huiusce Diei, of Feronia, and of the Lares Permarini, respectively (Coarelli 1981). Other structures known from sources to have had the title in campo are the unidentified temples to Iuno Curritis, to Fortuna Equestris, and to Iuppiter Fulgur. The area in question appears on Slab IV-6 of the Severan Marble Plan. Frs. 230 , 234abc, 237, 238a and 238b (missing) from this slab show the remains of at least five temples that would have been located in lower (west) corner of the "area anceps" (fig. 4). Based on the architecture of these temples and on their orientation (calculated from the veining direction and thickness of the fragments) Rodríguez-Almeida suggests that the Greek-style temple that appears in fr. 238a and b, remains of which have been unearthed underneath the church of San Salvatore, is in circo (actually perpendicular to the Circus Flaminius) and is to be identified with the temple of Mars in circo by Hermodoros of Salamis (also argued, for other reasons, by Zevi 1976). He also suggests that the temple in fr. 230, which lacks a true cella, is drawn with a single line (unusual for temples on the Plan), and is in campo, is that of Iuppiter Fulgur, which Vitruvius (1.2.5) relates was hypaethral (open to the sky) and stood in the Campus Martius.
    B. The fact that the temple to Fortuna Equestris is not mentioned in post-Augustan sources makes Rodríguez-Almeida suspect that it shared the fate of the temples to Pietas and Diana which Coarelli has shown were demolished by Caesar to make room for the Theater of Marcellus and were reconstructed symbolically as shrines or small temples inside the portico behind the stage of the theater, as shown in FUR fr. 31qrs (Coarelli 1968). The Fortuna Equestris temple was perhaps destroyed and rebuilt as a small temple or shrine inside the porticus to the Theater of Balbus, visible in FUR fr. 30abc. The discrepancy between actual temple remains oriented in circo (or visible on FUR) and those mentioned in ancient sources makes Rodríguez-Almeida suggest that certain buildings were referred to as being in circo although they in reality were in campo.
    C. Close reading of ancient sources suggests that the Porticus Octavia was either a natural, open space, or simply a small structure. Pliny the Elder (NH 34, 13) called it a porticus duplex that was situated ad circum Flaminium. To identify this elusive building we perhaps need not look for a large quadriporticus, but for a simple one-wing porticus or a small building like the little portico in the NE corner of the Porticus Philippi, visible in FUR fr. 31dd. Rodríguez-Almeida favors the latter solution and suggests that the Porticus Octavia consisted, at least in the 2nd and the 3rd centuries CE, of two small porticos in the NE and the NW corners of the Porticus Philippi.
    D. FUR frs. 221, 227, 229, 239, 243, and 246 can now with certainty be identified as belonging to slab IV-6. A combination of the thickness of these pieces, the presence of a belt of micacious, green specs that traverses them all, and the natural gradient of the slab even allow for their position within the slab to be calculated (fig. 12). The letters BALIN[EA] that appear in fr. 246 must therefore refer not to a specific building but to an area, Ba linea Quattuor, which is to the left of the Vicus Stablarius on the FUR (fig. 12) and near the actual church of Santa Maria in Monticelli. The platform visible in frs. 221, 227, 229, 239 and 243 matches a structure of travertine blocks, which, according to R. Lanciani (Lanciani 1893-1901, pl. 21), existed in the subsoil between the Largo Cairoli, the church of Santa Maria in Monticelli and the Palazzo Cenci.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1991a
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Tra epigrafia, filologia, storia e topografia urbana: Quattro ipotesi." Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome, Antiquité 103.2 (1991) 529-550.
    1. The author suggests that the female fishmonger Aurelia in Juvenal (5.98) is a real person. He identifies her with Aurelia Nais, the piscatrix of the Horrea Galbae who set up a altar to an uidentified divinity with her husband (fig. 1). The orthography, the style of the carved relief, and the name Horrea Galbae date the altar to the Flavian period which is when Juvenal was active.
    2. Juvenal's animated poem about a chaotic day in the life of Rome (3.232-267) is not a description of various places in the city, as hithertoo believed, but of his own neighborhood, the Subura, between the Oppian and Cispian hills. Certain landmarks in the poem and in Martial 5.22-23 allow Rodríguez-Almeida to specify the exact area: Juvenal must have lived close to where the clivus Suburanus exited the Subura towards the Esquilline gate (fig. 2). This area, including the lacus Orphei which represented the end of the clivus Suburanus and the porticus Liviae, is depicted in FUR fragments 11a, 11b, 11c, and 11d. This last, steep section of the clivus Suburanus is today the Via in Selci.
    3. Juvenal's vallis Quirini (2.132-135) is a pseudo-toponym, not a real place.
    4. The inscription on an Augustan cippus (fig. 4) reveals that it was dedicated to Iuppiter Tonans by a certain Aravos, who is referred to as a procurator. Rodríguez-Almeida identifies this Aravos, whose name labels him as a freedman and a Spaniard, as the "servus praelucens" (Suet., Aug. 29.3) who was struck by lightning as he walked in front of Augustus' litter during the Cantabrian campaign in Spain in 26/25 BCE. The work "exanimare" is usually translated as "to kill", but can also mean to scare out of one's wits. If Augustus' local Spanish slave wasn't killed, it would have been considered a miracle, and as a result he would have been freed, brought to Rome by Augustus, and perhaps made procurator of the cult of Iuppiter Tonans to whom Augustus dedicated a temple in return for having been saved. Aravos probably dedicated the altar after Agrippa's final victory in Spain (18 BCE).
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1991b
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Nuovi dati dalla Forma Urbis marmorea per le mura perimetrali, gli accessi e i templi del Colle Capitolino." BollArch 8 (1991) 33-44.
    The author doubts that the arch that straddles the ramp in frs. 31a , 31b, and 31c, is the fornix Calpurnius, mentioned in a late antique source (Horosius 5.9.2) as the place in which Tiberius Gracchus died in 133 BCE: "per gradus qui sunt super Calpurnium fornicem...exanimatus est." A reading of earlier sources (Val. Max., 3.2.17; Rhetorica ad Herennium 4.55.68; Plutarch, Tib. Gracc. 19.9; Paterculus 2.3; Appian, civ. 1.16.67) suggests that the patricians pursued Gracchus in a northern direction from the Temple of Fides (which the author has argued [Rodríguez-Almeida 1993] is located at the SW edge of the Capitoline) towards the temple of Jupiter. The arched feature in fr. 31abc is located halfway up the SW slope of the hill, and can according to the author therefore not be the arch or vault in question, which must be located somewhere on top of the Capitoline. The next section of the article repeats and eleborates an argument already presented in Rodríguez-Almeida 1993, pp. 31-37: The author has discovered two grooves, parallel with and perpendicular to the thick wall that runs along the ramp, in FUR fr. 499 which he renames 31kk (fig. 2). The columned feature thus clearly represents a temple. In addition to the topographical data, certain characteristics of the fragment, such as saw marks, marble color, thickness, smooth back, surface wear, and veining direction place it securely in slab V-12, just above frs. 31a, b, and c, which depict a section of the SW edge of the plateau on top of the Capitoline hill and includes two uidentified temples and a ramp (the centum gradus) leading to the area behind them from the bottom of the hill. The arch depicted in fr. 31a, b, c is not an arch, but a vault, covering the top stretch of the ramp by which this part of the hill was accessed from the northwest (fig. 3). While the N mouth of the ramp (ianus exeuntibus dexter) began halfway down the slope, the S opening (ianus sinister) gave access to the ramp in fr. 31kk which led to the hill from the Forum Boarium. At the top of the hill, where the two ramps met, the covered ramp probably made a left turn and became a gate in the heavy foundation walls of the hilltop (fig. 5). Fr. 31kk shows a peripteral sine postico temple (thus Republican in type) which, oriented east-west, faced the center of the hill. The intercolumniations suggest it was pycnostyle, and thus there must have been at least 12 columns on each long side and six in front (hexastyle). Excavations in the sacred area of Sant'Omobono, immediately below the area on the hill where the temple in fr. 31kk would have been situated, have produced columns and a colossal female head (figs. 7-8) which must have fallen from this temple. Among the 4 known but not yet identified Capitoline temples dedicated to a female divinity, the Temple of Fides best matches the architectural criteria of the structure in fr. 31kk. The gate in the foundation wall of the Capitoline, where the two ramps met, can only be the porta Carmentalis. This gate is known to have been situated at the extreme SW edge of the Capitoline hill; it had a ianus dexterior which led to a via infelix, and must therefore also have had a ianus sinister; one of its openings led to the vicus Iugarius and to the sacred area of the Sant'Omobono. Passages in Livy (2.49.7-8) and Plutarch (Camill. 25.2.3) support the thesis that the gate was located on top of the hill in the early Republican period, not at the bottom as formerly believed, and that its two mouths gave access to two different areas below: the right ramp turned north in the direction of the circus Flaminius, while the left ramp exited south towards the forum Boarium. When a section of the city wall was constructed from the bottom of the Capitoline towards the Tiber in the middle Republic, the original, double-headed gate was probably considered two separate gates: The top section came to be known as the porta scelerata while a gate in the new wall retained the name porta Carmentalis (fig. 11). The porta Carmentalis received its name from the fanum Carmentis, not because the latter was situated nearby, but because of its proximity to the bottom of the ramp that gave access to the gate at top.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1991c
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Alcuni appunti su due archi di Roma..." Bollettino di Archeologia 9 (1991)
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1989
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Due note marzialiane: I "balnea quattuor in campo" e le "sellae Paterclianae" subcapitoline." Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome, Antiquité 101.1 (1989) 243-254.
    Thanks to Martial (1.59.3 and 2.14.12), we know of the existence of 4 small baths in the Campus Martius: the drafty baths of Lupus, the shady complex of Gryllus, and those of Fortunatus and of Faustus. Martial does not specify the location of the 4 balnea, but by retracing the steps of Martial's protagonist Selius (2.14), Rodríguez-Almeida situates them in an area south or southwest of the Porticus of Pompey. This area, which includes the vicus Stablarius, happens to be depicted on surviving pieces of the FUR: fragment groups 37 and 37A, and 40 (fig. 3). This area was also home to the 4 stables that owned and trained the 4 teams of racing horses in Rome, the stabula Factionum. Were the baths perhaps connected to each of the teams? That the entire area may have been called the quattuor balnea is suggested by a reference in Martial 5.70 and by the inscription BALIN[EUM?,-EA?] in FUR fr. 246 -- a fragment whose mica content, color, thickness, and veining place it securely in slab IV-6 along with FUR group 37. Finally, the author identifies the sellae Paterclianae in Martial 12.77 as the grandiose public latrines discovered at the foot of the Capitoline hill between the Forum of Caesar and the clivus Argentarius (fig. 4).
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1988
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Un frammento di una nuova pianta marmorea di Roma." Journal of Roman Archaeology 1 (1988) 120-131.
    The article is supposed to be a review of the publication of the fragment from a new marble plan of Rome, the so-called Via Anicia plan (Marisa Conticello De'Spagnolis, Il tempio dei Dioscuuri nel Circo Flaminio [Rome 1985]). Rodríguez-Almeida, however, takes the opportunity to analyze the fragment and its topography himself. The Via Anicia plan depicts the temple of Castor and Pollux in the Circus Flaminius and includes a large section of the left bank of the Tiber (fig. 2). This exact area is also depicted in frs. 32gh and 32i of the Severan Marble plan, which the author identified and placed securely in the lower left corner of slab V-13 in his 1977- and 1980-publications ( Rodríguez-Almeida 1977, 249-50, fig. 11 and AG 1980, pp. 116, 167, pl. 24). Superimposing the two plans (fig. 4) demonstrates that the new plan was carved on the same scale as the FUR, namely 1:240. While the engravers of the FUR fragments indicated the river bed by leaving the area blank, the banks of the Tiber are clearly delineated on the Anicia fragment. The new plan confirms a few of Rodríguez-Almeida's earlier theses: The short line in fr. 32h, proposed to belong to the Circus Flaminius, is also visible in the Anicia plan (A in fig. 3). Here, the author claims, it is clear that it represents a section of the circus. The numbers written along the river in the Anicia plan, probably indicating flood levels, also support the proposed identification of the rectangular structure in fr. 614, whose precarious location in the upper flood plain demonstrates is not a temple, as the statio alvei Tiberis, headquarters of those associated with the Cura alvei Tiberis et riparum. Next, the author refutes Conticello De'Spagnolis' suggestion that the structure in the Anicia fragment differs from that in FUR fr. 614 in that it merely depicts a podium; only later was it made into a tetrastyle structure. Rodríguez-Almeida points out that this was the stilted podium on which the building itself was situated. Furthermore, the rectangular structure does not differ from other buildings in Anicia plan by virtue of being engraved with a single line as opposed to two. A close inspection of the new fragment and the published photographs shows the two missed double lines (fig. 5). Finally, the rectangular structure did not represent the Navalia, as De'Spagnolis proposed. The discovery of the via Anicia plan in Trastevere, and the existence nearby of an inscription that once must have labeled the statio alvei tiberis (partially in S. Maria in Trastevere, partially in Capitoline museums storerooms; fig. 6), both in close proximity to the area depicted in the new fragment, points to the association of the rectangular building with the caretakers of the river. The Via Anicia plan was probably an official document, published by the cura alvei Tiberis et riparum and posted close to the statio, which is represented by the rectagular building in the plan itself.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1987
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Qualche osservazione sulle Esquiliae patrizie e il Lacus Orphei." In L'Urbs. Espace Urbain et Histoire, Ier Siècle av. J.C.— IIIe Siècle ap. J.C., CÉFR 98 (Rome 1987) 415-428.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1986
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Geryón, Marcial y la Porticus Philippi del Campo Marcio." Gerión 4 (1986) 9-15. The article is in Spanish.
    Martial's epigrams 5.65 and 5.49 provide a clue to the nature of the sculptural decoration in the porticus Philippi which surrounded the temple to Hercules of the Muses (both structures are depicted in FUR frs. 31bb-hh). The portico, and presumably its decorative program, was restored by Domitian who favored Hercules (in addition to Minerva), and the new sculptural cycle probably included a statue of Hercules in the Garden of the Hesperides and one of him fighting triple-headed Geryon.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1985-86
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Note di topografia romana. Cosmus myropola, il vicus Unguentarius e i penetralia Pallados nostrae (Mart., 4.53)." Rivista dell'Istituto Nazionale d"Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte. Ser. III, 8-9 (1985-86) 111-17.
    The monuments mentioned in Martial's epigram 4.53 can be located securely in Reg. 8, the Forum Romanum. Having divided Reg. 8 into 7 sections, the author demonstrates that the 4th-c. Regionary Catalogues lists the monuments in this region in counter-clockwise order, beginning at the S end of the Roman forum itself (fig. 1). This indicates that the lists were based on a map of the city where south or southeast was at the top, as is also the case with the Severan Marble plan. The 6th section of Reg. 8, between the vicus Iugarius and the temple of Vesta, is the area described in Martial 4.53. In 1980, F. Coarelli's suggested, based partly on the Reg. Catalogues, that the aedes Minervae was situated close to the Temple of Castor and to the "new" Temple of Augustus, and that the latter must have been located a little southwest of the basilica Iulia (F. Coarelli, Roma [Rome-Bari 1980] 72-73). He also identified Domitian's grandiose vestibule and library behind the Temple of Castor and east of the proposed temple of Augustus site, across the vicus Tuscus, as the aedes Minervae (fig. 2). Rodríguez-Almeida points out that both Martial 4.53.1-2 and 12.2.7-8 confirm that the penetralia Minervae are located close to the new Temple of Augustus, and are only separated from it by a small distance (the vicus Tuscus?). Between the basilica Iulia and the proposed site of the Augustus temple (not yet excavated) there is evidence of a vicus. The fact that the protagonist of Martial 4.53, Cosmus, is a perfume seller, myropola, suggests that this street is the vicus Unguentarius, mentioned in the Reg. Catalogues right after and thus close to the vicus Iugarius. Finally, Martial's use of the term penetrale (meaning locus sanctior et interior) Minervae may indicate that it refers to the tiny apsidal room that is accessed both from the Domitianic vestibule and from the library ("C" in fig. 2).
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1985
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "I confini interni della reg. V Esquiliae." In Roma Capitale 7 (1985)
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1983a
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Un nuovo frammento della Forma Urbis Marmorea." Città e architettura nella Roma Imperiale. Atti del seminario del 27. ottobre 1981 nel 25o anniversario dell'Accademia di Danimarca. Analecta Romana Instituti Danici, Supplementum 10 (Odense 1983) 87-92.
    The author confirms his earlier (AG 1980, pp. 136-39, fig. 41), tentative identification of FUR fr. 602 as a section of the Tiber, located in the bottom left corner in slab IV-7: The clamp hole in the left side of the fragment matches precisely the clamp hole in the brick wall of the aula in the proposed location; cuttings along its left side match clamp holes in the right side of slab IV-6; the horizontal street in fr. 602 aligns with the one in slab IV-6 (frs. 37f and 37gi); the left curving street in 37gi follows the outline of the river as indicated in fr. 602 (fig. 1); finally, the depth, width, and style (ductus) of the engraved lines in fr. 602 match those of the fragments in slab IV-6, suggesting they were engraved by the same person. The secure joining of the right and left bottom corners of slabs IV-6 and IV-7 (fragment groups 37 and 37A) allows the following observations: a) it confirms the author's identification of the vicus Stablarius in frs. 37f and 40cdefgh; b) the street running northeast-southwest in fr. 37f, 37gi, and 602 (which he proposes to rename 37Am) is the equivalent of the medieval Vicolo delle Zoccolette, visible in the Castasto Gregoriano; c) the street that crosses Via delle Zoccolette turns into a large city block whose internal lines correspond with the ancient thoroughfare; d) the intercolumniations of the double portico that frames this street on FUR fr. 37gi (erroneously labeled 282 in figure on p. 91) correspond to those visible in the medieval cadasters; e) the small domus in 37f must be located underneath the church of San Paolo alla Regola; f) the insula mentioned by L. Quilici must be situated somewhere in the FUR lacuna between frs. 37f and 40; g) the temple of San Salvatore in campo must be located in the area covered by slab IV-6; and h) the strange building on the upper flood plain of the Tiber in fr. 32i must today be underneath the Lungotevere Cenci. Judging from the outer, W edge of the circus Flaminius, visible in fr. 32h, the width of the circus must have been about 80 m.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1983b
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "I confini interni della 'regio V', Esquiliae, nella 'Forma Urbis Marmorea'." L'archeologia in Roma capitale tra sterro e scavo. Roma Capitale 1870-1911 7 (Rome 1983) 106-115.
    The assumption that almost half of the 14 Augustan regions were situated outside the pomerium is particularly misguided when considering regio V: Esquiliae. This region inherited its name from the 2nd Republican region and must therefore have been inside the Republican walls -- a thesis that is corroborated by Varro (De ling. lat., 5.49-50) who confirms that the walls functioned as the outer limits of the 2nd region. Based on Varro's fragmentary text, which he restores, the author demonstrates that the center of the 2nd Republican region corresponded almost exactly with the site of the later lacus Orphei of the 5th Augustan region (fig. 1). Large sections of this area are depicted in slabs VIII-2, VIII-3, VIII-4, VII-7 and VII-8 of the Severan Marble Plan (fig. 2). To the fragments already recognized in PM 1960, the author added in 1970-71 the following fragments: 355, 553, 564 + 593 + 600, 556, 109, and 135 + 136. In 1975-76 he located the large frs. 607 + 608 (fig. 3). Later, frs. 543 + 570 were added to slab VII-7 (the latter by L. Cozza). The additions to slab VII-7 produce the following topographical results: 1) the widening of the clivus Suburanus in fr. 608 must be situated below the Piazza San Martino ai Monti; 2) from the west entrance of this piazza begins the steep decline of the Via in Selci towards the Forum; 3) the 3 circles in fr. 608 represents a fountain or a great nymphaeum; 4) Martial (10.20.4-11; 5.22.5-6) writes that the Orphea were visible at the end of the steep incline; 5) the nympheum in fr. 608 must be the lacus Orphei in the 5th Augustan region, the Esquiliae; 6) Regio V must therefore begin inside the Esquiline gate, not outside, and the Cispian hill was the very heart of the region; 7) the location of the lacus Orphei would only have been ca. 350 meters from the termination of the anio vetus (which ought to be located near the former Villa Caserta). Given the Augustan reorganization of the aqueduct and the revival of the Orpheus myth in Augustan poetry (Ovid's Metamorphosis), the nymphaeum itself was probably an Augustan monument; 8)the architecture depicted in the lost FUR fragment 706, recorded in Renaissance drawings, matches well the topography that surrounds the lacuna at the bottom of slab VIII-3; 9) the large domus in fr. 706 must be the home of Pliny the Elder, as described by Martial; 10) the tabernae fronts visible along the S side of the clivus in fr. 608 correspond to travertine remains in the facade of the convent at the end of the Via in Selci; 11) the circular feature in fr. 593 is perhaps one of the hotwater pools recorded by Cassius Dio as still existing in the 3rd century (no reference to Dio's text is given); 12) the domus and peristyle in fr. 10o must be identical to the remains of a 3rd cent. building still visible west of the Church of San Martino ai Monti; 13) the nymphaeum excavated under the Viale del colle Oppio must belong to the large domus in fr. 10m, which fronts the north entrance to the Baths of Trajan. The Severan Marble Plan was based on surveys of large sections, with the hills of Rome serving as a focal points for the triangulated areas. When the surveys were mosaicked together to create the large map, misalignments occurred which were then corrected as well as possible. This was done, for example, by shifting the orientation of large monuments. For this reason, it is not possible to superimpose a topographical map of Rome onto the FUR and obtain perfect alignment of structures and streets.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1981, abbreviated as AG 1980 throughout this website.
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. Forma Urbis Marmorea. Aggiornamento Generale 1980. (Rome: Edizione Quasar, 1981).
    The second and still fundamental publication of the Severan Marble Plan, this is an invaluable update of post 1960-research on the Plan. Volume one includes an updated bibliography; new observations about the inscriptions and about the placement and distribution of the marble slabs; an analysis of the reconstruction of the Plan; and a discussion of all fragments that includes several new matches. Unfortunately, the line drawings of the fragments in volume two are riddled with mistakes and should be used with care.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1978-1980a
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Miscellanea sulla 'Forma Urbis' marmorea." Atti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia: Rendiconti 51-52 (1978-1980) 91-109.
    I. Still visible today in the wall of the aula on which the Marble Plan was originally placed is a large, circular patch of brick that differs from the brick wall around it. The patch, ca. 2.50 m. is the 6th-c. repair of a hole that was punched, for unknown reasons, through the aula wall and the Marble Plan in the 5th century. The resulting lacuna in the Marble Plan covers an area that encompassed the Velia, almost all of the Palatine, parts of the Circus Maximus, a section of the Aventine, the SE corner of the Forum Romanum, the W half of the Campidoglio, the Forum Boarium, and a bend of the Tiber (fig. 1). No fragments have been located within the outline of the lacuna. The hole was punched from behind the wall of the aula, cutting through the wall first, then the Marble Plan. The presence of many small fragments around the cut can be explained by the workers cutting or breaking off the parts of slabs that projected into the circumference of the hole. Is the reason that none of the fragments from the area of the lacuna have ever been found that they were incorporated into the repaired wall and are still there?
    II. The preservation of clamp holes in slab IV-6 and in the wall of the aula positions this slab precisely on the wall (fig. 2). Based on thickness, marble color, veining direction, surface corrosion, and topography which are similar to a group of fragments (40cdefgh, 40ai, 40b, and 37f) that the author previously located in this area (see Rodríguez-Almeida 1970-71), frs. 37gi and 37h are placed in the lower right corner of slab IV-6 (fig. 3). In L. Canina's reproduction of fr. 37e, a few lines appear which are not reproduced elsewhere, and along with other characteristics, these enable Rodríguez-Almeida to locate the piece in slab IV-6 and identify it as part of the S portico of the Porticus of Pompey. Although they do not join, frs. 221a , 221b, 229a, 229b and 243 can also be located to slab IV-6, where they depict a platform with the orientation in circo, not in campo, perhaps identical to the one indicated in pl. 21 in Lanciani 1893-1901. The veining direction of frs. 230 and 234abc in slab IV-6 indicates that the temples depicted in them were oriented in campo. The colonnaded street in fr. 37g which ran along the Tiber is probably the Vicus Aesculeti.
    III. The author identifies the temple in fr. 36b as the Temple to Matidia and locates the fragment in slab III-9, adjoining the missing fr. 36a which labeled the Saepta Iulia (fig. 8).
    IV. Frs. 710 and 389 join and must belong to same slab as the group that consists of frs. 711c, 711d, 711a, and 711b. Fr. 99a is joined with fr. 99b; fr. 124a with fr. 124b; fr. 80a with fr. 80b.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1978-1980b
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Il Campo Marzio settentrionale. solarium e pomerium." Atti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia: Rendiconti 51-52 (1978-1980) 195-212.
    In 1979, E. Buchner excavated an area in the intersection of vie di Campo Marzio and della Torretta to find possible remnants of Augustus' solarium. Buchner had earlier proposed that the solarium formed a 180 by 100 m. rectangle between Largo Fontanella Borghese, Via dei Prefetti, Via in Lucina and Piazza S. Lorenzo in Lucina ("solarium Augusti und Ara Pacis" MDAI 83 [1976] 319-365). According to Rodríguez-Almeida, the discovery of two pomerial cippi in Via della Torretta in 1930 (fig. 2), only mentioned in passing by Buchner, clashes with Buchner's proposed reconstruction of the platea of the solarium. These cippi, one Vespasianic, the other Hadrianic, were both discovered in situ and thus constitute one of the few precisely known points of the pomerium in the Flavian and Hadrianic period. The cippi show that the Flavian/Hadrianic pomerium would have crossed Augustus' solarium as reconstructed by Buchner (fig. 1), and the author questions the validity of the former's reconstruction.
    In the area of the Campus Martius, the Claudian pomerium is known in only two places, spaced far apart. The Arch of Claudius in Piazza Sciarra, however, probably constitutes another point between these. First of all, the arch commemorates Claudius' British campaign, which gave him the opportunity to enlarge the pomerium; secondly, Martial refers to the same arch as a door, not an arch, which suggests he considered it an entrance to the pomerium. Of Vespasian's pomerium in the Campus Martius, only the one cippus in via della Torretta is known. Hadrian's pomerium, however, did not change from that of Vespasian, and the second cippus can probably be assumed to have delineated the Flavian pomerium as well. The two cippi in Via della Torretta demonstrate, however, that the Flavian pomerium distanced itself from the Via Lata near the area of the solarium. The author suggests that also the nearby Portogallo Arch was a porta pomerialis, like the Arch of Claudius, in the Flavian/Hadrianic pomerium, whether part of the original Vespasianic wall or added by Hadrian. The arch visible in a relief in the Conservatori museum, depicting the peaceful advent of Hadrian, cannot represent one of Rome's gates, as has been proposed, but must represent a door in the pomerium.
    Having delineated the fluvial settlements of the Campus Martius area (fig. 4), Rodríguez-Almeida claims that the western half of Augustus' solarium in Buchner's reconstruction would have been located in the old river bed and often flooded. Another reason that the solarium could not have extended as far west as Buchner proposed is suggested by the two cippi in Via della Torretta. In their original position, they were situated on a slope, not on level ground, which they would have been, had they been situated on top of the solarium. The author suggests that Augustus' solarium was only a half pelecynum, only recording the afternoon hours (fig. 7). The distancing of the Flavian pomerium west from the Via Lata seems to have had the purpose of including in the city both the Ara Pacis and the solarium, but excluding the site of the future ustrina.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1977-1978
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Cohortes III Horreorum Galbianorum." Atti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia: Rendiconti 50 (1977-78) 9-25.
    A rereading of the epigraphical evidence concerning the horrea Galbana suggests that the large estate was still the property of the Sulpicia family during the time of Augustus (during the reign of Galba, its official name changed to horrea Galbana or horrea Ser. Sulpicii Galbae), that there were different collegia or societies to which the many workers of the estate could belong, and that even in the Hadrianic or the Antonine period, the estate was thought of as being of two parts: the praedia and the horrea. G. Gatti proposed that the three adjoining courtyard buildings depicted in FUR fragments 24a and c represent three cohortes of the Galbine warehouse complex, mentioned in an inscription. The author, however, does not believe that these courtyard structures are the actual warehouses, the horrea, of the estate. First of all, they have fewer means of access than other warehouses on the Marble Plan. Secondly, while other warehouses on the Plan are clearly labeled as such, these are not. Given the dual nature of this estate/warehouse complex, the label on the Marble Plan would probably have read PRAEDIA ET HORREA GALBANA. Previous attempts to associate the letters [...]ALB[...] in FUR fr. 107 with the three structures in frs. 24a and c have failed. The author, however, demonstrates that the total area of the estate was vast, stretching from the porticus Aemilia in the N to an unknown point past the Monte Testaccio in the S, from the slopes of the Aventine Hill in the E to the horrea Lolliana in the W. It was therefore not neccessary for the inscription that labeled the entire estate on the Marble Plan to have been placed in frs. 24a and c; it could have been situated further towards the top of the Plan (south). The style and size of the letters [...]IA[...] in fr. 91 are similar to those in fr. 107, and placed along the right edge of slab IX-7 and in the bottom left corner of slab IX-8, respectively, the two fragments perhaps represent the missing label for the entire complex [PRAED]IA [ET HORREA/G]ALB[ANA]. This placement positions them on the FUR at center top of the proposed area of the estate (figs. 3, 5). Although the three courtyard buildings in frs. 24a and c undoubtedly were part of the praedia et horrea Galbana complex, they did not constitute the actual warehouses. The elongated feature visible in the left courtyard structure, also known from Lanciani's excavations, must be a wash basin, flanked on both sides by covered arcades. Such a basin were of no use in a storage facility but of great value in residential units that house many people. The author concludes that these three courtyard buildings functioned as living quarters, ergastula, for the workers of the estate, and that they were the actual cohortes mentioned in various inscriptions. The workers living in each of these cohortes belonged to a different collegium, and all three collegia made up the sodalicium horreariorum cohortium galbanarum, whose patron god was Hercules salutaris, as witnessed by CIL 6.338.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1977
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Forma Urbis marmorea: Nuovi elementi di analisi e nuove ipotesi di lavoro." Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome, Antiquité 89.1 (1977) 219-256.
    The author remeasures the degrees of error in the orientation of certain monuments on the Marble Plan in relation to actual topography - already measured by Gatti in PM 1960, pp. 221-233). The largest discrepancy (21o) is the axial orientation of the Temple of Claudius in relation to the Colosseum. The instrument used by the Roman surveyors was probably the dioptra (fig. 3), mentioned by Vitruvius and described by Hero of Alexandria, which was the ancient equivalent of our modern theodolite. For the surveys, certain points must have been chosen as stations, the Capitoline hill almost certain being the central station for the area represented on the Marble Plan. Each station functioned as the focal point for selected areas which were surveyed independently of each other. The results were then mosaicked together, at which point discrepancies are bound to have appeared. This is probably the cause of the misalignment of the Temple of Claudius in relation to the Colosseum: each must have belonged to a different survey section.
    A. Nibby’s suggestion that the building called the Adonaea on the Plan (frs. 46acd, b, and e) be identical with remains of equal shape and proportions on the E corner of the Palatine hill has met valid resistance from other scholars. However, his thesis should not be discounted completely: a) the preserved boundaries of the building in fr. 46a are tiny and therefore unpredictable, and b) no other fragment of the Plan equals the excavated remains on the Palatine as well as frs. 46. In addition, the degrees of discrepancy between the Adonaea on the FUR and the remains on the Palatine in comparison with other monuments compare well with the range of other buildings on the Plan as shown earlier. The author proposes to place fragment group 46 along the top edge of slab VII-11 (figs. 5 and 14).
    The architecture depicted in fragment group 524 consists of large, regular cityblocks that are oriented at a 45 degree angle to the slab edges of which 3 are present. This is characteristic of the Trastevere. The height/width of the slab, 104 cm, places it in the fourth row of slabs from the bottom of the Plan. The churches of S. Maria in Trastevere and S. Callisto, as well as the Vie delle Fratte and di L. Manara, all known to be of Roman origin, align perfectly with the grid system in this fragment in its proposed position in slab IV-7 in Trastevere (figs. 7 and 14). The Via delle Fratte may, in fact, be represented in fr. 524 f-l.
    The author reiterates his proposal from an earlier work (Rodríguez- Almeida 1970-71) that frs. 142 and 161 (ludus Dacicus) must be located across two separate, rough-backed slabs, namely the bottom of slab IX-4 and the top of slab VIII-4 (figs. 8 and 14). The slight misalignment of the building in this position on the FUR in relation to its excavated remains is to be expected. Thanks to the Plan, we now know the location of 2 of the 4 known ludi in Rome. A third, possibly the ludus Matutinus, has been excavated close to the Temple of Claudius (fig. 8). Fr. 6a (mislabeled 6e in this article), only known from a Renaissance drawing, cannot represent the ludus Gallicus, as has been proposed. According to the orientation of the inscription it should be located east of the ludus Magnus, but there is not enough room in the slab.
    Clamp holes and veining direction located fr. 376, which depicts a great porticus, to the bottom left corner of slab IV-5 which also contains the Porticus Divorum, the Diribitorium, and part of the Saepta Iulia (fig. 14). Here, the building corresponds to remains recorded by Lanciani along the Via Flaminia, near the fornix Claudii, whose S end lies under the Palazzo San Marco in Piazza Venezia. The pilasters indicated along the building in fr. 376 could represent the Aqua Virgo but are more likely an arcaded sidewalk. Fig. 9, A-D, shows the proposed changes to the porticus from its Augustan origin to the state represented on the FUR. Martial’s reference to a porticus Vipsania and a porticus Pollae along the Via Flaminia by the fornix Claudii might identify the porticus in fr. 376. Three constraints allow the author to locate fr. 279 to the bottom left corner of slab II-8 (Fig. 14): it was the corner of a slab, it contains two clamp holes, and it depicts a section of the Tiber. This identifies it as a section of the right bank, on the Via della Lungara (probably the street depicted in the fragment), between Vie D’Alibert and delle Mantellate. In this very spot, Lanciani shows a mole that lies perpendicular to the river bank and a traiectus that gave boats access to the river, exactly similar to the features depicted in this fragment. Fr. 614 a-b and c is from the corner of a slab and includes one clamp hole. It depicts a section of the Tiber. These constraints, plus its thickness and smooth back, place it in the lower left corner of slab V-13 (fig. 14). The temple-like feature depicted in this fragment might be related to the caretakers of the river and its banks (cura alvei Tiberis et riparum). The author’s discovery of tasselli (square holes on the back of fragments) not only reveals details about the creation of the marble map but also helps join fragments and locate them on the wall of the aula, where traces of the tasselli remain. Fragments whose backs were cut off during the Capitoline reconstruction of the FUR were probably all rough-backed and therefore uneven and difficult to fit into the prepared frames. The abandonment, gradual deterioration, and final robbing of the Marble Plan are well known events. The surface destruction from a fire of certain fragments but not of others, even those belonging to the same slab, demonstrates that by the time the fire destroyed the aula, the map had already been systematically robbed. The marble slabs from the podium disappeared first, then the sections along the sides, leaving a triangular section at the top (fig. 13). Minor fragments not yet located are likely to belong to this section.
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1975-76
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Aggiornamento topografico dei Colli Oppio, Cispio e Viminale secondo la Forma Urbis marmorea." Atti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia: Rendiconti 48 (1975-76) 263-278.
    1. The author summarizes earlier matches, published in Rodríguez-Almeida 1970-71: Frs. 135 and 136 were identified as part of the large S exedra of the Baths of Trajan in slab VIII-3; fr. 109 as a section of the inscription that labeled the [THERMAE/TR]AIA[NI] in slab VIII-4; frs. 584, 593, and 600 were joined to fr. 10l, east of the Porticus Liviae, also in slab VIII-3; fr. 355ab (NB. this fragment is mislabeled as 335ab throughout the article) was located along the right side of slab VIII-2; and fr. 553 was joined to the bottom of fr. 11. along the right edge of slab VII-7 (fig. 8).
    2. Fr. 607 is joined to fr. 11a in slab VII-7 and a clamp hole places fr. 608 along the top edge of the same slab; a tassello joins frs. 607 and 608. Fr. 608 shows the continuation eastward of the clivus Suburanus from fr. 11 and a street that breaks away from the major thoroughfare and turns south, where it is again visible in fr. 10o, 10n, and 10l. The missing fr. 706 is placed in the lacuna between 10g and 10o, along the bottom edge of slab VIII-3. The row of tabernae along the S side of the clivus Suburanus in fr. 608 is still visible in front of Santa Lucia in Orphea (fig. 8). Remains of the large circular feature in fr. 593 (10v) are visible today to the right of the N entrance to the Brancaccio gardens. The author tentatively positions the joining frs. 543a, 543b-d, and 570 in the lower left corner of slab VII-7. The position of the horizontal street depicted in these fragments coincides almost exactly with the excavated stretch of the vicus Patricius at the bottom of the Cispian hill (fig. 8). Other remains discovered in this area also seem to coincide with depictions on fr. 570.
    3. The results of these new additions are the following: The triple fountain that crosses the Clivus Suburanus in fr. 608 is located on the site of Piazza S. Martino ai Monti, in the valley between the Cispian and the Oppian hills, 40-50 m. from S. Lucia in Selci (in Orphea), and 40-50 m. from S. Martino ai Monti (S. Silvestri in Orpheo). Martial's reference (10.20.4-11) to climbing the short, steep road to the top of the Subura and seeing the Orphic feature straight ahead (illic Orphea protinus) identifies the triple fountain at the top of the Clivus Suburanus as the Lacus Orphei. The author suggests that the 3rd Augustan region only included the lower slopes of the Oppian hill right up to the porta Querquetulana and the Gardens of Maecenas, while the Cispian hill and the upper slopes of the Oppian remained in Reg. V. Since the 5th region, the Esquilies, began at the Lacus Orphei, the stretch of the Clivus Suburanus between the Lacus Orphei and the Esquiline Gate [was not located in the Subura and] must have been called something else, perhaps vicus portae Esquilinae. The circular feature in fr. 593 (10v), which must have been located in or near the Gardens of Maecenas, is perhaps to be identified with Rome's first warm water swimming pool, which Maecenas is known to have constructed (Cass. Dio, 55.7).
  • Rodríguez-Almeida 1970-71
    Rodríguez-Almeida, Emilio. "Forma Urbis Marmorea. Nuove integrazioni." Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 82 (1970-71) 105-135.
    The author joins fr. 553 to fr. 11 (and notes that the tiny section of a slab edge visible in fr. 553 is incorrectly rendered in PM 1960, pl. 54). The two pieces “click” into place and their topography matches exactly (fig. 1). Frs. 584 , 593 and 600 also adjoin securely, and their perfect union with fr. 10l locates them in the area between the Porticus of Livia and the Baths of Trajan. The intermingling of large, rebuilt domus with tabernae and apartment buildings is reminiscent of the urban chaos in the Subura, as described in ancient sources. RA adds fr. 630 to the inter duos pontes group 32 in slab V-13 based on its similar distribution of thickness, and he repositions fr. 32a to match the proposed line of thickness (fig. 3). The lack of a direct connection between frs. 32a and 32f is explained by an intentional chiseling of the edge of fr. 32a. It is thus possible that the inscription in group 32 labeled the left bank of the Tiber rather than the island in the middle of the river. Frs. 623 and 627 are added to fr. 621abcd and placed in slab V-13 based on similar characteristics of the marble, thickness, and ductus (fig. 4). The inscription AEMILI[---] in this group may identified it as the label for the pons Aemilius. The authors of PM 1960 demonstrated that the small fr. 275 adjoined the large group, frs. 285a-h, in the top right corner of a slab, where it touches both the top and the right slab edges. The tail end of a vertical inscription, [---]BLARIUS is visible at the top of the group. RA suggests that fr. 272 belonged in a slab immediately above group 285, and that the V in this fragment constituted the beginning of the vertical inscription which he reconstructs as either vicus Stablarius/Stabularius or Bublarius/Bubularius (fig. 5). The regular layout of buildings in fr. 272 matches the topography in group 285 and must belong to a flat section of Rome, perhaps the rectangle enclosed by the Via Tebaldi along the Tiber, the Via dei Pettinari, del Monte di Pieta, and dei Giubbonari, Piazza Farnese, Piazza Ricci and Via del Giglio. Frs. 142 and 161 were tentatively identified by the authors of PM 1960 as a small amphitheater/palaestra complex, the [LUDU]S/D[ACICUS], remains of which have been discovered southwest of the Ludus Magnus and south of the Flavian Amphitheater (the Colosseum). RA confirms the identification but places the fragments across the horizontal edges of slabs IX-4 and VIII-4 as illustrated in fig. 7. One section of the aqua Alsietina, depicted in fragment group 223 , is shown in sideview while another, in frs. 215ab and 612abc , is seen both in groundplan and from the side. The different thickness of groups 215 and 612 indicates they were distributed over two different slabs. Fr. 214 must be part of the label “AQU[A].” Although little is known about the real course of this aqueduct, the section depicted in frs. 214, 223, and 215 must be located somewhere in the Trastevere, near the horrea Lolliana and fr. 612 precisely below this area on the map. Similar marble color and grain, irregular surface, and lettering style unite frs. 432 and 481 (HOR[REA G]RAM]MINA[RIA]) although they do not join (fig. 9). The orientation of the inscription suggests the fragments were placed along the bottom or left edge of a slab. The building is not known from ancient sources but its depiction on the FUR is probably similar to that of the horrea Candelaria in fragment group 44: also here is the inscription placed across the top of what seems to be a large, open, rectangular space (fig. 10). Fr. 355ab is placed along the right edge of slab VIII-2, joining frs. 10abcde along the left side and fragment group 10f-h in the bottom left corner of slab VIII-3 (fig. 11). NB. Rodríguez-Almeida mislabels fr. 355ab as 335ab throughout this section and in figs. 11-12. What allows the author to locate fr. 355ab in this position is, among other reasons, the similarity of the way the lines were carved (the ductus) in this fragment and those in slab VIII-3. Another was the absence of any clamp holes on either of the slab edges or on the wall itself at this point. The most decisive point was the continuity of the streets and architecture portrayed. For example, the arcade along the upper street in fr. 355ab is depicted by somewhat uneven dashes that are just like the depiction of the arcade on frs. 10b, 10c and 10d. In addition, the depiction of buildings with small tabernae opening onto the street and large, irregularly-shaped, open spaces behind is similar on all these fragments. The arcaded street that curves gently from southwest towards the northeast in this group is probably the vicus Sabuci, mentioned in an inscription (CIL 6.801) which was discovered in this area in the 18th c. Somewhere in slab VIII-3, just to the left of fr. 355ab, the vicus Sabuci must have joined the clivus Suburanus which is visible in the bottom part of fr. 355ab (fig. 12). This section of the clivus Suburanus, then, must be close to the Esquiline Gate. A distinct blue veining line traverses slab VIII-5 just below the top edge. It allows the author to place fragments 457 , 458 , 470 and 482 (already joined by Cozza 1968) in the top left corner of this slab. The same veining line is visible in fr. 480; the combination of thickness and the angle of the veining line places it precisely 17 cm to the right of the former group (fig. 13) and identifies the depicted aqueduct as a section of the rivus Aquae Claudiae which descended from the Templum Divi Claudi along the clivus Scauri before crossing the Via S. Gregorio (see Lanciani 1893-1901, pl. 35). Fr. 109 with the letters [...]AIA[...] is probably part of the almost vertical inscription that labeled the Baths of Trajan (fig. 15). Fr. 547 is joined with fr. 563; frs. 78 and 98 are added to the joining frs. 95 and 79 (fig. 17A). Frs. 711 , 456 , and 512 are joined (fig. 17B). The author confirms the joining of frs. 65 + 67 and 71 which had been suggested during the printing of PM 1960, p. 118 (fig. 17C). Finally, frs. 303 + 315 are joined.
  • Roma 1994
    Roma. Disegno e Immagine della Città Eterna: Le Piante di Roma dal II secolo d. Cr. Ai giorni nostri. Ministero per I Beni Culturali e Ambientali: Ufficio Centrale per I Beni Librari e gli Istituti Culturali: Biblioteca Vallicelliana (Rome 1994).
    The first two entries of this exhibition catalogue discuss the Via Anicia plan (cat. no. 1, entry by Leila Nista) and the Forma Urbis Romae (cat. no. 2, entry by Laura Ferrea).
  • Sartorio 1988
    Sartorio, Giuseppina P. "Compita larum. Edicole sacre nei crocicchi di Roma antica." Bollettino della Unione Storia ed Arte 1-4 (1988) 23-34.
    The author examines literary and archaeological evidence for the history, distribution, and typology of crossroad sanctuaries in Rome. It is believed that after the Augustan reorganization of the city, each neighborhood (vicus) had its own protective shrine (compitum larum). According to Pliny (HN 3.66-68) there were 265 vici at the time of Vespasian; by the 4th cent., the number seems to have increased to 304 or 423 (according to the Regionary Catalogues). The number of shrines during the Severan period must fall somewhere in between. Many of the shrines are known from inscriptions; others can be recognized in the detailed cityscape depicted on the Severan Marble Plan. Here, they show up as small, square or rectangular features, isolated but close to other buildings, always facing a public street or piazza, usually near an intersection, and always situated in a residential or commercial quarter. Examples of such compita on the FUR can be seen in frs. 24c 28c 33a 37Aa 37f 37g 538de 554 647 661a. The author notes that this work is just preliminary and that more research is needed to do justice to the usefulness of the FUR on this topic.
  • Staccioli 1968
    Staccioli, Romolo Augusto. "Una probabile sede di corporazione nella Pianta Marmorea di Roma antica." In Quaderni dell'Istituto di Topografia Antica della Università di Roma. Studi di Topografia Romana 5 (1968) 23-26.
    In 1961, the author identified the third building from the bottom in fr. 25a as a small bath complex (Staccioli 1961, pp. 98-99). In this article, Staccioli reconsiders this identification and suggests that the entire right side of the structure was the headquarters (schola) of a guild (a collegium), perhaps of dock workers. The restricted access to the building (in the top right corner) support this interpretation. Use of the bath would have been restricted to members of the guild; the peristyle would have provided ample space for meetings and communal meals, and may even have held a statue of the guild's patron god. The left side of the building, only partially visible in the fragment, may have been a true horreum, accessed by a narrow opening in the corner of the peristyle. Although it is architecturally quite different, the so-called School of Trajan in Ostia (fig. 3) may serve as an example of a headquarters of a collegium. The building depicted in FUR fragment 415abc may also have represented a schola.
  • Staccioli 1962
    Staccioli, Romolo Augusto. "Tipi di 'horrea' nella documentazione della 'Forma Urbis'." Coll. Latomus 58.3 (1962) 1430-1440.
    This article is another typological study of buildings on the Marble Plan by the author. Here, Staccioli investigates a few types of warehouses, horrea, on the FUR and compares them to actual remains in Ostia and in Rome. Type 1 consists of a simple rectangular building with two rows of rooms facing a central corridor. A wall generally encloses the building on three sides, with only a narrow opening at one end. Examples of this type are seen in frs. 421, 28a (top right), and 28ab. Horreaof Type 2 have at least three rows of rooms facing a central courtyard, which is often colonnaded. The fourth side contains the entrance to the building, and it is often flanked on both sides by tabernae that face away from the central courtyard (an example is fr. 92 which compares nicely with the so-called Horrea di Hortensius in Ostia). The third type is basically a duplication of Type 2: Two large courtyards with inward-facing rooms are placed side-by-side and only connect through narrow passages (see horrea Lolliana in fr. 25a). Isolated examples that fall outside of the three proposed classifications are depicted in frs. 24a and c (the horrea Galbana, 33c and 28a (bottom right). The rooms placed outside the front of some of these horrea, generally interpreted as guards' rooms, may be sacella that held statues of protective divinities, as suggested by documented examples in Ostia and in Rome.
  • Staccioli 1961
    Staccioli, Romolo Augusto. "Terme Minori e Balnea nella Documentazione della 'Forma Urbis'." Archeologica Classica 13 (1961) 92-102.
    In 1960, Staccioli created an index of building types found on the Marble Plan (PM 1960, pp. 255-56). In this article, he continues his typological investigation (see also Staccioli 1959 and Staccioli 1962) and examines in detail small baths on FUR fragments. According to the Regionary Catalogues, 4th-c. Rome had 11 thermae and 856 balnea. The difference between the two types is not clear, but Staccioli interprets them as follows: thermae were large, imperial bath complexes where rooms, some being non-essential for bathing, were arranged symmetrically around a central axis and within a single building. Balnea, on the other hand, were smaller neighborhood bath houses, generally of Republican origin. Their insertion into larger structures means that their architecture is irregular, that they mainly consists of rooms essential for bathing, and that they often lack a proper palaestra. Three baths are identified by an inscription: Frs. 21c (balneum Surae), 43ab (balneum Caesaris), 47 (balineum Ampe[l]id[is]), 48 (balne[um] Cotini), and 246 (balin[...]). Although not labeled, the baths in frs. 33 and 25 are easily identified as middle-sized balnea. Smaller baths, less securely identified as such, are frs. 330, 30def, 496ab, 181, 343ab and c, 452ab, 28c, 87, 37f, 55a, 171, 231ab, 599 and 647.
  • Staccioli 1959
    Staccioli, Romolo Augusto. "Le 'tabernae' a Roma attraverso la 'Forma Urbis'." Rendiconti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, Ser. 8, vol. 14 (1959) 56-66.
    This article is the first of Staccioli's typological studies of buildings on the Marble Plan. Of the four types of tabernae identified in Ostia, only two can be recognized on the Marble Plan and they appear in as many variations as found in Ostia: Type I, which consists of a single room, are most commonly found side by side in rows. a) They often appear as flanking large public spaces or courtyards (although in Rome, unlike Ostia, they do not seem to surround temple precincts). The shops may or may not communicate directly with the space they front; b) They may also appear back to back in long rows that are commonly free-standing structures. These often have stairs to upper storeys; c) They exist in rows on either side of a corridor or a courtyard, facing each other; d) And they appear as back-to-back rows that are divided by a perpendicular street that often leads to a larger, open space. Type III are tabernae with back rooms. Shops of this type appear both in Ostia and on the Marble Plan as a) shops with underground back rooms; b) with two or more back rooms; c) with huge back rooms that are more like industrial courtyards or working spaces; d) as individual shops in a row with back rooms that open onto each other, with a common back room, or with back rooms that open onto a larger, central space or courtyard; e) as one or two shops joined by back rooms and by the central space of a true ground floor apartment building.
  • Steinby 1989
    Steinby, Eva Margareta. "Il frammento 18a della Forma Urbis Romae" in Steinby, E. M., ed., Lacus Iuturnae I (1989) 24-33.
    Steinby here once and for all settles the identification of the temple depicted on fr. 18a as the Temple of Castor in the Roman Forum (doubts were expressed by E. Rodriguez Almeida in AG 1980, p. 98). As evidence, Steinby discusses a 1882 photograph of the fragment by R. Lanciani, which shows two small fragments, now missing and not published in PM 1960 or in AG 1980. (To see Lanciani's photo, click here.) These lost fragments clearly show that the inscription read ]ASTORIS. The main argument of the article, however, is that fr. 18a did not belong to the Severan Marble Plan at all but probably to an earlier, Vespasianic version. Among other problems, Steinby points to the discrepancies between the rendering of the temple in fr. 18a and in frs. 18bc. First, on 18a, the east wall of the podium is rendered with a double line, while the corresponding western podium wall in frs. 18bc is drawn with a single line. Second, on fr. 18a the outer columns wrap around the southeastern corner of the podium (standard for a peripteral temple) but on frs. 18bc, the columns don't, suggesting that the depicted temple was sine postico. Third, on fr. 18a, the short sides of the footprints of the outer columns are on the east and west, while on frs. 18bc they are on the north and south.
  • Taub 1993
    Taub, Liba. "The Historical Function of the `Forma Urbis Romae'." Imago Mundi 45 (1993) 9-19.
  • Taylor 1997
    Taylor, Rabun. "Torrent or Trickle? The Aqua Alsietina, the Naumachia Augusti, and the Transtiberim." American Journal of Archaeology 101 (1997) 465-92.
    Taylor here reviews the history of the Aqua Alsietina and the Naumachia Augusti and attempts to locate them precisely in the landscape of Rome. He first surveys the primary written sources on the structures, and then calculates the volume of water expected to flow via the Alsietina. The rectangular area of the Naumachia is proposed to lie along a N-S axis, stretching from fr. 33 to fr. 37A on the Severan Marble Plan. The orientation of the architecture on portions of these fragments is observed to be consistent with the expected orthogonal arrangment that would develop inside the Naumachia. The author identifies the parallel lines in fr. 471 as banked seating for spectators, and tentatively places it along the lower right side of the slab that contains fr. 33 (NB. D. Koller notes that this placement is not consistent with the expected marble veining for such a position). Taylor then discusses the specific course of the Aqua Alsietina, positions fragment group 37B approximately 0.5m to the right within slab IV-8, and reorients the fragments to match the course of the actual channel better. The orientation of the specus on fragment 37C is observed to match the Aqua Traiana, and 37C is thus moved into slab III-18, two slabs to the right of Rodriguez-Almeida's original positioning of the Alsietina. The author also briefly considers the depiction of these aqueducts on the Plan, noting that the arched symbols might even represent millwheels, as the water channels may have accomodated millraces to serve the flour mills on the Janiculum. The article concludes with a discussion of Roman water law and the legal rights surrounding the Alsietina and other aqueducts.
  • Tucci 2004
    Tucci, Pier Luigi. "Eight fragments of the Marble Plan of Rome shedding new light on the Transtiberim." Papers of the British School at Rome 72 (2004) 185-202.
    This is a highly successful example of what might be termed the "traditional" methodology in locating fragments within the Severan Marble Plan (p. 187). The author considers the dimensions of the fragments and slabs, the nature of their back surface, the direction of veins in different slabs, and the position of clamp holes, as well as the topography of the city and its archaeological documentation. For this paper, he focuses on unidentified fragment clusters including a slab corner and their potential relationship to unoccupied slab corners attested among the clamp holes on the wall on which the Plan was originally installed (PM 1960, plates 61a and b). In this way, Tucci is able to position fragments 138a-f (138a, 138bcde, and 138f) and 574ab next to each other on adjacent slabs. They depict an area just inland of the right bank of the Tiber, along the Via Campana Portuensis, where the Ospizio Apostolico di San Michele now stands near the Porta Portese. This location is confirmed by the position of the clamp holes on the wall, as well as physical features of the slabs and the topography of the area; the position of fragments 138a-f has been independently confirmed by the automatic matching algorithms developed by David Koller of Stanford's Digital Forma Urbis Romae Project (the paper is available online here.)
    This identification marks an important gain. The area recuperated covers approximately 120x340m, but there are no excavation records for it, and this region of the ancient city is less well-known in general. The structures incised on these fragments are not religious or monumental but rather commercial and residential, matching the remains of warehouses excavated nearby (p. 201). The fragments depict warehouses, large walled areas, and multi-story apartment buildings, and were probably inhabited by the various communities of river workers. These buildings are bisected by a major road that runs parallel to the river and is the prolongation of the Via Campana-Portuensis previously identified farther south on fragments 28a, 28b and 28c (Coarelli 1992). A parallel road farther from the river follows the line of the modern via di San Michele; four smaller cross streets run between these two roads. These fragments show that the Via Campana-Portuensis ran slightly eastward of its expected course here; Tucci suggests that it originally led to the Pons Sublicius, perhaps to be matched with an ancient bridge destroyed at the end of the 19th century (p. 199). The road lost importance over time and was no longer used in the Medieval period, perhaps in connection with the destruction of the Pons Sublicius by the 5th c. CE; by contrast, the parallel road farther away from the river became more important and survives now as the via dei Vascellari, via di Santa Cecilia, and via di San Michele. Tucci suggests that this area developed especially with Claudius' construction of Portus, a new harbor facility just north of Ostia, and the increased commercial traffic into the city it will have stimulated along the right bank of the Tiber.
  • Tucci 2001
    Tucci, Pier Luigi. "Nuove acquisizioni sulla Basilica dei Santi Cosma e Damiano." Studi Romani 49.3-4 (2001) 275-293.
    The author surveys the architectural history, from the 4th c. CE onward, of the aula of the Templum Pacis adjacent to the aula in which the Plan was installed. Of particular interest here are the early phases in the building's history. Originally Vespasianic, it was rebuilt under Septimius Severus after a fire in 192 CE. During the first half of the 4th c. CE, the Severan architecture on the Via Sacra side was demolished and replaced with a round vestibule (the "temple of Romulus"). From there, one could enter two small apsidal lateral aulae on its left and right, or proceed into the original aula behind the vestibule. The latter, in a second phase, was raised and given a new, large apse; the rectilinear front of the rotunda was given a curved façade with niches. This was the architecture inherited by Felix IV (526-530 CE) when he established Church of Saints Cosma and Damiano there. (The Marble Plan was installed on what is now the outside of the very back wall of the Church.)
  • Tucci 1997
    Tucci, Pier Luigi. "Dov'erano il tempio di Nettuno e la nave di Enea." Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma (1997) 15-42.
    The naval, sea, and water related buildings between the Tiber and the Pantheon include the Temple to the Dioscuri (gods of navigation), three of the temples in the Largo Argentina (Lares Permarini or Nymphs, Feronia and Juturna, seat of the statio aquarum), and three structures built by Agrippa: the porticus Argonautarum, the Baths of Agrippa, and the Poseidonion (=the basilica of Neptune). In this article, Tucci adds three more structures to the list. He first identifies the remains behind the house of Lorenzo Manlius, and few meters from where the Circus Flaminius was located, as the E wall of a 8.50 m. long temple podium. Segments of columns and a capital of Parian marble, discovered in 1863 in a wall underneath Manlius' house and recently dated to the second half of the 2nd c. BCE, must have belonged to this temple. Situated in an oblique angle to the Circus, but with the N-S orientation of buildings in campo suggests that the temple was constructed prior to the Circus Flaminius (221 BCE). Thanks to the Marble Plan, we now know the identity and location of many of the temples that surrounded the Circus; to identify the temple underneath the Lorenzo Manlius house is thus a matter of matching it to temples known to have been located in that area but not yet identified. Having excluded the temples of Vulcan, of Mars in circo Flaminio, and of Hercules Custos, Tucci finally settles on the Temple of Neptune. Along with the Apollo and the Bellona temple, only the Neptune temple was constructed before the Circus Flaminius, probably between 293 and 218 BCE. The so-called Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus, depicting the wedding between Poseidon and Amphitrite, also of Parian marble, may have come from this temple. F. Coarelli's identification of the Ares Ludovisi, probably discovered nearby, as representing Achilles, is another point in favor of associating the Manlius temple with that of Neptune, as Pliny claims to have seen a statue of Achilles in the Temple of Neptune.
    Secondly, Tucci refers to remnants, mentioned in 15th-c. letters, of what must have been a portico around the Temple of Neptune underneath the Manlius house. This portico is possibly the one barely visible next to the Porticus Philippi in FUR fr. 31hh. Tucci suggests this portico is to be identified with the porticus Octavia, constructed in 167 BCE by Cn. Octavius after his naval triumph over Perseus of Macedon and restored by Augustus. This porticus would have occupied a space that effectively was the key stone between in campo and in circo locations.
    Third, Tucci discusses an as yet unidentified structure partially visible in the via Anicia plan and in FUR fr. 32i. The structure is located on the banks of the Tiber, between the river and a porticoed street, close to the Temple of the Dioscuri. Visible in these marble fragments is the W end of a platform. The structure has been identified as a fountain or a nymphaeum, as part of the Navalia, and has been associated with the statio alvei Tiberis. Despite its unfavorable position close to the Tiber, the building seems to have survived for at least two centuries (time distance between the via Anicia plan and the Severan Marble Plan). To avoid flooding of the building proper, the platform must have been very tall. A passage from the 6th-century author Procopius may help identify the building. In Goth., 4.22, the author describes how the Romans have preserved, even to his day, the ship of Aeneas, which is placed in a neosoikon in the center of Rome, along the edge of the Tiber. Tucci suggests that the ship was a relic from the 4th century BCE, and the structure that held it (the neosoikon) had the shape of a regular roofed stall for ships, except it would not have been made of wood but of stone, it would have been raised on a tall platform, and would have functioned as a museum. He proposes that this museum was built by Augustus as part of his program to celebrate his ancestry and direct link to Aeneas, as seen in the Ara Pacis and in Forum of Augustus. This would not have been the first ship museum Augustus built. After his naval victory at Actium in 31 BCE, Augustus founded Nicopolis and built a temple dedicated to Apollo, Neptune and Mars, decorated with ships' prows. In addition, Strabo relates that Augustus preserved ten ships from Marc Antony's fleet and on the beach below the temple to Apollo, where the battle had taken place, he constructed ten neosoikoi for these ships. The veosoikoi at Actium were destroyed by a fire and are no longer preserved. A late 4th-century BCE ship museum on Delos, however, is partially preserved. In front, the Delos monument was shaped like a deep hexastyle pronaos to a temple, similar to the front of the structure in Rome. In addition, Procopius describes the ship of Aeneas as being 120 feet long and 25 feet wide (35 x 7 meters) which corresponds perfectly with the dimensions of the Tiber building as it is represented on the Marble Plan and the via Anicia plan. Like Demetrius Poliorcetes or his son Antigonos Gonatas had the Delos monument constructed as a memory of their naval victory over Ptolemy I or the II, so Augustus and Agrippa probably had the Tiber monument constructed as a memory of their naval victory over Marc Antony and Cleopatra, the last descendant of the Ptolemies. The monument along the Tiber would have been tall enough to have been visible from the Circus Flaminius, where Augustus would have celebrated his Actium triumph.
  • Tucci 1996a
    Tucci, Pier Luigi. "Tra il Quirinale e l'Acquedotto Vergine sulla pianta marmorea severiana: i frammenti 538 a-o." Analecta Romana Instituti Danici 23 (1996) 21-33.
    The long, parallel walls depicted on frs. 538a-o (538abdefg and 538chijklmno), with spaces behind, suggest the slopes of a hill. Since this fragment cluster forms the corner of a slab, complete with two clamp holes along each edge, the author is able to compare actual hillsides in the city and slab corners on the Plan. These fragments are accordingly placed on the NW slopes of the Quirinal, at the upper left corner of slab IV-4. Excavations in this area located three buildings divided by streets; Tucci identifies these three buildings at the bottom right of this fragment cluster, separated by streets whose widths also match the excavated remains. The internal architecture is quite different, presumably reflecting changes between the buildings' Severan layout and their final state. Incisions interpreted as double terracing walls are identified with remains excavated ca. 1900 (there is a 9 degree difference in orientation, but this would not be the only orientation error on the Plan). The whole shows differently-laid out insulae along five streets, all parallel to the Via Flaminia; a cross street and then terracing structures separate this area from the slopes of the Quirinal above. On the plateau, the incised spaces are identified as a domus with a formal entry and courtyard (Lanciani's Domus Appiorum?), and what is perhaps a second grand house next door, including an apsidal structure with a colonnaded portico (the residence of G. Fulvius Plautianus?).
  • Tucci 1996b
    Tucci, Pier Luigi. "L'Entrata di un magazzino Romano sotto la Chiesa di San Tommaso ai Cenci." Mélanges de l'École Française de Rome, Antiquité 108 (1996) 747-770.
    When the via Anicia plan with its depiction of the Temple of the Dioscuri was first discovered, it was proposed that the layout of the church San Tommaso ai Cenci coincided with the pronaos of the temple (M. Conticello De’ Spagnolis, BullCom 92.1 [1987-88] p. 196). This thesis was based on the following: a) the similar proportions of the two structures; b) the correspondence between a porticoed street in the plan and of the vie San Bartolomeo de’ Vaccinari and the Fiumara; and c) Francesco Albertini’s claim to have seen remains of a marble horse near the church in 1510. These remains must have been from one of the Dioscuri statues that were later discovered in the area and which now flank the stairs to the Campidoglio. Roman brick walls underneath the church were identified as the foundations for the pronaos of the temple (fig. 2). Based on a hitherto unnoticed architectural detail, Tucci here suggests that these walls belonged not to a temple but to a storage building: The upper part of a window, approximately 165 cm wide and at least 120 cm tall, is visible below the relieving arch in one of these subterranean walls (figs. 4-5). Below the window are the remains of a triangular cornice and below that, a few bricks from another curved cornice (fig. 6). Tucci reconstructs the ensemble as a slightly arched doorway with a triangular cornice on top and above that, a window capped by a relieving arch (fig. 7). Similar entries are seen in the Markets of Trajan and in Ostia (figs. 11, 14). Such doors were commonly constructed as main entrances to houses and to storage facilities along a street. The presence of this front entrance allows the author to identify the wall as the east wall of a storage structure, facing a street or a courtyard. The ground level of this structure was approximately 8 meters below the floor of the church, and was thus level with the pavement of the Circus Flaminius. Since the Temple of the Dioscuri was constructed in the 1st century BCE while the walls underneath the church of San Tommaso belong to the late 1st or 2nd century CE, the walls can obviously not belong to the pronaos of the temple. Respecting the slab edges in FUR frs. 32gh and 32i, and assuming a correspondence between the street that connected the Circus Flaminius to the Tiber and the Cloaca dell’Olmo, Castagnoli has proposed to move the Temple of the Dioscuri further to the east, next to the church of San Tommaso ai Cenci. This cannot be, however: The cloaca passes through the center of the Circus, and next to the church there was no street but storage structures (fig. 16). Besides, the position of the Theater of Marcellus on the FUR is incorrect in relation to the slab edges and these should not be used as a guiding feature. The walls underneath the church of San Tommaso and the remains of storage facilities in the piazza delle Cinque Scole now prove beyond doubt that the church cannot have been associated with the pronaos of the temple. Tucci has earlier proposed that the Temple was located further to the east, in correspondence with four cottages constructed in the 9th century on the Jewish synagogue. Others may associate the remains of a monumental structure currently being unearthed in piazza delle Cinque Scole behind the storage facilities, facing the Circus, as the Temple to the Dioscuri; this would be the only other alternative to Tucci’s proposal.
  • Tucci 1994
    Tucci, Pier Luigi. "Il tempio dei Castori in Circo Flaminio; La lastra di via Anicia." Castores, L'immagine dei Dioscuri a Roma (Rome 1994) 123-28.
    A section of an engraved marble slab was discovered in 1983 along the via Anicia. It depicts four different buildings situated along the banks of a river. One of the structures is a temple to Castor and Pollux which matches Vitruvius’ description of the Temple of the Dioscuri by the Circus Flaminius exactly. Two of the other buildings along the river bank on the Via Anicia plan match similar structures depicted in FUR frs. 32gh and 32i, which depict an area between the Circus Flaminius and the Tiber. The famous statues of Castor and Pollux which now grace the stairs to the Campidoglio were discovered in this area in the 16th century. Dating to the first half of the 2nd century CE, the Via Anicia plan is of the same scale as the FUR, 1:240, but it differs from the latter in carving technique (walls are rendered with double lines as opposed to single lines), in orientation (known from the orientation of its inscription), and in purpose (was not decorative but served an administrative function). The unusual temple to the Dioscuri, constructed between the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 1st century BCE, features a transverse cella in front of which the hexastyle, pronaos is centered between two flanking windows. A circular structure, probably an altar, is situated in the open space in front of the temple, which corresponds to the paved piazza that replaced the Circus Flaminius in the 1st century CE. Narrow streets separate the temple from two commercial buildings, both labeled with the names of the owners. The building on the left consists of a large, rectangular hall with a row of tabernae backing onto it at top and at bottom. The top row of shops are fronted by a deep, covered portico. The final letters of the inscription that labeled this building, spread over three lines, appear in the central hall: [---]AE/ET/[---]UM. The other seemingly commercial building, partially visible in FUR fr. 32i, faces the Tiber and backs onto the temple. It consists of a row of tabernae the front of which follows the outline of the river. It is labeled CORNELIAE ET SOC[IORUM]. A fourth building appears in the lower right corner, along the edge of the Tiber. Also depicted in FUR fr. 32i, this structure has been identified as a storage shed associated with the Navalia (Conticello de' Spagnolis) or as the headquarters for those in charge of cleaning and caring for the banks of the river (Rodríguez-Almeida: Statio alvei Tiberis et riparum et cloacarum).
    The numbers 99, 6, 54, and 51 are inscribed at various points along the porticoed street that follows the line of the Tiber on the via Anicia plan. Castagnoli has demonstrated that these measurements refer to the lengths, in feet, of the rectilinear sections of the riverbank. The purpose of the via Anicia plan is disputed: It has been suggested it served as a neighborhood plan for merchants who used the many storage facilities near the river port (Conticello de' Spagnolis); that it related to the river commerce or the administration of the Tiber (Castagnoli); or that it was an official document associated with the curators of the river-bed and -banks (Rodríguez-Almeida). Although no remains of the temple have ever been discovered, the via Anicia plan and the FUR fragments have been used as evidence to prove that its pronaos coincided with the church of S. Tommaso ai Cenci (fig. 2). In this scenario, the edge of the Circus Flaminius that faced the Tiber, as shown in the via Anicia plan, is not parallel to the edge that faces Porticus Octaviae and Philippi. Not convinced of the correspondence between the temple and the church, Castagnoli has proposed to move the temple further to the east, such that the alley west of the temple coincides with the great Cloaca dell'Olmo which, according to Lanciani, followed the via de' Cenci next to the Church of S. Tommaso. This position would also allow the slab edge of FUR fr. 32i to align with the edge of the slab to the left. Tucci points out, however, that the Cloaca dell'Olmo ran on a N-S line much further to the east where it crossed through the Porticus Philippi, the Circus Flaminius, and the commercial structures along the Tiber (fig. 3). Following Rodríguez-Almeida's suggestion that the depiction of the Theater of Marcellus on the FUR must be moved 36 meters to the east and rotated slightly to correspond to its actual position, Tucci has done so in his plan in fig. 3, and he has moved the Temple to the Dioscuri and surrounding buildings a corresponding distance to the east (fig. 3). In this position, the edges of the ancient buildings depicted on the via Anicia plan correspond to those of later structures and piazzas in the area, shown in figs. 4-5, and the Dioscuri temple is located in the area of the Cinque Scole and of piazzetta Catalana. Here, it is parallel to the frontal colonnades of the Porticus Octaviae and Philippi.
  • Tucci 1993
    Tucci, Pier Luigi. "Nuove ricerche sulla topografia dell'area del Circo Flaminio." Studi Romani 41 (1993) 229-242.
    In 1960, G. Gatti correctly identified the location of the Circus Flaminius between the via Portico d’Ottavia and the lungotevere Cenci. Constructed in 221 BCE by Caius Flaminius Nepos, the circus was later shortened to make room for the Theater of Marcellus and in the 1st c. CE transformed into a great, paved piazza. Tucci here sets out to delineate the still unclear configuration of the Circus by investigating the ancient structures that surrounded it. 1) Numerous travertine and tufa blocks were removed from a building in via di S. Maria de’ Calderari and reused in the reconstruction of the church of S. Maria del Pianto. However, enough remains of the ancient building behind the church to ascertain that its eastern extent reached as far as the piazza Giudea. 2) the via Anicia plan, discovered in 1983, depicts the Temple of the Dioscuri in circo Flaminio between the Circus and the Tiber. The location was confirmed by a similar layout of structures in this area in frs. 32gh and 32i of the Marble Plan. It was proposed that the pronaos of the temple coincided with the church of San Tommaso ai Cenci. In this position, however, the edge of the Circus was not parallel to the front colonnades of the Porticus Octaviae and Philippi. Tucci proposes to move the Theater of Marcellus 33 meters to the east from its incorrect location on the FUR and rotate it slightly, and to move the Dioscuri temple a similar distance towards the east. This would make the great courtyard with storage spaces west of the Temple, the area of the Scole Castigliana, and the Temple match up with what is depicted in the via Anicia plan and in the FUR fragments. In this position, the edge of the Circus that faces the Tiber is parallel to the opposite edge that faces the Porticus Octaviae and Philippi. The three arguments employed to make the pronaos of the temple correspond to the church of San Tommaso are weak: a) the correspondence between the porticoed street along the river on the via Anicia plan and in the FUR fragments and the vie di San Bartolomeo de’ Vaccinari and della Fiumara is not significant; modern streets rarely match ancient routes; b) the ancient walls discovered underneath the church of San Tommaso ai Cenci, dated between the 2nd and the 3rd c. CE [Note the earlier date in Tucci1996b. TN], do not correspond with certainty to the pronaos of the Dioscuri temple; and c) the exact findspot of the Dioscuri marble statues is disputed. One witness, Flaminio Vacca, claims the statues were discovered "near the Tiber, where currently the Jews are building the Synagogue," i.e. practically in the area where Tucci has proposed to locate the Temple of Castor and Pollux. 3) The great cloaca dell’Olmo, incorrectly positioned by Lanciani, ran almost precisely N-S (pl. 13). Since its top can be calculated to have run only 80 cm below the frontal colonnade of the Porticus Philippi, the great drain must have restricted the depth of the pavement of the Circus Flaminius. 4) Tucci concludes by enumerating the results of various excavations in the area of the piazza Giudea, bordered by the building in via S. Maria de’ Calderari, by the SW edge of the Porticus Philippi, and in the 15th century on the NE by the house of Lorenzo Manili. These remains would have flanked the NE side of the Circus Flaminius.
  • Tuck 2000
    Tuck, Steven L. "A new identification for the 'Porticus Aemilia'." Journal of Roman Archaeology 13 (2000) 175-182. In a famous article from 1934, Gatti identified a huge opus incertum building, visible both on FUR fragments 23 and 24b and in excavations south of the Aventine and near the Tiber, as the Porticus Aemilia (Gatti 1934). Tuck's article challenges that identification. First, he argues that the known remains do not accord well with Livy's use of the term "porticus" nor with Livy's location of the Porticus Aemilia close to the Porta Trigemina; rather, the remains resemble horrea (storehouses). Second, Tuck suggests (based on photographs and drawings in PM 1960 and AG 1980) that the fragmentary inscription "]LIA" on fragments 23 and 24b is preceded by still visible remains of an E; and that the semi-erased letters of what may be an adjacent preparatory inscription do not spell "]ILIA" but "]ELIA." (It should be noted here that the digital color photographs made as part of Stanford's Digital Forma Urbis Project do not support this reading [see frs. 23 and 24b], and that a close examination of the fragments themselves is needed.) Third, Tuck proposes that these horrea, inscribed -ELIA, were built under Sulla and therefore would have been named Horrea Cornelia. He points out that some scholars prefer a late 2nd or early 1st cent. BCE date for opus incertum, which would support his proposed link between the building and Sulla. Finally, he suggests that these Horrea Cornelia were a major public construction belonging to Sulla's campaign to ensure Rome's grain supply.
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