Identification: Porticus Aemilia Together with fragments 24b and 24c this piece depicts a section of the porticus Aemilia on the left bank of the Tiber SW of the Aventine Hill (PM 1960, pp. 81-82; AG 1980, p. 102). Formerly believed to represent the Saepta Iulia, the structure was correctly identified by G. Gatti on basis of the inscription in this fragment and on his comparison of the architecture depicted here with the archaeological remains discovered between the Tiber and the Aventine (Gatti 1934, pl. 2. See also LTUR IV, fig. 44). This interpretation is generally accepted now (see however Richardson 1992, p. 143). S. Tuck has recently proposed an alternative identification, arguing on the basis of the published photographs and drawings of the fragment that there is an E before the ]LIA, and that the building must represent the horrea Cornelia (Tuck 2000). Scrutiny of the digital color photograph and Stanford's 3D model above does not support his argument, however.
The porticus Aemilia was constructed in 193 BCE by the aediles M. Aemilius Lepidus and M. Aemilius Paullus (Livy 35.10.12) and restored in 174 BCE by the censors Q. Fulvius Flaccus and A. Postumius Albinus (Livy 41.27.8) - probably as part of the large complex of warehouses and markets by the Tiber called the Emporium (LTUR IV, pp. 116-17). The present remains of the porticus Aemilia, stretching between Via B. Franklin and the Via Marmorata, between the Via G. Branca and the Via A. Vespucci, demonstrate that the gargantuan building measured 487 m. in length and 90 m. in width (LTUR IV, p. 117). It was constructed as a wide staircase on the downward gradient towards the Tiber, parallel to the river (Gatti's division of the structure into four wide steps is not indicated on the Marble Plan). Walls that ran perpendicular to the long front and back walls and which were pierced by arched openings, divided the building into 50 spaces; each space was covered by a barrel vault and backed and fronted by an arched opening in the long outer walls (see reconstruction in Gatti 1934, pl. 4 or LTUR IV, fig. 45). The function of the building is uncertain. Unless the many openings were separated by wooden partitions, it is unlikely to have served as a warehouse. Its architecture does not conform to what we normally associate with a porticus, which is a large, open space surrounded on three or four sides by covered colonnades. Why this building was highlighted on the Plan with rendering in outline and recessed areas, a technique usually reserved for temples (Reynolds 1996, pp. 74-77) and important public monuments, is also uncertain.

Significance Fragments 23, 24b, and 24c were key elements in certifying the identification of the remains of a large Republican building of opus incertum, discovered near the Tiber and south of the Aventine, as being those of the porticus Aemilia.

Text by Tina Najbjerg and Jennifer Trimble