| Description The architecture depicted here consists of two different buildings that seem to be separated by a wall. A row of small rooms or tabernae abut the wall on the right. On the left, a passageway lined on both sides with small stalls runs parallel to the wall. It is perforated in two places by two pairs of opposing rooms or exedrae. A semicircle is visible in one of the areas delineated by the left side of the passageway and the larger rooms that perforate it.
Identification: Porticus Pompeianae In 1978, Rodríguez-Almeida identified the structure to the left of the dividing wall as part of the architecture that lined the S portico of the Porticus of Pompey (Rodríguez-Almeida 1978-80, pp. 97-98; AG 1980, p. 133, pls. 28, 33). Other parts of the S portico are visible in frs. 39d (missing) and 39g (see AG 1980, pl. 33). These fragments, and frs. 37c and 39ac, demonstrate that the architecture that framed the N and the S porticoes of the great porticus was very different: while two rows of rooms, exedrae, stalls, and tabernae(?) lined the S portico, a double portico of 100 columns (the Hecatostylum) lined the N portico.
The great porticus was one of the components of Pompey's immense theater complex in the Campus Martius, constructed as a whole and inaugurated in 55 BCE (LTUR IV, p. 148) or 52 BCE (Richardson 1992, p. 318). It was referred to in antiquity as the porticus Pompeia (Prop. 2.32.110 or, according to Vitruvius (5.9.1), Pompeianae (LTUR IV, p. 148). Two letters, NA, perhaps from the latter name, are visible in the rendering of the S portico in one of the two Renaissance drawings of the now missing fr. 39d (PM 1960, pl. 13 and reconstruction in pl. 32). In addition to the porticus, the complex comprised a theater and temples (see fr. 39f for more info on the temples and on the theater itself).
Vitruvius (5.9.1) explains that Pompey built the porticus behind the theater as a shelter for the spectators in the case of rain, as a place for them to relax and converse, and as a storage area for stage machinery (LTUR IV, p. 148; Richardson 1992, p. 318). Fountains, trees, and expensive pieces of art created an atmosphere of luxury and relaxation; niches in the back walls of the covered porticos, like the semi-circular exedra(?) in this fragment, may have held some of these art works. The stalls that lined the passageway along the S portico may have been places where vendors sold food and various sundries to the masses that frequented the theater and the popular porticus.
Significance This fragment provides important visual clues to the nature of one of Rome most popular structures, otherwise known only through a few remains and descriptions by ancient authors. The food stalls and tabernae visible here, and the latrines visible in fr. 37a, are reminders that also ancient entertainment centers catered to basic human needs. Notably, thick walls separated the food stalls and the latrines from the porticus proper--almost certainly in an attempt to retain the luxurious, park-like qualities of the latter.
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| Like the majority of FUR fragments, this piece was discovered in 1562 in a garden behind the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian. From here, it was transferred to the Palazzo Farnese and stored there. It was not among the fragments that were reproduced in the Renaissance drawings that are now kept in the Vatican, but Giovanni Pietro Bellori included it in his 1673 publication. In 1742, the fragment was moved to the Capitoline Museums and exhibited with some of the other known fragments in wooden frames along the main staircase. Since then, it has been stored with the other FUR fragments in various places: the storerooms of the Capitoline Museums (1903-1924), the Antiquarium Comunale (1924-1939), the Capitoline Museums again (1939-1955), the Palazzo Braschi (1955-1998), and since 1998 in the Museo della Civiltà Romana in EUR under the auspices of the Sovraintendenza ai Beni Culturali del Comune di Roma. (This fragment's history corresponds to Iter E' as summarized in PM 1960, p. 56.)
Text by Tina Najbjerg |
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