Identification: A section of the Campus Martius with the vicus Stabularius? The authors of PM 1960 recognized that the architecture depicted in this large group belonged to a flat section of Rome (PM 1960, p. 132). Later, E. Rodríguez-Almeida located the group to the upper right corner of slab III-12, based on primarily on his identification of the central, vertical street as the vicus Stab[u]larius (or vicus Bublarius [PM 1960, pp. 313-132; AG 1980, pp. 149-150]) and his positioning of other fragments in the slabs just above this one (slabs IV-6 and IV-7), one of which contained, he suggested, the beginning of the inscription VICUS STABLARIUS (Rodríguez-Almeida 1970-71, pp. 113-115, fig. 114). This location identified the architecture in this group as a section of the flat area of the Campus Martius, right between the Theater of Pompey and the Tiber (see Rodríguez-Almeida 1983a, fig. 3, for an image of this fragment group superimposed on the modern topography of Rome). The architecture of the individual insulae seems to consist of single rooms, most of which are probably tabernae or shops. Rows of tabernae like those depicted here are one of the most common features on the Marble Plan. Most often, the shops consisted of a single room with a wide opening towards the street that could be screened off a night, while the owners perhaps resided with their families on a wooden platform in the back of the shop. In the larger tabernae, the back of the room might be closed off with a screen to create a separate living space for the family (Reynolds 1996, p. 161).

Significance Rodríguez-Almeida's identification and location of this large fragment group is a great gain for our knowledge of non-monumental Rome. The group provides excellent evidence for the type of mixed residential and commercial architecture that probably was common in most of Rome's neighborhoods and for the organization and movement through this little known section of the Campus Martius.