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    • Page 224 of 1273
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     ID AND LOCATION
    Stanford # 47
    AG1980 # 47
    PM1960 # 47
    Slab # unknown
    Adjoins none
     CONDITION
    Located false
    Incised true
    Surviving false
    Slab Edges 0
    Clamp Holes 0
    Tassello no
    Search by:
    where value is:
    NOT
    AND OR
    Search by:
    where value is:
    NOT
     BIBLIOGRAPHY

    Detail from Cod. Vat. Lat. 3439 - Fo 19r,
    reproduced from PM 1960, pl. 9
    PM 1960 Plates: 9 34
    AG 1980 Plates: 34
     
    IDENTIFICATION
    Renaissance drawing: Baths of Ampelos (balineum Ampelidis)
    INSCRIPTION Epigraphic conventions used
  • Transcription
    		•
    None; the fragment itself is missing
  • Renaissance Transcription
    		•
    [.]ALINEVM/AMPL[---]
  • Reconstruction
    		•
    [B]A*LINEUM/AMPE*L*I*[DIS] (PM 1960; AG 1980)
    ANALYSIS
    Description The fragment is missing but Renaissance drawing Cod. Vat. Lat. 3439 - Fo 19r shows what it depicted (see detailed photo above or PM 1960, pl. 9, no. 6). At top, a horizontal row of rooms facing downwards crossed the fragment from left to right and stopped short of the right edge. The rooms backed onto a narrow corridor with smaller rooms at top. The horizontal row of rooms was separated from a structure in the bottom half of the fragment by a narrow passageway. A narrow opening gave access from this passageway to the building at the bottom which consisted of a large, open space to the left and a vertical row of rooms on the right that opened onto the open space. The letters A*LINEUM/AMPE*L*I* were inscribed in this open space.

    Identification: Balineum Ampelidis The inscription identifies the building at the bottom of this fragment as a bath complex. The lack of stairs may indicate that this was a somewhat small structure (LTUR I, p. 156). This is also suggested by the irregular layout of the bath, which is characteristic of smaller neighborhood baths (Staccioli 1961, p. 93). This bath is probably to be identified with the balneum Ampelidis (Prisci) et Dianae which is recorded in the Regionary Catalogues as being located in Reg. 14 which is the Trastevere (PM 1960, 114; LTUR I, p. 156). E. Rodríguez-Almeida has suggested that the left side of the fragment was a slab edge and that the orientation of the architecture therefore matches that of fragment group 37A in slab IV-7 (LTUR I, p. 156). If located in Trastevere, the baths may have been close to the mills and, like they, have been fed by the aqua Traiana (PM 1960, p. 114).

    Significance There are many unidentified baths on the Plan. Some represent small neighborhood baths, balnea, others the large imperial thermae like those of Titus and Trajan. This fragment seems to depict a small or medium-sized bath complex. Locating this lost fragment would allow us to assess the development of Roman neighborhood baths in the urban landscape.

    HISTORY OF FRAGMENT
    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. Renaissance engravers reproduced the fragment in 16th-c. drawings that are now kept in the Vatican (for more information about the creation and accuracy of these drawings, see Cod. Vat. Lat. 3439), and Giovanni Pietro Bellori included it in his 1673 publication. The whereabouts of the piece after this date are unknown. (This fragment’s history corresponds to Iter D as summarized in PM 1960, p. 56.)

    Text by Tina Najbjerg

    KEYWORDS
    bath, aqueduct

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