ID AND LOCATION
| Stanford #
| 674ac |
| AG1980 #
| 674ac |
| PM1960 #
| 674 ac |
| Slab #
| unknown |
| Adjoins
| 674b |
CONDITION
| Located
| true |
| Incised
| true |
| Surviving
| false |
| Slab Edges
| 0 |
| Clamp Holes
| 0 |
| Tassello
| no | |
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Detail from Cod. Vat. Lat. 3439 - Fo 19r,
reproduced from PM 1960, pl. 9 | |
PM 1960 Plates: 9 58
AG 1980 Plates: 59
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| IDENTIFICATION |
| Renaissance drawing: Ar(e)a Matidiae on the Oppian Hill or Area Martis on the Caelian Hill?
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| INSCRIPTION
Epigraphic conventions used |
| Transcription |
| None; the fragment is lost
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| Renaissance Transcription |
[---]AREA (star/leaf) M [---]
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| Reconstruction |
AREA M[ATIDIAE] (with fr. 674b: AG 1980)
AREA M[ARTI]S (with frs. 674b and 200b: Ferrea 2002) |
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| ANALYSIS
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| Description The fragments themselves are missing but Renaissance drawing Cod. Vat. Lat. 3439 - Fo 19r shows them as they looked upon discovery when they were still in one piece with fr. 674b (see detailed photo above or PM 1960, pl. 9, no. 3). An inscription, AREA*M[---] traversed the bottom of the fragment. Here it ran across the lower of two parallel, horizontal enclosures in the upper right side of the fragment. A vertical wall with a curved line at top that joined it to the top enclosure, was drawn with a very faint line on the left. This vertical line crossed the inscription between the R and the E.
Identification: Area Matidiae E. RodrÃguez-Almeida has briefly suggested that these missing fragments together with the still surviving 674b labeled the hitherto unidentified ar(e)a Matidiae, mentioned in a late edict by Tarracius Bassus (CIL 6, 31.893b)(AG 1980, p. 168). Since the other monuments and areas mentioned in the edict are concentrated in Regions 1 to 5, this particular area or district was probably located on the Oppian Hill (AG 1980, p. 169, n.3).
Identification: Area Martis L. Ferrea has proposed that the letters AREA M[---] in this fragment be combined with the letters [---]IS in fr. 200b to read AREA M[ART]IS (Ferrea 2002, p. 65). The similar style and ductus of the letters in these fragments, as well as a visible guide line in both, seem to confirm this thesis. She suggests these fragments labeled an area on the Caelian Hill, the campus Martialis, which was known to have served as a place for military exercises when the Campus Martius was flooded, and surmises that imprecise rendering of fr. 674ac by the Renaissance draftsmen probably accounts for the slight misalignment of the lines that traverse between frs. 674 and 200. Ferrea locates frs. 200a and b along the top edge of slab XI-6 and frs. 674ac and b in the upper right corner of slab X-5 (Ferrea 2002, fig. 66). They thus occupy the area just south of the Temple of Claudius on the Caelian Hill.
Significance If Ferrea's identification of frs. 674 and 200 is correct, it would present a significant gain for our knowledge of the topography of the Caelian Hill. |
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| HISTORY OF FRAGMENT |
| These two missing pieces were originally part of one large fragment. This large fragment, like the majority of FUR fragments, 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. Some time after that, the fragment broke into three pieces (674a, b, and c) of which only fr. b survives. The whereabouts of frs. a and c thereafter are unknown.
Text by Tina Najbjerg
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