ID AND LOCATION
| Stanford #
| 6bcdf |
| AG1980 #
| 6b-d,f |
| PM1960 #
| 6 b-d f |
| Slab #
| IX-4 |
| Adjoins
| 6c 6e |
CONDITION
| Located
| true |
| Incised
| true |
| Surviving
| true |
| Subfragments
| 3 |
| Plaster Parts
| 2 |
| Back Surface
| sawn off |
| Slab Edges
| 0 |
| Clamp Holes
| 0 |
| Tassello
| no |
TECHNICAL INFO
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| ANALYSIS
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| Description The fragment consists of five pieces, two of which are plaster casts; these were based on Renaissance drawing Cod. Vat. Lat 3439 - Fo 13r, which was made while the fragment was still in one piece (see fr. 6c). A star marks one of the plaster sections. The collective fragment depicts a large courtyard surrounded by a colonnade and behind it, rows of inward-facing rooms. The rows of rooms back onto narrow, rectangular spaces that may represent the outer areas of the building, at least at top and at bottom. At top, a row of small, irregularly spaced shops back onto the elongated room; at bottom, it is bordered by an open space, perhaps a street. Two sets of stairs in the rows of rooms at top indicate that at least this section of the building was multi-storeyed. Passages in the bottom row of rooms and in the upper left corner give access to the courtyard from the outside. Recessed, triangular features within the two visible corners of the colonnaded space perhaps represent fountains. An elliptically shaped cavea occupies the entire courtyard. It is drawn with wide-spaced double lines that are perforated at each end of the long axis by a wide opening. Recessed, clamp-shaped features are placed in the center of each of the short axes. The inscription, LVDVS/MAGNV[S], appears inside the cavea.
Identification: Ludus Magnus Handily identified by the inscription, the building depicted here is the largest of the four gladiatorial training schools, built by Domitian near the E end of the Flavian Amphitheater (Colosseum). The exact location of the building - situated by the Regionary Catalogues in Regio III - was confirmed by excavations in 1937 and 1960-61 that revealed its N half (LTUR III, p. 196, fig. 131). Based on FUR fragments 6bcdf and 6e, on the excavated remains, and on the assumption that the building was symmetrical, A.M. Colini and L. Cozza were able to reconstruct its location and architecture. It was positioned immediately east of the Colosseum and just north of the axis of the amphitheater, between the ancient streets underneath the Via Labicana and Via dei SS. Quattro Coronati (AG 1980, fig. 19; LTUR III, fig. 131; Richardson 1992, fig. 52). The building consisted of an elliptically shaped arena surrounded by a cavea whose base was raised 2.75 m above the floor of the arena, and which was supported on brick-faced concrete walls and vaults. The seating area, which held ca. 3,000 spectators, was reached by four external stairs. As seen in this fragment, ceremonial entrances perforated the cavea at each end of the long axis, and box seats were placed at the ends of the short axis, thus closest to the action in the arena. A rectangular, two-storey colonnade surrounded the cavea, and triangular fountains occupied the corners of this porticus. A series of small, regular rooms for the gladiators and their gear opened onto all four sides of the colonnaded courtyard; stairs gave access to a second storey above. Excavations have revealed that in addition to the narrow entrance to the courtyard seen in the bottom row (north side) of this fragment, there was a major entrance in the center of the row, granting access to the building from the Via Labicana (Richardson 1992, p. 237, fig. 52). An underground passage connected the ludus Magnus to the Colosseum (LTUR III, p. 197).
Significance The fragment is key to reconstructing the architecture of the ludus Magnus. It also demonstrates the difficulty of piecing together the many surveys on which the map was based: on the map, the building is located ca. 15 m east of its correct position (AG 1980, p. 70, and fig. 19).
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| HISTORY OF FRAGMENT |
| When discovered behind the church of SS. Cosmas and Damian in 1562, these fragments were still in one large piece. This piece was transferred to the Palazzo Farnese and stored there. Renaissance engravers reproduced it in 16th-c. drawings that are now kept in the Vatican (Cod. Vat. Lat. 3439), and Giovanni Pietro Bellori included it in his 1673 publication of the Plan. At some point thereafter, the fragment broke in four pieces, one of which, section d, was used as building material in the 17th-c. construction of the Farnese familys "Giardino Segreto" (Secret Garden) near the Via Giulia. Section c disappeared and has never been found. In 1742, the remaining fragments, band f, were moved to the Capitoline Museums. Here, their backs were cut off, and plaster casts were made of the missing sections c and d based on the Renaissance drawing. The four sections were attached and exhibited with some of the other known fragments in wooden frames along the main staircase. In 1888 or 1898, section d was rediscovered when the walls of the Farnese Secret Garden were demolished, and it was reattached to sections b, f, and the cast of the missing section c. In 1903, museum curators included the collected pieces in a reconstruction of the FUR mounted on a wall behind the Palazzo dei Conservatori (1903-1924). Since then, the fragment has been stored with the other known FUR fragments in various places: the storerooms of the Antiquarium Comunale (1924-1939), the Capitoline Museums again (1939-1955), the Palazzo Braschi (1955-1998)(PM 1960, p. 65), and since 1998 in the Museo della Civiltà Romana in EUR under the auspices of the Sovraintendenza ai Beni Culturali del Comune di Roma.
Text by Tina Najbjerg
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| KEYWORDS
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| gladiators, training school, rooms, colonnades, fountains, seats, arena, stairs, openings, arches?, cavea, seating area, |
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