the Domus Lateranorum, a house of the 3rd century which gave its
name to the Lateran basilica, and a little farther on, by S. Croce in
Gerusalemme, the Amphitheatrum Castrense; the latter, of about
the end of the 1st century A.D., has two tiers of arches and engaged
columns of moulded brick on the outside. Between the P. Praenestina
and the P. Tiburtina comes a large castellum of the Aqua
Tepula. The Praetorian Camp forms a great projection near the
P. Nomentana. Lastly, the angle near the Porta Flaminia, at the
foot of the Pincian Hill, is formed by remains of a lofty and enormously
massive building, faced with fine opus reticulatum of the
1st century B.C. Owing to the sinking of the foundation this is
very much out of the perpendicular, and was known as the “murus
tortus” at a very early time.[1] What this once important building
was is uncertain. Two archways which form gates in the Aurelian
wall are of much earlier date. The Porta Maggiore consists of a
grand double arch of the aqueducts Anio Novus and Claudia built
in travertine. The Porta S. Lorenzo enclosed a single travertine
arch, built by Augustus where the aqueduct carrying the Aqua
Marcia, Tepula, and Julia crossed the Via Tiburtina. The inner
gateway, built of massive travertine blocks by Honorius, was pulled
down by Pius IX., in 1868.[2]
Bibliography of Ancient Roman Topography.—Amongst ancient writers special mention is due to Varro (De Lingua Latina), Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Antiquitates Romanae), Ovid (Fasti), Vitruvius (De Architectura), Pliny the Elder (Naturalis Historia), Frontinus (De Aquis) and the remains of ancient commentaries on Virgil, Horace, &c. The inscriptions found in the city of Rome are contained in vol. VI. of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Many of them are of the highest importance for Roman topography, e.g. the Basis Capitolina, preserved in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, a pedestal which once supported a statue of Hadrian, dedicated in A.D. 136 by the vicomagistri of five regions; on the sides are inscribed the names of the vici and their officials. Vol. XV. of the C.I.L. contains the inscriptions stamped on tiles and water-pipes, which are likewise of great importance. The Monumentum Ancyranum (Res gestae divi Augusti, ed.² Mommsen, 1883) reproduces the bronze tablets set up by Augustus on his mausoleum at Rome, and contains a list of the buildings which he erected or restored. The marble plan of Rome (Forma urbis Romae, ed. Jordan, 1874; the more recently discovered fragments have only been published in periodicals) dates from the reign of Septimius Severus, who restored the building to which it belonged after the fire of 191 B.C. The plan which it replaced was executed by order of Vespasian. The scale was generally 1 : 250; it was oriented with S.E. at the top, N.W. at the bottom. Buildings are of course frequently represented on coins and works of art, and these may often be identified with existing remains.
In the reign of Constantine the Great there was compiled a catalogue of the principal buildings of Rome, arranged according to the fourteen regions of Augustus. This has been preserved in two recensions, one made in A.D. 334 and known as the Notitia, the second in or about A.D. 357, and known as the Curiosum urbis Romae. These are called the Regionary Catalogues, and contain, besides lists of buildings, statistics as to the number of vici, domus, insulae, &c., in each region, which are of great value. (See Preller, Regionen der Stadt Rom, Jena, 1846.)
In the middle ages, guide-books were written for the use of pilgrims visiting Rome. Besides giving the routes for the principal churches and cemeteries, they mention ancient buildings and give current legends regarding them. The earliest is the Itinerary of Einsiedeln, a MS. of the 8th century preserved in the monastery of Einsiedeln in Switzerland (see C. Huelsen, L’Itinerario di Einsiedeln, 1908). In the 12th century was compiled the Mirabilia urbis Romae, which became the foundation of later guide-books. The last recension is contained in a MS. of the early 15th century. These and other medieval documents are printed in Urlichs' Codex Topographicus urbis Romae (1871). The Ordo Benedicti Canonici (see Jordan, Topographie, II. 1, 646, and Lanciani, Monumenti Antichi, I. 437), which gives the route of papal processions, belongs also to the 12th century, and was perhaps written by the author of the Mirabilia. The Liber Pontificalis (ed. Duchesne, Paris, 1886; ed. Mommsen, in Monumenta Germaniae historica, vol. i.), which gives the biographies of the early popes and was continued throughout the middle ages, is of value as illustrating the transition from pagan to Christian Rome.
Several early views and plans of Rome exist, beginning with the painting by Cimabue in the upper church of S. Francesco at Assisi (1275). A collection of these was published by De Rossi, Piante icnografiche e prospettiche di Roma anteriori al secolo XVI. (1879). Many others have since come to light. (See Huelsen in Bull. Comm. Arch., 1892, p. 38).
In Italian and other libraries are preserved large numbers of
plans and drawings from ancient remains by the architects of
the 15th and later centuries, e.g. Bramantino, Fra Giocondo, the
members of the families of Sangallo and Peruzzi, Pirro, Ligorio,
Palladio, &c. These are of immense value, since the monuments
which they drew have to a large extent been destroyed. Unfortunately
they are not always trustworthy, especially those of
Ligorio. The drawings at Florence have been indexed by Ferri;
amongst recent publications may be noted those of the Codex
Escorialensis by Egger (Vienna, 1905), and of a sketch-book, probably
by A. Coner, in the Soane Museum by Dr Ashby, in Papers
of the British School at Rome, vol. ii. (1903). Amongst the printed
works of the early Italian architects may be named Palladio,
Architettura(Venice, 1542), and Terme dei Romani (London, 1732),
Serlio, Architettura (Venice, 1545), and Labacco, Architettura ed
Antichità, (Rome, 1557). Engravings of ancient remains in Rome
have been published in great numbers since the 16th century; the
most importantiof the earlier collections are the Speculum Romanae
Magnificentiae, a series extending over many years in the 16th century,
and Du Pérac’s Vestigj di Roma (1575). To the 18th century belong
the etchings of Piranesi, published in several volumes, and still
reproduced from the copper-plates by the Calcografia.
The literature of Roman topography would in itself form a large library; the best bibliographical guide is Mau’s Katalog der Bibliothek des k. deutschen archäologischen Instituts in Rom (1900). The earliest modern work which can be called scientific is Flavio Biondo’s Roma instaurata, written under Eugenius IV. (1431–1447), first dated edition, 1479. Biondo’s work was based on the study of ancient literary authorities; he was followed in his method and results by the scholars of the 15th and early 16th centuries, e.g. Pozzo, Leo Battista Alberti and Andrea Fulvio. In the 16th century the study of ancient remains took its place beside that of ancient literature. Marliani, who had followed Biondo in the first edition of his Antiquae urbis Romae topographia (1538), issued a second edition in 1544, which contained, plans and illustrations. For more than a century his book formed the foundation upon which such writers as Fauno, G. Fabricius, Mauro, Panvinius, &c., raised their works. Unfortunately the Regionary Catalogues were largely interpolated during this period, and published in this form by Panvinius. In 1666 Famiano Nardini’s Roma antica appeared, based upon the interpolated version of the Regionary Catalogues; this was productive of disastrous errors, many of which remained uncorrected until our own time. Nardini was followed in the 18th century by such writers as Ficoroni and Venuti; the most important works of this period were those produced by excavators such as Bianchini (Il palazzo dei Cesari, 1738), or independent students of the monuments such as Raphael Fabretti (De Columna Trajana, 1683; De Aquis et Aquaeductibus, 1680). In the 18th century Winckelmann revived interest in ancient, including Roman, art (especially by his Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums, 1764), and his follower, Carlo Fea, inaugurated the era of systematic and scientific excavation, especially in the Forum. In 1829 there was founded the international Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica (which in 1874 became the Kaiserlich deutsches archäologisches Institut); in 1830–42 was issued the Beschreibung der Stadt Rom, by Bunsen and others, in which the grosser errors which had passed current since Nardini’s time were corrected. To the same period belong the magnificently illustrated works of Luigi Canina (Indicazione di Roma antica, 1830; Esposizione topografica, 1842; Architettura antica, 1834–44; Foro Romano, 1845; Edifizj di Roma antica, 1848–56), the value of which is impaired by their inaccuracy and the imaginative character of the restorations.
The books on Roman topography written in the early 19th century; such as those of Antonio Nibby, still pursued the uncritical methods of Nardini; from 1830 onwards, however, we find a series of writers whose work shows the influence of the new criticism. Such were Becker (Topographie der Stadt Rom, 1843), Sir Wm. Gell (Rome and its Vicinity, 1834; rev. ed. E. H. Bunbury, 1846), Braun (Ruinen und Museen Roms, 1854), Reber (Die Ruinen Roms, 1862) and T. H. Dyer (The City of Rome, 1864).
Since 1861, when excavations were begun on the Palatine at the instance of Napoleon III., under the direction of P. Rosa, the discovery of ancient remains has made constant progress, and the results have been incorporated in a number of works, of which only the most important can be named here. These are: Jordan, Topographie der Stadt Rom im Alterthum, of which three vols. (I1, I2, and II.) appeared in 1871–85, and a third (I3) was written after Jordan’s death by C. Huelsen and published in 1907; Gilbert, Geschichte und Topographie der Stadt Rom im Alterthum (3 vols., 1883–90); the works of Lanciani, especially Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome (1897) and Storia degli Scavi (in progress); O. Richter, Topographie der Stadt Rom (ed. 2, 1901); Middleton, The Remains of Ancient Rome (2 vols., 1892). A short handbook may be found in S. B. Platner’s Topography and Monuments of Ancient Rome (Boston, 1904). For the study of recent discoveries (besides the special works referred to in the course of this article) the following periodicals are the most important:— Notizie degli Scavi, published by the Accademia dei Lincei since 1876; Bullettino della Commissions Archeologica comunale di Roma (from 1872); Mittheilungen des k. deutschen archäologischen Instituts
- ↑ Cf. Procop. Bell. Goth. i. 23.
- ↑ On the walls of Aurelian, see (in addition to the general works, mentioned in the bibliography) Nibby and Gell, Le Mura di Roma (1820); Quarenghi, Le Mara di Roma (1880); and especially Homo, Essai sur le règne de l’empereur Aurélien (Paris, 1904), IV.e partie, ch. ii., “L’Enceinte de Rome.”
