Rising from the Ashes: Domitian’s Arae Incendii Neroniani in New Flavian Rome Lea K. Cline In the August 1888 edition of the Notizie degli Scavi, profes- on a base of two steps; it is a long, solid rectangle, 6.25 m sors Guliermo Gatti and Rodolfo Lanciani announced the deep, 3.25 m wide, and 1.26 m high (lacking its crown). rediscovery of a Domitianic altar on the Quirinal hill during These dimensions make it the second largest public altar to the construction of the Casa Reale (Figures 1 and 2).1 This survive in the ancient capital. Built of travertine and revet- altar, found in situ on the southeast side of the Alta Semita ted in marble, this altar lacks sculptural decoration. Only its (an important northern thoroughfare) adjacent to the church inscription identifies it as an Ara Incendii Neroniani, an altar of San Andrea al Quirinale, was not unknown to scholars.2 erected in fulfillment of a vow made after the great fire of The site was discovered, but not excavated, in 1644 when Nero (A.D. 64).7 Pope Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini) and Gianlorenzo Bernini Archaeological evidence attests to two other altars, laid the foundations of San Andrea al Quirinale; at that time, bearing identical inscriptions, excavated in the sixteenth the inscription was removed to the Vatican, and then the and seventeenth centuries; the Ara Incendii Neroniani found altar was essentially forgotten.3 Lanciani’s notes from May on the Quirinal was the last of the three to be discovered.8 22, 1889, describe a fairly intact structure—a travertine block Little is known of the two other altars; one, presumably altar with remnants of a marble base molding on two sides.4 found on the Vatican plain, was reportedly used as building Although the altar’s inscription was not in situ, Lanciani refers material for the basilica of St. Peter in the sixteenth century.9 to it as an altar of the Neronian fire and gives indication of The other was uncovered in 1618 on the southwest side of its unusually large size, “46 metri in tutto.”5 the Circus Maximus at the foot of the Aventine, along with This altar was part of a travertine-paved sacred precinct the remains of steps and cippi.10 This altar, according to sunk three steps below the level of the Alta Semita and Lawrence Richardson, also became building material for St. marked off with eleven travertine cippi (boundary stones) Peter’s but elements of its original design are preserved in the set close to the lowest step at intervals of 2.5 meters.6 The archaeological record.11 The remains are noted on Lanciani’s altar itself is set 2.75 m back from the cippi and mounted Forma Urbis Romae in plate 35 and comprise a smaller, This article would not be possible without the unwavering support 6 Lanciani’s initial drawings record only two cippi, although his later of my doctoral advisors, Dr. John R. Clarke and Dr. Penelope J.E. drawings show that eleven were eventually uncovered. Davies at the University of Texas at Austin. Valerio Caldesi Valeri, Michael Johnson, and Lisa Mignone all provided invaluable support 7 Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (hereafter cited as CIL), VI, 826 or with translations, and Saskia Stevenson lent expert guidance on the 30837/MW 442. issue of Roman boundaries. Dr. Jacqueline Musacchio and Dr. Jennifer Gates-Foster served as expert editors. The research for this paper was 8 Lawrence Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient carried out with the generous support of the Fulbright Foundation Fel- Rome (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), 21; Emilio lowship and a University Continuing Fellowship from the University Rodríguez-Almeida, “Alcune notule topografiche sul Quirinale di epoca of Texas at Austin. domizianea,” Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 91(1986): 49-60. 1 Accademia nazionale dei Lincei et al., Notizie Degli Scavi Di Antichità (Roma: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1889), 159-160. 9 As no archaeological evidence, or reliable source, for this altar’s loca- tion is known, its siting on the Vatican plain is, at best, apocryphal. 2 Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, and Museo dell’Impero The only true evidence of its discovery is a long-lost sixteenth-century Romano, Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di archaeological notation (at some point held at the Archivio dello Roma 17 (1889): 331. Stato in Florence) and the altar’s inscription. However, no copies of the inscription remain in marble; we rely on three copies of the text 3 Rodolfo A. Lanciani, Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries made at the Vatican in the seventeenth century. Richardson, New (Boston: Houghton, 1892/1888), 83-84. Topographical Dictionary, 21; CIL, VI, 826. 4 Rodolfo A. Lanciani, Codice Vaticano Latino 13035, f. 155. 10 Rodolfo Lanciani, Forma Urbis Romae (Rome: Quasar, 1990), plate 35. 5 The Neronian fire was a vast conflagration that swept through the city of Rome in 64 A.D. Nero, emperor at the time, was often blamed for 11 In preparation for the two major construction campaigns of the new the fire; his use of formerly public lands afterwards only exacerbated St. Peter’s basilica, in 1506 (with Bramante as Capomaestro, and, in this. Rodolfo Lanciani, Codice Vaticano Latino 13035, f. 155. succession Raphael and Antonio da Sangallo following his death) and ATHANOR XXVII LEA K. CLINE though similar, precinct (Figure 3); in this case, the stairs from (funum) left ritually bare for the gods. The altars’ inscription, the road rise to meet the altar, and the precinct terminates too, is unusual in Roman monumental epigraphy; its length at the altar’s back.12 The design of this altar, a rectangular and detail, primarily prescriptive and in the passive voice, solid set off by a paved, delineated space, suggests that the only accentuates this archaic idea:14 three known Arae Incendii Neroniani were part of a series; Haec area, intra hanc / definitionem cip- although topographical necessity determined certain design porum / clausa ueribus,15 et ara, quae / est variations, their construction was a singular act. inferius, dedicata est ab // imp. Caesare Like most monumental altars, or altars independent of Domitiano Aug. / Germanico ex uoto temple complexes, the Arae Incendii Neroniani have escaped suscepto, / quod diu erat neglectum nec intense scholarly scrutiny; but the importance of altars, as / redditum, incendiorum / arcendorum architectural monuments, is clear from the earliest period of causa, // quando urbs per nouem dies / arsit development in Rome. Before temples dominated Rome’s Neronianis temporibus. / Hac lege dedi- skyline and elite houses lined the contours of her hills, altars cata est, ne cui / liceat intra hos terminos defined Rome’s topography. As early as the seventh century / aedificium extruere manere // nego[t]iari B.C., monumental altars distinguished areas of this growing arborem ponere / aliudue quid serere, / et city—as is evidenced by the Campus Martius, named after ut praetor, cui haec regio / sorti obuenerit, the altar of Mars that made sacred this swampy plain. The sacrum faciat / aliusue quis magistratus number of public altars in Rome rivaled that of temples, // Volcanibus X K(alendas) Septembres / columns and arches combined, and though some were small, omnibus annis uitulo robeo / et uerre r. others were truly monumental.13 Despite their centrality ac precationibus. / infra scriptam aedi[…] in Roman religious and civic traditions, art historians and K Sept. / ianst[…] / […] dari quae s[…] / classicists alike concentrate more on the sculpture on these quod imp. Caesar Domitianus / Aug. Ger- altars, ignoring their potential rhetorical force as monuments. manicus Pont. Max. constituit q[uodque?] The Arae Incendii Neroniani, though, present an opportunity / fieri [iussit?].16 to explore this architectural type and discuss the various topographical and propagandistic implications of this most This area, enclosed by a spiked railing with- ancient architectural form. in this boundary line marked with cippi, along with the altar that is located further Intra hanc definitionem down, was dedicated by the (emperor) The design of these altars, open-air precincts with trav- Caesar Domitian Aug(ustus) Germanicus, ertine paving and stone markers, designates these spaces as who took upon himself a vow that had both sacred and protected. This design alludes to ancient long been overlooked and left unfulfilled, precincts in the countryside (occurring as early as the eighth (made) for the purpose of preventing century B.C.); these spaces evoke an archaic aura, and refer fires, when the city burned for nine days to the ancient means of offering sacrifice, in an open field at the time of Nero. It was dedicated on then again in 1547 when Pope Paul III appointed Michelangelo to the that on the Quirinal, is properly documented. It is impossible, though, post, the city’s archaeology was mined for ancient marble. Although it to know their exact placement on the altars; the text of the CIL and has become something of a cliché to assume missing ancient material Robin Darwall-Smith note that the Quirinal inscription was found was put to this purpose, these two instances appear to align properly within the precinct but not on the altar itself. No specific archaeological with known building campaigns and thus seem plausible. Richardson, notes remain from the excavation of the other altars, which occurred New Topographical Dictionary, 21. in the sixteenth century. CIL, VI, 816; Robin Darwall-Smith, Emperors and Architecture: A Study of Flavian Rome (Brussels: Latomus, 1996), 12 This is, no doubt, a result of the slope of the Aventine behind it. 236. Rodolfo, Forma Urbis Romae. 15 This term, veru/verus, is problematic. According to the Oxford Latin 13 The earliest altar on record is the Ara Maxima Herculis Invicti, posi- Dictionary, this inscription is the only instance of this word in Latin tioned between the Circus Maximus and the Porta Trigemina in the epigraphy.