An Investigation of Roman Horti Using Spatial Theory: Could Roman Garden Space Have Been Used for More Than Pleasure?
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An Investigation of Roman horti using Spatial Theory: Could Roman Garden Space have been used for more than pleasure? Graduate School of Humanities University of Amsterdam September 2015 Catherine Lees-Millais (10847758) Table of Contents Abbreviations .......................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 5 Chapter I; An Insight into the Spatial Turn ............................................................................................ 6 A Study of Agency ............................................................................................................................. 12 Mutability of Meaning .................................................................................................................. 13 Space and Identity ............................................................................................................................. 15 Roman Notions of Space .................................................................................................................. 17 The Building Traditions of Rome ...................................................................................................... 20 Roman Space and Movement .......................................................................................................... 21 Movement, the Gaze and Space ...................................................................................................... 25 Chapter II; Gardens .............................................................................................................................. 29 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 30 History of the Roman Garden ........................................................................................................... 33 The Garden as Liminal Space ............................................................................................................ 36 Memory and Time in the Garden ...................................................................................................... 38 The Garden's Sacred Aura ................................................................................................................. 39 Philosophy in the Garden ................................................................................................................. 40 Roman Domination .......................................................................................................................... 42 Danger in the Garden ....................................................................................................................... 43 Pleasure in the Garden ..................................................................................................................... 45 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 46 Chapter III; The Development of the Uses of horti ............................................................................. 47 Pompey ............................................................................................................................................. 48 Caesar ................................................................................................................................................ 51 Augustus ............................................................................................................................................ 53 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 60 Bibliography.......................................................................................................................................... 61 [2] Abbreviations Catul. Catullus. Cic. Ag. Cicero, De Lege Agraria. Cic. Att. Cicero, Ad Atticum. Cic. Cael. Cicero, Pro Caelio. Cic. De Orat. Cicero, De Oratore. Cic. Mur. Cicero, Pro Lucio Murena. Cic. Fat. Cicero, De Fato. Cic. Fin. Cicero, De Finibus. Cic. Inv. Cicero, De Inventione. Cic. ND. Cicero, De Natura Deorum. Cic. Rep. Cicero, De Re Republica Cic. Acad. Cicero, Academica. Dio. Cass. Dio Cassius, Romaika. Don. Donatus, Interpretationes Vergilianae. Hes. WD. Hesiod, Works and Days. Hor. Carm. Horace, Odes. Hor. Sat. Horace, Satires. Mart. Martial, Epigrammata. Ov. Ars. Ovid, Ars Amatoria. Pl. Poen. Plautus, Poenulus. Plat. Prot. Plato,Protagoras. Pl. As. Plautus, Asinaria. Pl. Truc. Plautus, Truculentus. Plin. Ep. Pliny the Younger, Epistulae. Plin. Nat. Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia. Plut. Caes. Plutarch, Caesar. [3] Plut. De Exilio. Plutarch, On Exile. Plut. Pomp. Plutarch, Pompei Viri Illustris Vita. Plut. Vit. Cim. Plutarch, Cimon. Quint. Inst. 11 Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, Book 11. Sall. Cat. Sallust, Catilinae Conuiratio. Suet. Aug. Suetonius, Divus Augustus. Suet. Jul. Suetonius, Divus Julius. Ter. Ad. Terence, Adelphoe. Val. Max. Valerius Maximus, De Factis Dictisque Memorabilibus . Varr. Ling. Varro, De Lingua Latina. Varr. RR. Varro, De Re Rustica. Vitr. Vitruvius, De Architectura. [4] Introduction Classical scholars still continue to underestimate the contribution of Roman gardens to our understanding of Roman culture, despite increasing numbers of archaeologically known gardens and the huge amount of pictorial gardens found throughout the Roman world. Recently, however, archaeologists and art historians are beginning to develop a more nuanced notion of the Roman garden and to integrate this into the larger picture of Roman space, society and culture. This paper aims to be part of that very integration; an example of the new facets of Roman social history that are made visible by a new approach to Roman garden space. The course of my paper will pursue the following trajectory; firstly I shall undertake a review of modern spatial and agency theory, and consider the ways in which this might be applied to ancient Rome. To do so, an exploration of Roman attitudes to constructed space is also necessary. This chapter will also contain an investigation of the relationship between movement and space, due to the fact that gardens are spaces designed for movement. Second, an exploration of Roman horti will of course be necessary. This will include a brief introduction into the historiography of garden spaces and Roman notions of horti. Third, I shall investigate the development of the use of horti at the end of the Republic into the Principate, from Pompey to Augustus. I contend that a spatial approach such as mine creates an illuminating effect upon the additional implications of Augustus' use of public horti in Rome. [5] Chapter I: An Insight into the Spatial Turn In order to examine the possible uses and effects of green spaces in ancient Rome, we need to first investigate the different approaches that have previously been taken towards a study of 'space'. Subsequently it will be seen that an examination of the ancient world through the lens of spatiality and in terms of a socio- spatial dialectic can provide a refreshing new take on spaces already much studied. This chapter will include an attempt to explore the current trends in spatial scholarship, the posited connection between space and society and whether space can be attributed with any sort of agency. Since spatial study is still particularly indeterminate this opening chapter focuses on exploring the theoretical basis for the study of space and its interaction with social processes from varying perspectives of different disciplines from anthropology to geography. The aim is to introduce the reader to the type of theoretical and intellectual approach scholars are beginning to use in study of the ancient world. Since the 1970s concepts of space have begun to evolve from a mathematical, geographical, static entity to that of a more fluid social construct.1 The word 'space' in the past has evoked the idea merely of an empty area, but since then scholarship concerned with 'The Spatial Turn' has asserted the notion of a socio- spatial dialectic. Urban geographers such as Soja (perhaps the strongest proponent of the connection between social processes and space), have pointed out that 'space itself may be primordially given, but the organisation, use and meaning of space is a product of social translation, transformation and experience'.2 Thus we can say that it is true that 'there is no such thing, in a social sense, as empty space'.3 One corollary of space being a social product is that each society produces its own variants of space, and therefore social space will be a useful tool for the analysis of any society. Ancient Rome had its own spatial practices, perhaps hugely different to ours today, and this makes space a valuable category of study that allows us 1 Scott (2013) 170. 2 Soja (1980) 210. 3 Tonkiss (2005) 3. [6] further insight into the ancient world. Indeed, urban space has been on the agenda of Roman scholarship since the 1980's, and the rise in popularity of interdisciplinary approaches has enabled useful communication between different departments of Roman scholarship. Since the 1990's scholars concerned with landscape have helped promote the idea