Spaces of Communication in the Early Principate

C-IVI | Report: International Workshop spaces of communication in the early principate Organized by: Exzellence Cluster Topoi, Research Group ments stands out. They notably emphasise the emperor’s City Spaces (C-IV), Felix Mundt. apotheosis: No longer personal achievements but rather Venue: Istituto Svizzero Rome. dynastic aspects were emphasised, which was interpre- Date: 24 – 28 February 2010. ted by von. Hesberg as a result of the progressing decline of aristocratic competitiveness. Within the Topoi Excellence Cluster of Humboldt Uni- As the centre of all public-political communication the versität and Freie Universität Berlin an interdisciplinary Forum Romanum played an important role during the research group has been dealing for over a year now with conference. Thus Stefan Freyberger (Rome, DAI) in his representations and functions of ancient cities in art, talk Die Entstehung und Persistenz ritueller Handlungen im architecture and literature. The aim of the Topoi Confe- urbanen Raum am Beispiel des Forum Romanum dealt with rence Spaces of communication in Imperial Rome was to the function of a central building of the Forum, the Basi- investigate the importance of urban spaces for various lica Aemilia. The structure was dramatically renewed un- forms of communication. Not only did the ancient city of der Augustus’ reign no longer with local building materi- Rome represent a platform for communication between als such as tuff and lime stone being used, but with white representatives of individual social groups and institu- and coloured marble instead. It was recently discovered tions, the architecture of the city itself was defined and that the eleven sacella in front of the south side of the determined by the often ritualised means and forms of Basilica had been revised under Augustus. These sacel- communication, as determined either by tradition or le- la according to Freyberger harken back to the dawn of gal norms. This research area thus offers various options Rome (fights between Romans and Sabines in the forum to link archaeological, ancient historical and philological valley), which points at a conservation of traditions. This approaches. impressive association with Rome’s beginnings was ac- A specific feature of the conference, and in itself the de- tivated particularly during triumphal processions along termining factor in choosing Rome as the venue, were the Via Sacra and remained of importance until late an- the complementary guided tours with staff members of tiquity, which is suggested by the continuous restoration the German Archaeological Institute Rome (DAI). In ad- of sanctums. dition to his talk Stefan Freyberger thus explained and Susanne Muth (Berlin, HU) in her contribution Im Dia- enhanced on site the status of current research on the log mit der Vergangenheit – das augusteische Forum Roma- Basilica Aemilia. Richard Neudecker gave a guided tour num als Raum kontrollierter Kommunikation particularly of the Imperial Fora. Ulrike Wulf-Rheidt provided inte- addressed the growing interest on the part of the autho- resting insights into excavations on the Palatine which rities in power to direct, influence or even control the are not open to the public. Due to his vivid and demons- communication taking place on the Forum. The starting trative tour Henner von Hesberg was able to create an point of her discussion was the obvious effort to conser- impression of the architecture of the Campus Martius ve the past as a point of reference for the present in the in Hadrianic times amidst the architecture of modern form of both honorific and memorial statues, as well as Rome. Finally Alexandra Busch led us around the Pra- victory monuments in the Forum area. This monument- etorian Camp. The Istituto Svizzero kindly offered their based staging of a dialogue with the past underwent a marvellous premises, for which thanks is due to the di- radically new orientation during the emergence of the rector and staff. monarchical system: The exempla of political and milita- A talk by Henner v. Hesberg, director of the DAI Rome, ry actions visualised through the honour statues were re- opened the conference (Orte des Kaiserkultes auf dem placed in the early principate by a rather diffuse memory Marsfeld). His investigation focused on the structural of the mythical past. This kind of memory thus was no and edificial developments on the Campus Martius as a longer intended to be reminiscent of aristocratic rivals, result of the cult and divinisation of rulers established but of places and events instead. The dialogue with the since Augustan times. It was not until the 2nd centu- past was controlled and with that defined in a radically ry that a new course was set with the Hadrianeum, the new and up to then unknown way. Templum Mathidiae, the ustrinae as well as the colum- Ulrich Schmitzer (Berlin, HU) illustrated how Augus- nar monuments. The sublime character of these monu- tus linked his building activity on the Forum Augustum C-IV | Workshop Report: Spaces of Communication in the Early Principate | 16. April 2010 C-IVI | Report: International Workshop with the intention of demonstrating the victorious con- und Graffiti als Medien der Kommunikation im städtischen clusion of domestic and external conflicts (Der Kaiser auf Raum), as in pictures or words on walls open to the pub- dem Forum). Despite this basic intention, however, the lic, as means of communication. Graffiti and caricatures function of the Forum appears more sophisticated, and are a way of direct communication. This is supported by the range of uses covers purposes from high politics to an examination of contemporary sources. Due to their everyday life and culinary pleasures. The literary repre- immediateness in combination with the durability resul- sentations, those by Ovid in particular, which were the ting from the technique itself, graffiti formed a kind of focus of the talk, showed that furthermore the privilege collected memory which was public, but not official; a and sovereignty of interpretation is called into the game; testimony of what moved people of various classes and of that Ovid even confronts the founding myth of the gens what they wanted to share with others. Above all, howe- Iulia with architectural reality. ver, it can be archaeologically proven, to what extent graf- Hauke Ziemssen’s (Berlin, FU) talk Prinzipat und städti- fiti and caricatures represented an inspiration for inter- scher Raum. Zur Entwicklung des römischen Stadtzentrums action and thus to what extent they were of a “cumulative zwischen dem 1. und 4. Jh. n. Chr. was concerned with nature”: on the one hand because of later additions and Imperial Rome’s urbanistic development in the area bet- on the other hand because of the cumulated present for- ween the Palatine, the Forum Romanum and the Flavian med by actuality and spontaneity. Amphitheatre. Under Nero’s reign after the great fire of Referring to the construction of the Arcus Novus and the the Domus Aurea in 64 AD, new road links and building Arch of Constantine, Franz Alto Bauer (Munich, LMU) patterns came into existence, which in the long term coi- developed the thesis of a disturbed communication bet- ned the visual and performative perception of the impe- ween Roman senatorial aristocracy and the emperors of rial rule. Applying a diachronic approach he emphasised the 3rd and early 4th century (Gestörte Kommunikation the entanglement between urbanistic and social structu- – Kaiser und römischer Senat in tetrarchischer und kons- res and was thus able to show that the Neronian buil- tantinischer Zeit). Both arches consist of spolia partly ding policy’s break from the past so often emphasised by reworked according to contemporary aesthetics, as well scholarly research did not mean a fundamental cut: The as reliefs created especially for the arches. According to complex of the Domus Aurea, for example, followed the Bauer the purposeful insertion of older imperial reliefs Iulo-Claudian tendency to extend the imperial dwelling with their picture language, which had been partly up- to the Palatine and is thus to be assessed as a sign of con- dated by reworking the image of the emperor, worked tinuity. The staging of the entrance to the Palatine and as a means to present the emperor as successor of those its dominance over the surrounding spaces of commu- from the good old days. The contemporary reliefs on the nication of emperor and plebs urbana was interpreted Arch of Constantine picture the emperor as new ruler as an expression of the principate’s political order as an of Rome. Bauer argued that the picture programme of “Akzeptanzsystem” (E. Flaig). both arches was purposefully constructed to bring the In his talk Die Gegenwart des abwesenden Kaisers – Öf- rulers of late antiquity to dwell more often in Rome. fentliche und private Kommunikationsräume von Prinzipat This enterprise, however, was doomed to failure, since zu Spätantike John Weisweiler (Rome, Istituto Svizzero) it fundamentally contradicted the concept of late antique examined, with the help of an analysis of the installati- emperors, which was founded on continuous renewal on sites of statues, how the rulers’ absence in late an- rather than dynastic references. tiquity changed the importance of the city as a space of Ulrike Egelhaaf-Gaiser’s (Göttingen) contribution Neue communication. While Rome’s public spaces during the Festlieder für Anna Perenna. Suburbane Haine als literari- early principate were almost exclusively reserved for the sche Kommunikationsräume in Ovid’s ‘Fasti’ concentrated monumental self-representation of the imperial family, on a literary concept of space: She took as her basis the in late antiquity leading senatorial families began to be thesis that the narrative unit concerned with Anna Pe- again represented more in the most important spaces of renna in Ovid’s calendarial poem was programmatically communication in the city. This development can be in- designed as a spaciotemporal focal point of the third terpreted as a sign of a more relaxed relationship between book.

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