The City Boundary in Late Antique Rome Volume 1 of 1 Submitted By
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1 The City Boundary in Late Antique Rome Volume 1 of 1 Submitted by Maria Anne Kneafsey to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Classics in December 2017. This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: ………………………………………………………………… 2 Abstract This thesis examines the changing meaning and conceptualisation of the city boundary of Rome, from the late republic and imperial periods into late antiquity. It is my aim in this study to present a range of archaeological and historical material from three areas of interest: the historical development of the city boundary, from the pomerium to the Aurelian wall, change and continuity in the ritual activities associated with the border, and the reasons for the shift in burial topography in the fifth century AD. I propose that each of these three subject areas will demonstrate the wide range of restrictions and associations made with the city boundary of Rome, and will note in particular instances of continuity into late antiquity. It is demonstrated that there is a great degree of continuity in the behaviours of the inhabitants of Rome with regard to the conceptualisation of their city boundary. The wider proposal made during the course of this study, is that the fifth century was significant in the development of Rome – archaeologically, historically, and conceptually – but not for the reasons that are traditionally given. I have pushed back against the idea that this era was defined by its turbulence, and have constructed an argument that highlights the vast inheritance of the city of Rome that is so often ignored in discussions of the fifth century. 3 Table of contents Abstract .................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... 5 Bibliographical abbreviations .................................................................................. 12 Chapter one: introduction ........................................................................................ 13 1.1 Research questions and aims ................................................................ 14 1.2 Research context .................................................................................... 15 1.3 Terminology ............................................................................................ 27 1.4 Methodology and approach .................................................................... 30 1.5 Structure and outline .............................................................................. 32 Chapter two: Rome’s city boundary in context ...................................................... 37 2.1 Research context (the pomerium) .......................................................... 38 2.2 What was the Roman pomerium? .......................................................... 39 2.2.1 Origins ..................................................................................................... 42 2.2.2 Etymology ................................................................................................ 47 2.2.3 The line of the pomerium ........................................................................ 48 2.2.4 The pomerium and the city ..................................................................... 64 2.3.1 Research context (the Aurelian Wall) .................................................... 69 2.3.2 The Aurelian Wall .................................................................................... 70 2.3.3 The line of the wall .................................................................................. 76 2.4 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 80 Chapter three: religion at the edge of the city ........................................................ 83 3.1 Beating the bounds ................................................................................. 83 3.2 Rituals that celebrated the city boundary ............................................. 86 3.3 The ritual boundary as a dividing line ................................................... 94 3.4 Military rituals at the boundary of Rome ............................................. 105 3.5 Christian ritual and the sacred city ...................................................... 120 3.6 Concluding remarks .............................................................................. 127 Chapter four: burial topography ............................................................................ 129 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................... 129 4.1.1 The pomerium as a funerary boundary ............................................... 129 4 4.1.2 Regulating the city: how and why ........................................................ 134 4.1.3 Confusion in the sources ..................................................................... 143 4.1.4 Continuity of practice ........................................................................... 144 4.1.5 Summary: the pomerium as a funerary boundary .............................. 146 4.2 Intramural burial between the fifth and seventh centuries AD........... 147 4.2.1 The evidence ......................................................................................... 151 4.2.2 Problems with the evidence ................................................................. 154 4.2.3 Interpretations, 1952-2011 .................................................................... 158 4.2.4 Summary of interpretations, 1952-2011 ............................................... 195 4.3 Re-evaluating the field: a new approach ............................................. 197 4.4 The prevention of urban burial prior to late antiquity ......................... 199 4.4.1 Death pollution and the divide between the living and the dead ....... 200 4.4.2 Opportunity ........................................................................................... 209 4.4.3 Legality .................................................................................................. 217 4.4.4 Summary ................................................................................................ 220 4.4.5 Concluding remarks - why does this matter? ..................................... 224 Chapter five: conclusions ...................................................................................... 229 Bibliography ............................................................................................................ 233 Appendix A: Boundary and pomerium cippi catalogue ....................................... 264 Appendix B: Intramural burial catalogue .............................................................. 279 Figures..................................................................................................................... 280 5 Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to express thanks to my supervisor Barbara Borg, whose guidance, patience, and insight has shaped my work and my confidence more than she will ever know. I am lucky to have had such a supportive supervisor, and learning from her has been one of the great joys of my PhD. I am also enormously grateful to my second supervisor, Elena Isayev, for her continued enthusiasm and support for my research. My time at the University of St Andrews laid the foundations for this project, and I would like to express my gratitude particularly to Emma-Jayne Graham for her friendship, and for the time she spent talking to me about bodies, burials, and all things morbid. My thanks also to Jon Coulston: his boundless love of the Eternal City inspired my own. The five years I spent at the University of Exeter have been some of the most enjoyable, challenging, and memorable of my life, and though I haven’t the space to thank everyone in the Classics & Ancient History department individually, I am so grateful to the staff and students I have encountered there. In particular, a thank you to Chris Siwicki and Paul Martin: I am a better student and person for the time I have spent in their company. I am further indebted to John Bodel and Richard Flower for many discussions of the late antique world in Rome and in Exeter. I have been fortunate to visit the British School at Rome several times, before and during this project. I would like to extend my thanks to Robert Coates- Stephens for sharing his time, expertise, and books with me, and Stefania Peterlini for working her magic on the Soprintendenza so that I could visit many of the sites discussed in this thesis. It would be impossible to sum up how 6 valuable my time at the school has been, needless to say I am thankful to have experienced first-hand the intelligence and the kindness of its staff and members. Outside of academia, I am so grateful to have had the support of my friends and family. To Róisín and Sharon Ryan, Chris Bennett, Janet Gwynn, Eileen and Kieran Kneafsey, Jane and Charlie James, John Ilee, Stephanie Jones, and Steven Egan - thank you for keeping me