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Ancient Town-planning Ancient Town-Planning. By F. Havereld. 8vo. Clarendon Press, 1913. 6s. net.
J. S. Reid
The Classical Review / Volume 28 / Issue 07 / November 1914, pp 244 - 246 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X00007952, Published online: 27 October 2009
Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X00007952
How to cite this article: J. S. Reid (1914). The Classical Review, 28, pp 244-246 doi:10.1017/S0009840X00007952
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ANCIENT TOWN-PLANNING. Ancient Town-Planning. By F. Haver- out that Varro, who supposed that the field. 8vo. Clarendon Press, 1913. Romans learned from Etruria the ritual 6s. net. proper to be followed on the foundation of a new town, is not known to have PROFESSOR HAVERFIELD'S work ap- asserted that the internal construction pears at an opportune time, when town of Roman towns reflected Etruscan plans are being much discussed in models. Only the method of defining other countries as well as our own, but the town walls, and the ' centuriatio' it will not have a merely passing and • limitatio' of the surrounding terri- interest. It deals admirably with a sub- tory, were referred by Varro to an ject which has not been treated before Etruscan origin. Had he held the view in a connected manner, and it must commonly attributed to him, the history long remain an indispensable aid for of Etruscan towns would have justified students of the ancient world. The in- its rejection. The notion that regular clusion of very many plans and illustra- town - planning came to the Romans tions of ancient town sites is in itself a from Greece via Etruria, which Nissen great boon. The material has been and many other scholars have main- gathered from widely scattered sources, tained, has no solid foundation. I feel and has in great part been hitherto disinclined, on the evidence, to admit difficult of access, excepting within even what Professor Haverfield allows, the walls of great libraries. Professor that knowledge of the structure of Haverfield's comments and criticisms Greek towns induced the Romans to take cognisance to the fullest extent of render their own plans more regular. the literature pertaining to the sub- The development may well have been ject, and are informing and judicious, indigenous. whether he is testing the opinions of Several passages in the volume raise others or advancing his own. Some the question to what extent cities, par- views which he puts forward about the ticularly in Italy, were reconstructed or growth of Pompeii are particularly reorientated on the reception of new interesting. colonists, in the later period of the The problems which the theme pre- Republic, or the earliest age of the sents are often of great complexity. Empire. My impression is that this The book recognises the readiness with was of rare occurrence. The settlers, which the rectangular arrangement of veterans for the most part, were sent to streets springs up independently in cultivate the land, and their dwellings different lands and in different ages. would naturally be outside the walls, at The modern French towns in North all events in the main. A passage of Africa often resemble in this respect Granius Licinianus describes how the those in the same region of Roman age. old burgesses of Faesulae assailed the The plan of New York bears no small ' castella' of the new Sullan settlers. similarity to some of those in this book. There would necessarily, however, be a Old Barcelona is of irregular shape; re-measurement of the territory, and a the great new quarter is laid out in the delimitation of that portion which was fashion of New York or Priene. The left to the old inhabitants. This is latest light, however, on the Continent, attested in the case of several towns, witnesses to somewhat of a revulsion for instance Arretium, where there from straight lines. In new boulevards were three classes of burgesses, the constructed in several places, Strass- ' Arretiniveteres,' ' Fidentiores' (Sulla's burg, for instance, curved lines are colonists), and 'Julienses' (planted being deliberately adopted as being there by Caesar or Octavian). When more beautiful. Professor Haverfield Caesar divided up the lands of Capua is properly cautious in dealing with there was a new survey and measure- current views about the passage from ment, but we hear nothing of any por- land to land of ideas concerning the tion of the city having been assigned to planning of towns. He rightly points the colonists, or of any remodelling of
Jk THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 245 the city as a consequence of the settle- of Diodorus (XX. 102) about the re- ment. The exploration of Pompeii has building of Sicyon by Demetrius, though not made it probable that the town rather carelessly worded, does imply itself was ' repeopled' (p. 63) by Sulla, that the city still retained the form though Nissen supposed that at that then given to it. Its history in later time the western wall was thrown Roman times makes it improbable down, to allow of an extension to that it ever underwent reconstruc- receive the settlers. Until Augustus tion. The remark is true that the was firmly settled on the throne, Republican Government is not likely there would be little money available to have spent money on Sicyon; but for reconstruction. After that, the oc- Greek cities were sometimes recon- casional beautification of Italian cities structed by aid of the Roman treasury in by Emperors had little or no connectiqn that age. Gabinius, at the instigation of with the settlement of colonists. Pompey, rebuilt more than one ruined I append a few notes on various Hellenic city in Syria. P. 74. Professor points. P. 13. The passage quoted from Haverfield regards a famous line attri- Vitruvius ii. 1 might have been more buted to Ennius by Festus (or rather fully described; it supplies the strangest Verrius Flaccus), in which ' Roma tale of town-planning on record. Dino- Quadrata' is mentioned, as ' clearly of crates tendered to Alexander the Great much later date.' If the testimony of a scheme for carving Mount Athos into Verrius Flaccus is bad for this line, it the figure of a man ; his left hand was must be equally bad for many others. to hold ' civitatis amplissimae moenia'; It is true that the explanation of ' Roma his right a 'patera,' which was to re- Quadrata,' which is appended to the ceive all the water flowing down the quotation, gives a meaning to the name mountain and to pass it on to the sea. which cannot have existed in the time No wonder that Alexander the megalo- of Ennius. It is said that ' Roma maniac was delighted. P. 31. It is not Quadrata' was the designation of a unlikely that Timaeus was the authority sort of 'mundus' which was situated of Diodorus for his statement about ' ante aedem Apollinis.' I must, with Thurii. If so, it carries us beyond the Kornemann, regard this as a late Roman age. P. 31. An interesting ' Priestermarchen.' But the false inter- example of a city built, like Rhodes, pretation does not necessarily discredit with reference to water limits, is the authorship of the line. The theory Amsterdam. The form so determined that it was forged generations after has been followed through centuries of Ennius, is intrinsically most improbable. expansion. It is said, as a result of the P. 78. The current description of the recent excavations, that when Ostia arches often placed outside towns in extended to the line of the coast, the the imperial period, as ' triumphal,' direction of new streets was determined is unsuitable. Some of them were by the shore. P. 32. The passage of erected to celebrate triumphs, but Strabo (p. 654), on which the view this kind of arch became merely a (rightly questioned here) is based that conventional form in town architec- Hippodamus laid out Rhodes as well ture. An unsuccessful endeavour has as Piraeus, is most vague. Not only is been made to prove that these arches there no mention of the architect's indicated ' coloniae.' P. 82. As to name, but the authority is rumour Aquileia, Professor Haverfield states (&>? THE TEXT OF FESTUS. Sexti Pompeii Festi de Verborum Signifi- lating influence of Henry Nettleship, the catu quae supersunt cum Pauli Epitome. first scholar in this country to appreciate Thewrewkianis copiis usus edidit at their full value the Roman attempts WALLACE M. LINDSAY. Teubner, at lexicography. It is quite needless to say that Professor Lindsay has executed his task with all his well-known accuracy OF late years the great Leipsic firm has and acuteness. Taking that for granted, been issuing in a handy form certain I may be allowed to say a few words texts which were often only accessible to here about the work of Festus and its the student in a library, yet are such as importance for all things Roman; for I must lie on his own shelves if he is to notice that even in such a volume as realise their full value. I recently the Cambridge Companion to Latin noticed in these columns the first Studies, hardly anything is said of it. volume of the Corpus Agrimensorum, When we talk of ' Festus,' we mean edited by Thulin; before that we had of course, the remains of an abridg- the Carmina Latina Epigraphica of ment, made in the second century, of Buecheler, and Nonius edited in two the great work of Verrius Flaccus de volumes by Professor Lindsay. Now Verborum Significatu: the author of we have, from the same safe hand as this abridgement was a grammaticus the Nonius, the extant remains of the named Sextus Pompeius Festus, of dictionary (if such it can be called) of whom we know little or nothing. Pompeius Festus. I write these lines Verrius Flaccus, who lived under in the throes of war-time, while our Augustus and Tiberius, was tutor to hopes of the power of learning and the grandsons of the former, and may science to make war ever more and be considered the successor of Varro; more impossible are being rudely shat- he was no mere dry-as-dust, and his work tered alike by German soldiers and was far more than a dictionary, so far German professors. But these two at least as we can guess from the works of a British scholar, published by abridgment of it; his object was not a German firm, will remain as evidence only to preserve and explain words, of an age of better international con- but to rescue from oblivion the old rites, fidence. customs, and institutions, which they The German firm made a good choice. denoted. His book, if we had it Probably no scholar in Europe was complete, would be not only rich better fitted to do this kind of work in value but extremely interesting: than Professor Lindsay, and to do it that may easily be guessed by anyone with unlimited devotion to the cause of who will read straight through what true learning. He has been some remains of the compendium, as I have twenty years at work on texts of this just done, after using it as a work or kind. In 1895 he edited, after the reference for more than thirty years. premature death of Mr. J. H. Onions, He will be astonished how much of our the work left by him on the text of knowledge of Roman life and thought Nonius; then came his edition of the depends ultimately on this great work. same author for Messrs. Teubner; and But of Verrius' work it cannot be since then he has edited Isidorus for said with strict truth that any part the new Oxford texts. Like his friend survives. Even the abridgment of it Onions, he had come under the stimu- is mutilated : for the single extant MS.