Roman Republican Spaces Power and Monumentality

Home , Porcia (wife of Brutus), Rome, Rostra, Temple of Portunus, Temple of Venus Genetrix, Theatre of Pompey

ROMAN REPUBLICAN SPACES POWER AND MONUMENTALITY

• THE MID REPUBLIC PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE PORTRAITURE COINAGE

• THE ERA OF POMPEY AND CAESAR PORTRAITURE COINAGE ARCHITECTURE

• HOW VISUAL CULTURE HAD CHANGED BY 44BCE TERMINOLOGY • AES GRAVE – MID REPUBLICAN COINAGE • ASPECT – THE APPEARANCE OF A BUILDING • BASILICA/AE – JUDICIAL HALL • BUILT ENVIRONMENT – THE CONSTRUCTED ELEMENTS OF A SPACE, ESPECIALLY A CITY, EG. BUILDINGS • COMITIUM/A – MEETING AREA IN THE FORUM • CULT CENTRE – PHYSICAL FOCUS OF WORSHIP • CURIA/AE – SENATE MEETING HOUSE • FORUM/A – PUBLIC SPACE IN ROME, ORIGINALLY A MARKETPLACE, HOSTING SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS • FORUM BOARIUM – FORUM, ORIGINALLY THE CATTLE MARKET, IN SOUTH-WEST OF ROME • FORUM ROMANUM – ROME’S MAIN FORUM, SITUATED BETWEEN THE CAPITOLINE AND PALATINE HILLS • LEGEND – WRITING ON A COIN • MOS/MORES MAIORUM - THE WAY/S OF THE ANCESTORS • OBVERSE – THE FRONT, OR ‘HEADS’, OF A COIN • PERIPTERAL – HAVING COLUMNS ALL AROUND THE EXTERIOR • PHYSIOGNOMY – THEORY THAT A PERSON’S CHARACTER CAN BE JUDGED BY THEIR APPEARANCE • PODIUM – THE HIGH BASE OF A BUILDING • REVERSE – THE BACK, OR ‘TAILS’, OF A COIN • ROSTRA – SPEAKERS’ PLATFORM IN THE FORUM ROMANUM • SEMI-PERIPTERAL – HAVING COLUMNS AROUND SOME OF THE EXTERIOR • TYPOLOGY – TYPE OF BUILDING • VERISM – EXTREME REALISM • VISUAL CULTURE – A SOCIETY’S VISUAL MEDIA, EG. ARCHITECTURE AND ART ROME – MID 2ND CENTURY BCE

Ancient World Mapping Centre, hp://awmc.unc.edu/wordpress/ (from this point referred to as AWMC); Google Maps, maps.google.com PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE

• UTILITY • UTILITY WALLS; AQUEDUCTS

• TRADITION • RELIGION TEMPLES

• RESPECT • POLITICS GOVERNMENT; HONORIFIC

• PRIDE • LEISURE BATHS THEATRES

• MEMORY • MEMORY FUNERARY TEMPLE OF JUPITER OPTIMUS MAXIMUS CAPITOLINUS (LATE 6TH BCE)

Clockwise L-R: Capitoline Temple, Musei Capitolinoi © Monique Webber 2013; plan and reconstrucon Stamper, John W. The Architecture of Roman Temples. The Republic to the Middle Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, 28 and 25; locaon AWMC

CAPITOLINE TEMPLE & TEMPLE OF MATER MATUTA (LATE 6TH BCE)

Clockwise L-R: image as before; Temple of Mater Matuta, Musei Capitolini © Monique Webber 2013 TRADITION & INNOVATION

Clockwise L-R: image as before; unidenﬁed 2nd century BCE temple, Musei Capitolini © Monique Webber 2013; secon of Parthenon Marbles, mid 5th century BCE, Brish Museum athensguide.org TRADITION & INNOVATION

LOCAL TERRACOTTA VS. GREEK MARBLE

PODIUM

STEPS

Image as before; Temple of Portunus, mid 2nd century BCE, Rome © Monique Webber 2013 POLITICAL SPACES & TYPOLOGIES

Curia

Rostra

• BASILICA/AE – JUDICIAL HALL/S • SECOND CENTURY BCE – BASILICAE PORCIA, SEMPRONIA, AND AEMILIA • PUBLIC ARCHITECTURAL PATRONAGE – CARE FOR ROME, OWN GLORY

AWMC; Google Maps, maps.google.com; both with addions © Monique Webber 2013; Arch of Sepmius Severus, 203CE, Forum Romanum © Monique Webber 2013

PORTRAITURE – HISTORY & REALISM

Clockwise L-R: Alexander the Great, 2nd-1st century BCE, Brish Museum brishmuseum.org; So-Called Relief of Domius Ahenobarbus, late 2nd century BCE, Musée du Louvre © Monique Webber 2013; Portrait of a Man, c300BCE, Musée du Louvre louvre.fr COINAGE – TERMINOLOGY OBVERSE (FRONT/HEADS) REVERSE (BACK/TAILS)

PORTRAIT

IMAGE

LEGEND

• COINS ARE ISSUED (MINTED AND SENT OUT FOR USE) BY AN ISSUING AUTHORITY • IN THE REPUBLIC, THIS WAS THE MONEYERS (SPECIALLY APPOINTED MAGISTRATES) • MONEYERS CHOOSE/SUPERVISE THE IMAGES THAT APPEAR ON COINS

Denarius (silver coin), 47-46BCE brishmuseum.org/research/publicaons/online_research_coins/ roman_republican_coinage.aspx (from this point referred to as Republican Coins)

PRIDE & PRESTIGE

MID 3RD CENTURY BCE – AES GRAVE BEARING ROMAN GODS

EARLY 1ST CENTURY BCE – MONEYERS MAKE PERSONAL REFERENCES

Aes grave, mid 3rd century BCE, Musei Capitolini © Monique Webber 2013; denarius, 82BCE Republican Coins MID-REPUBLICAN VISUAL CULTURE

• FULFILLED A SOCIAL PURPOSE OF CONVEYING IDEAS

• THE VIEWER WAS REMINDED OF THE PAST HOWEVER NEW IDEAS WERE MEDIATED WITH TRADITIONALISM

• PATRONAGE OF THE ARTS WAS PRESTIGIOUS HOWEVER SELF PROMOTION WAS ALWAYS LIMITED IN SOME WAY BY SOCIAL CONVENTIONS

• BALANCING OF TRADITION AND INNOVATION, INDIVIDUALISM AND COMMUNITY

ROME – MID 1ST CENTURY BCE

AWMC; other image credits as before REALISM BECOMES VERISM

Male Portraits, late 1st century BCE/early 1st century CE, Musei Vacani; © Monique Webber 2013

CAESAR, POMPEY, AND HISTORY

BRUTUS CAESAR POMPEY ALEXANDER THE (REPUBLICAN) GREAT

Head of a Man, So-Called Brutus, early 3rd century BCE, Musei Capitolini ancientrome.ru/art/artwoken/ img.htm?id=337; Portrait of Julius Caesar, c40BCE, Musei Torlonia ancientrome.ru/art/artwoken/img.htm? id=753; Pompey the Great, 30-50CE (posthumous), New Carlsberg Glyptotek utexas.edu; image as before COINAGE AND STATUS

DENARIUS (SILVER COIN), 82BCE

DENARIUS OF POMPEY (POSTHUMOUSLY), 46-45BCE

DENARIUS OF CAESAR, 44BCE Image as before; denarius, 46-45BCE Roman Republican Coins; denarius, 44BCE Republican Coins WHY ARCHITECTURE?

• BY THE LATE REPUBLIC, ARCHITECTURE HAD BECOME OPENLY ABOUT SELF-PROMOTION – CICERO ON LEPIDUS AND THE BASILICA AEMILIA

• ARCHITECTURE HAS AN ENDURING EFFECT ON THE VIEWER – HOW THEY PERCEIVE AND MOVE THROUGH A SPACE

• IT HAS A WIDE AUDIENCE

• ROME’S PUBLIC WERE A CAPTIVE AUDIENCE

• POMPEY AND CAESAR MADE THE MOST OF THIS – THEATRE OF POMPEY (POMPEY); BASILICA JULIA AND FORUM CAESARIS (CAESAR)

THEATRE OF POMPEY (55BCE)

A TEMPLE “UNDER WHICH WE HAVE BUILT SEATS FOR VIEWING THE SHOWS”

Marn Blazeby, View of the Theatre and Temple, 1996-2013 pompey.cch.kcl.ac.uk/; AWMC with addions © Monique Webber 2013 FORUM CAESARIS (BEGUN 54CE)

VENUS TYPICAL FORUM – PUBLIC GENETRIX SPACE; SHOPS; TEMPLE

SHOPS TEMPLE OF VENUS GENETRIX TO THE MOTHER OF ROME AND ALSO OF THE JULIANS

NO-ONE HAD EVER NAMED A VENUS FORUM AFTER THEMSELVES GENETRIX

SHOPS

Forum Caesaris, modern view and reconstrucon, Colea, Giuliana. Rome Reconstructed. Rome: Archeolibri, 2007. FORUM CAESARIS (BEGUN 54CE) FORUM CAESARIS

CAPITOLINE

FORUM SPUR ROMANUM

ASSESSING THE FORUM CAESARIS

• PRIVATE LAND NOW PUBLIC; NEW SPACE TO SHOP, MEET, WORSHIP, AND ESCAPE OVERCROWDED HOUSES – GRATEFUL POPULACE

• ARCHITECTURAL PATRONAGE, AND SELF-PROMOTION, NOT EXTRAORDINARY – BUT THE FORUM CAESARIS ACHIEVED THIS ON AN UNPRECEDENTED SCALE

• NOT OPENLY CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO – BUT PUSHING THE BOUNDS OF TRADITIONALISM

• FORUM CAESARIS WAS AN ULTIMATE STATEMENT OF CAESAR’S SUPREMACY