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1990 Excavations in the Russell Scott Bryn Mawr College, [email protected]

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Custom Citation Scott, Russell T. "Excavations in the Roman Forum." American Journal of Archaeology 94 (1990): 304.

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For more information, please contact [email protected]. 304 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA [AJA 94

THE EARLIESTDEPICTION OF AN ARMEDACROBATIC Nash's description of 1961 is substantiallybased on the work Esther Van Deman entitled The Atrium Vestae, DANCE: THE LAMBROSOINOCHOE: Mary R. Mc- by published in 1909 and still regarded as the essential work of Pennsylvania Gettigan, University on the subject.Not surprisingly,the excavationsin progress The so-called Lambrosoinochoe (Louvre CA 2509), an by the American Academy in the area sacra of Vesta have results that make it to call into Attic vase dated ca. 750-725 B.C., bears a single decorative yielded necessary question Van Deman'swork as well as new evidence frieze consisting of 16 figures, all helmeted, most bearing providing on the of the and of the cults arms and some equipped with Dipylon shields. Previous dynamics growth organization of Vesta efforts to explain the scene all commence with the assump- in the Republicanand Imperial periods. The major of that demonstrated tion that the action takes place on a field of battle and that phases development can be thus far in the Archaic the second and the figures are divisible into two groups of opposing war- occur period, first centuries and the second riors. Some scholars(G. Ahlberg, Fighting on Land and Sea B.C., early century A.C. in GreekGeometric Art [Stockholm 1971] and K. Fittschen, Untersuchungenzum Beginn der Sagendarstellungenbei der Griechen[Berlin 1969]) have interpreted the frieze as a de- ROMAN FISHTANKSOF THE LATE REPUBLICAND EARLY piction of post-battleviolence involving the disarming,mal- EMPIRE IN ITALY: ASPECTS OF THEIR DESIGN AND treatment,and murder of the captured enemy. One author FUNCTION: James Higginbotham, University of (K. Friis-Johansen,Aias und Hektor:ein vorhomerischesHel- denlied?[Copenhagen 1961]), while retaining the notion of Michigan a battlefield has that the are setting, suggested figures par- The raising of fish was both a popular pastime and a in a interlude. He that the frieze ticipants peaceful proposed profitableenterprise in the Roman world. Roman fishtanks, illustratesthree successive events recounted Homer in by variouslycalled piscinae,vivaria, or stagna, are found scat- the Iliad with a as (7.273-335), pre-Homeric epic serving tered throughoutthe Mediterraneanin a varietyof contexts the for both the vase and the inspiration painting poem. and exhibit a high degree of architecturalvariation. The A of this frieze with a number of Geo- comparison large ancient literaryrecord contains several accounts that high- metric of and battlefieldsdemonstrates depictions fighting light the sensationaland extravagantcharacter of fishtanks that it differs from those in its significantly images compo- attached to the villas of wealthy Romans. During the first sition, in the and of the and in the poses gestures figures, centuryB.C. the possessionof a fishtankbecame an example of armor and Instead of combatants, disposition weapons. of conspicuous and carriedwith it an of the should be as a line of armed men consumption image figures interpreted elevated social status.The popularityof the fishtank a dance that includes acrobaticmovements. The private performing continued into the early Empire, dying out by the end of horizontaland not dead and "collapsing"figures represent the second century A.C. wounded warriors but dancers who execute somer- leaps, While the affluentpiscinarii enjoyed raising fish for their saults, and like those on Attic, Boeo- handsprings depicted own consumptionand amusement, the ancient treatiseson tian, and vases of the Late Geometric and on Argive period fishfarmingattest that commerciallyprofitable an Etruscan dated ca. 675-650 B.C. The frieze on pisciculture amphora was widespread. The agriculturalmanuals of Varro (first the Lambros oinochoe also recalls the particular passage century B.C.) and Columella(first century A.C.) treat pisci- from Homer's of the shield of Achilles (II. description culture as a specialized form of farming but offer slightly 18.593-605) where the dancers, men wear- including young different accountsof the functionaland technicalaspects of ing golden daggers, are led in their steps by a pairof acrobats the fishtank.An examinationof the remains who revolve around them. archaeological in Italy serves to confirm and amplify the developments suggested in these literary sources. The great seaside fish- tanks belonging to the villae maritimaeof the late Republic SESSION II D: COLLOQUIUM:ARCHAEOLOG- graduallygive way to much smaller tanks often supplied by ICAL RESEARCHAT THE AMERICANACAD- fresh water. In addition, the contexts in which fishtanksare EMY IN found tend to multiply. Urban villas and even sanctuaries become sites where a fishtank is an acceptablecomponent. The demise of the fishtank as a feature of the EXCAVATIONSIN THE ROMAN FORUM: Russell T. Scott, prominent villahas importantimplications for the change in socialstatus Bryn Mawr College among the Roman aristocracyduring the early Empire. In the TopographicalDictionary of AncientRome by Ernest Nash one reads the following under "AtriumVestae": "The residence of the Vestal Virgins, with its large court sur- TACITUS, MARK MORFORD,AND THE TRUTH: THE Do- rounded by columns and decorated with three water basins, MUS AUREA REVISITED: Larry F. Ball, American was built after the Neronian fire of 64 A.D. and restored Academy in Rome and enlarged under Domitian, Trajan, and SeptimiusSev- erus. Remains of the pre-Neronian structurewere brought The contemporaryliterary tradition concerning 's to light under the northwesternpart of the imperialAtrium Aurea is at once substantialand consistent,but also Vestae. Their orientation, parallel to the Regia and Domus problematic,as pointed out by Mark Morford in "The Dis- Publica,differed from that of the imperialbuilding." tortion of the Domus Aurea Tradition,"Eranos 1968, 159-