Urban Planning and Physical Structures

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Urban Planning and Physical Structures 56 Bocchi Chapter 3 Shaping the City: Urban Planning and Physical Structures Francesca Bocchi Antiquity: From Felsina to Bononia The roots of the city of Bologna extend deep into Antiquity. In the present-day urban zone Etruscan villages consisting of circular huts (called Villanovan culture)1 existed by the 9th century BC. By the 7th century the villages, now connected, gave life to the city of Felsina, which became the most important urban center of the Po Valley. Residential buildings acquired well-structured and durable forms and the remains of industrial activity have been found in numerous parts of today’s city. Felsina was situated in an area geographically favorable to urban development; in the high plain between the Aposa stream to the east and the Ravone to the west, at the point where the hills began to ascend. The sanctuary of the city (today the Facoltà di Ingegneria) was built on one of the offshoots of the hills (acropoli). Other evidence of Etruscan religios- ity can be found in various areas of the city, for example, the two large memorial stones (cippi) that marked the monumental entrance to a burial site in the area that is today the Via Fondazza. The invasion of the Gauls in the 4th century BC ended Etruscan government in northern Italy, and Felsina, like the other prin- cipal cities, disappeared, shrunken and transformed into a vicus. Archaeological remains from the 4th to the 2nd century BC are few, indicating that buildings during that period were not constructed with durable materials. In the 3rd century BC the Romans appeared north of the Apennines, laying the basis for their conquest of Cisalpine Gaul with the founding of the colony of Rimini (Arminium, 268 BC). The Gauls were definitively defeated at the end of the century, eliminating any obstacle to Roman expansion in northern Italy. The construction of the Via Aemilia (187 BC, which ran west from Rimini along the high plain, reached the river Po at Piacenza, thus creating the conditions for the establishment of the Roman colony of Bononia on the site of the ancient Etruscan Felsina. 1 A label created by Count Giovanni Gozzadini after his discovery of a necropolis near Bologna in 1853. Artifacts from Villanovan culture are found in the Museo Archeologico di Bologna. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004355644_005 Shaping the City: Urban Planning and Physical Structures 57 Map 3.1 Map of Bologna: walls, quarters, streams, and canals. Design: Fernando Lugli. The urban structure of Roman Bononia determined the urbanistic history of Bologna for the following two millennia (Map 3.1). It was quadrangular in shape, with sides of 600 meters. Articulation of the cardo and decumanus (the two major intersecting streets) is still quite evident today in that section of the city which was continuously inhabited, even if now 6 meters below the sur- face. The decumanus constituted part of the Via Aemilia, whose archaeological remains of paving stones can be found now under Via Rizzoli and Via Ugo Bassi. The cardo maximus ran through the inhabited area from north to south .
Recommended publications
  • Tomasz Grabowski Jagiellonian University, Kraków*
    ELECTRUM * Vol. 21 (2014): 21–41 doi: 10.4467/20800909EL.14.001.2778 www.ejournals.eu/electrum THE CULT OF THE PTOLEMIES IN THE AEGEAN IN THE 3RD CENTURY BC Tomasz Grabowski Jagiellonian University, Kraków* Abstract: The cult of the Ptolemies spread in various ways. Apart from the Lagids, the initiative came from poleis themselves; private cult was also very important. The ruler cult, both that organ- ised directly by the Ptolemaic authorities and that established by poleis, was tangibly benefi cial for the Ptolemaic foreign policy. The dynastic cult became one of the basic instruments of political activity in the region, alongside acts of euergetism. It seems that Ptolemy II played the biggest role in introducing the ruler cult as a foreign policy measure. He was probably responsible for bringing his father’s nickname Soter to prominence. He also played the decisive role in popularising the cult of Arsinoe II, emphasising her role as protector of sailors and guarantor of the monarchy’s prosperity and linking her to cults accentuating the warrior nature of female deities. Ptolemy II also used dynastic festivals as vehicles of dynastic propaganda and ideology and a means to popu- larise the cult. The ruler cult became one of the means of communication between the subordinate cities and the Ptolemies. It also turned out to be an important platform in contacts with the poleis which were loosely or not at all subjugated by the Lagids. The establishment of divine honours for the Ptolemies by a polis facilitated closer relations and created a friendly atmosphere and a certain emotional bond.
    [Show full text]
  • Ancient Rome
    Ancient Rome William E. Dunstan ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK ................. 17856$ $$FM 09-09-10 09:17:21 PS PAGE iii Published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom Copyright ᭧ 2011 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. All maps by Bill Nelson. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. The cover image shows a marble bust of the nymph Clytie; for more information, see figure 22.17 on p. 370. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dunstan, William E. Ancient Rome / William E. Dunstan. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7425-6832-7 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-7425-6833-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-7425-6834-1 (electronic) 1. Rome—Civilization. 2. Rome—History—Empire, 30 B.C.–476 A.D. 3. Rome—Politics and government—30 B.C.–476 A.D. I. Title. DG77.D86 2010 937Ј.06—dc22 2010016225 ⅜ϱ ீThe paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/ NISO Z39.48–1992. Printed in the United States of America ................
    [Show full text]
  • The Coins from the Necropolis "Metlata" Near the Village of Rupite
    margarita ANDONOVA the coins from the necropolis "metlata" near the village of rupite... THE COINS FROM THE NECROPOLIS METLATA NEAR THE VILLAGE "OF RUPITE" (F. MULETAROVO), MUNICIPALITY OF PETRICH by Margarita ANDONOVA, Regional Museum of History– Blagoevgrad This article sets to describe and introduce known as Charon's fee was registered through the in scholarly debate the numismatic data findspots of the coins on the skeleton; specifically, generated during the 1985-1988 archaeological these coins were found near the head, the pelvis, excavations at one of the necropoleis situated in the left arm and the legs. In cremations in situ, the locality "Metlata" near the village of Rupite. coins were placed either inside the grave or in The necropolis belongs to the long-known urns made of stone or clay, as well as in bowls "urban settlement" situated on the southern placed next to them. It is noteworthy that out of slopes of Kozhuh hill, at the confluence of 167 graves, coins were registered only in 52, thus the Strumeshnitsa and Struma Rivers, and accounting for less than 50%. The absence of now identified with Heraclea Sintica. The coins in some graves can probably be attributed archaeological excavations were conducted by to the fact that "in Greek society, there was no Yulia Bozhinova from the Regional Museum of established dogma about the way in which the History, Blagoevgrad. souls of the dead travelled to the realm of Hades" The graves number 167 and are located (Зубарь 1982, 108). According to written sources, within an area of ​​750 m². Coins were found mainly Euripides, it is clear that the deceased in 52 graves, both Hellenistic and Roman, may be accompanied to the underworld not only and 10 coins originate from areas (squares) by Charon, but also by Hermes or Thanatos.
    [Show full text]
  • The Later Han Empire (25-220CE) & Its Northwestern Frontier
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2012 Dynamics of Disintegration: The Later Han Empire (25-220CE) & Its Northwestern Frontier Wai Kit Wicky Tse University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Asian History Commons, Asian Studies Commons, and the Military History Commons Recommended Citation Tse, Wai Kit Wicky, "Dynamics of Disintegration: The Later Han Empire (25-220CE) & Its Northwestern Frontier" (2012). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 589. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/589 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/589 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Dynamics of Disintegration: The Later Han Empire (25-220CE) & Its Northwestern Frontier Abstract As a frontier region of the Qin-Han (221BCE-220CE) empire, the northwest was a new territory to the Chinese realm. Until the Later Han (25-220CE) times, some portions of the northwestern region had only been part of imperial soil for one hundred years. Its coalescence into the Chinese empire was a product of long-term expansion and conquest, which arguably defined the egionr 's military nature. Furthermore, in the harsh natural environment of the region, only tough people could survive, and unsurprisingly, the region fostered vigorous warriors. Mixed culture and multi-ethnicity featured prominently in this highly militarized frontier society, which contrasted sharply with the imperial center that promoted unified cultural values and stood in the way of a greater degree of transregional integration. As this project shows, it was the northwesterners who went through a process of political peripheralization during the Later Han times played a harbinger role of the disintegration of the empire and eventually led to the breakdown of the early imperial system in Chinese history.
    [Show full text]
  • Pag 289-308 Damyanov
    TALANTA XXXVI-XXXVII (2004-2005) NOTES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF ODESSOS AND ITS VICINITY UNTIL EARLY HELLENISTIC TIMES Supplementum Ponticum 3 Margarit Damyanov This article is an attempt to trace the development of a small part of the pres - ent-day Bulgarian Black Sea coast from 6th to the 3rd century BC, i.e. from the beginning of the Greek colonisation up till Early Hellenistic times, and more precisely the changes in the latter period. This article covers the area from Odessos and its immediate vicinity to Cape Kaliakra in the northeast. Along this part of the littoral there are a few ancient sites that are related to the Greek colonisation in this area. This is first of all Odessos (present-day Varna), the earliest apoikia in the region. To the northeast are Dionysopolis (Balchik), Bizone (Kavarna) and Tirizis (Kaliakra). Each one of these sites is specific on its own. It is necessary to begin with the chronology of the Greek colonisation. The foundation of Odessos does not raise significant problems. According to Pseudo-Skymnos the city was founded by Milesians when Astyages ruled the Medes ( Ps-Skymnos 748-750). From the two alternative reigns of Astyages – 598/7–560 BC (Eusebius and Hieronymus) or 584–549 BC (Herodotus) – the latter is more likely, as in the last analysis on that matter, K. Boshnakov pro - posed a foundation date for Odessos in the time from 584 to 575 BC, when the Medes made war against the Lydian kingdom (Boshnakov 2004, 179- 181). Archaeological finds confirm a date in the second quarter of the 6th cen - tury BC (Lazarov 1998, 91; Minchev 2003, 213-214).
    [Show full text]
  • Calendar of Roman Events
    Introduction Steve Worboys and I began this calendar in 1980 or 1981 when we discovered that the exact dates of many events survive from Roman antiquity, the most famous being the ides of March murder of Caesar. Flipping through a few books on Roman history revealed a handful of dates, and we believed that to fill every day of the year would certainly be impossible. From 1981 until 1989 I kept the calendar, adding dates as I ran across them. In 1989 I typed the list into the computer and we began again to plunder books and journals for dates, this time recording sources. Since then I have worked and reworked the Calendar, revising old entries and adding many, many more. The Roman Calendar The calendar was reformed twice, once by Caesar in 46 BC and later by Augustus in 8 BC. Each of these reforms is described in A. K. Michels’ book The Calendar of the Roman Republic. In an ordinary pre-Julian year, the number of days in each month was as follows: 29 January 31 May 29 September 28 February 29 June 31 October 31 March 31 Quintilis (July) 29 November 29 April 29 Sextilis (August) 29 December. The Romans did not number the days of the months consecutively. They reckoned backwards from three fixed points: The kalends, the nones, and the ides. The kalends is the first day of the month. For months with 31 days the nones fall on the 7th and the ides the 15th. For other months the nones fall on the 5th and the ides on the 13th.
    [Show full text]
  • Interactive Timeline of Bible History
    Interactive Timeline Home China India Published in 2007 by Shawn Handran. Released in 2012 under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Uported License. Oceana-New World Greco-Roman Egypt Mesopotamia-Assyria Patriarchs Period Abraham to Joseph Interactive Timeline of Events in the Bible Exodus Period in Perspective of World History Judges Period Using Bible Chronologies Described in Halley’s Bible Handbook, The Ryrie Study Bible Kings Period and The Mystery of History with Comparative World Chronologies from Wikipedia Exile & Restoration Jesus the Messiah The Old Testament Or click here to begin Prehistory to 2100 bc China Period of Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors ca. 2850 Start of Indus Valley civilization ca. 3000 India Published in 2007 by Shawn Handran. Released in 2012 under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Uported License. Caral civilization (Peru) ca. 2700 Oceana-New World Helladic (Greece) & Minoan civilization (Crete) ca. 2800 Greco-Roman Ancient Egyptian civilization ca. 3100 Egypt Old Kingdom Rise of Mesopotamian civilization ca. 3400 Akkadian Empire Mesopotamia-Assyria Tower of Babel (uncertain) The Age of the Patriarchs – Click Here to View Genealogy Abraham Adam Noah’s Flood born in Ur 4176 Click here to view how dates shown here were calculated 2520 2166 4000 bc Genesis 1-11 2500 bc 2100 bc The Old Testament Dates on this page are approximate and difficult to verify Xia Dynasty 2070 2100 to 1700 bc China Xia Dynasty Late Harappan 1700 India Published in 2007 by Shawn
    [Show full text]
  • THE HELLENISTIC RULERS and THEIR POETS. SILENCING DANGEROUS CRITICS?* I the Beginning of the Reign of Ptolemy VII Euergetes II I
    Originalveröffentlichung in: Ancient society 29.1998-99 (1998), S. 147-174 THE HELLENISTIC RULERS AND THEIR POETS. SILENCING DANGEROUS CRITICS?* i The beginning of the reign of Ptolemy VII Euergetes II in the year 145 bc following the death of his brother Ptolemy VI Philometor was described in a very negative way by ancient authors1. According to Athenaeus Ptolemy who ruled over Egypt... received from the Alexandrians appropriately the name of Malefactor. For he murdered many of the Alexandrians; not a few he sent into exile, and filled the islands and towns with men who had grown up with his brother — philologians, philosophers, mathematicians, musicians, painters, athletic trainers, physicians, and many other men of skill in their profession2. It is true that anecdotal tradition, as we find it here, is mostly of tenden ­ tious origin, «but the course of the events suggests that the gossip-mon- * This article is the expanded version of a paper given on 2 November 1995, at the University of St Andrews, and — in a slightly changed version — on 3 November 1995, during the «Leeds Latin Seminar* on «Epigrams and Politics*. I would like to thank my colleagues there very much, especially Michael Whitby (now Warwick), for their invita­ tion, their hospitality, and stimulating discussions. Moreover, I would like to thank Jurgen Malitz (Eichstatt), Doris Meyer and Eckhard Wirbelauer (both Freiburg/Brsg.) for numer­ ous suggestions, Joachim Mathieu (Eichstatt/Atlanta) for the translation, and Roland G. Mayer (London) for his support in preparing the paper. 1 For biographical details cf. H. V olkmann , art. Ptolemaios VIII.
    [Show full text]
  • Three Centuries of Hellenistic Terracottas 277
    THREE CENTURIES OF HELLENISTICTERRACOTTAS PART III: THE LATE THIRD CENTURY B.C. (PLATES 72-78) III A: THE KOMOS CISTERN CHRONOLOGY A few meters to the west up the slope of the Areopagus from the Satyr Cistern,' a reservoir was excavated in 1947 that has been called the Komos Cistern. It was so named from the incised word KOMOYon a lamp,2which probably refers to the owner. To judge from the abundant duplicate pieces of pottery, the quantities of moulds for making Megarian bowls, and many warped and misfired fragments, the filling was probably drawn from the shop of a potter. Two coroplast's moulds (Nos. 18, 24) and four terracotta quivers (No. 31) that had never been attached to figures imply that he also made figurines. This deposit cannot be considered in any strict sense limited, but most of the pottery and all the stamped amphora handles date within the 3rd century.3 The Athenian coins are of the same date. A supplementary filling presumably occurred before the middle of the 2nd century. In it was a hoard of one bronze and seven silver coins of Histiaia.4 Most unusual also are fragments of a faience oinochoe with the relief figure of a Ptolemaic queen, apparently Arsinoe III (217-205 B.C.).5 We should expect, then, that the figurines belong to the late 3rd century, but that any one piece might come from the supplementary filling. We must therefore check all the pieces against dated comparative material. 1 Hesperia, XXXI, 1962, pp. 244-262. Professor G. R. Edwards wishes to correct the dating of the pottery as suggested on p.
    [Show full text]
  • Roman Roads of Britain
    Roman Roads of Britain A Wikipedia Compilation by Michael A. Linton PDF generated using the open source mwlib toolkit. See http://code.pediapress.com/ for more information. PDF generated at: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 02:32:02 UTC Contents Articles Roman roads in Britain 1 Ackling Dyke 9 Akeman Street 10 Cade's Road 11 Dere Street 13 Devil's Causeway 17 Ermin Street 20 Ermine Street 21 Fen Causeway 23 Fosse Way 24 Icknield Street 27 King Street (Roman road) 33 Military Way (Hadrian's Wall) 36 Peddars Way 37 Portway 39 Pye Road 40 Stane Street (Chichester) 41 Stane Street (Colchester) 46 Stanegate 48 Watling Street 51 Via Devana 56 Wade's Causeway 57 References Article Sources and Contributors 59 Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 61 Article Licenses License 63 Roman roads in Britain 1 Roman roads in Britain Roman roads, together with Roman aqueducts and the vast standing Roman army, constituted the three most impressive features of the Roman Empire. In Britain, as in their other provinces, the Romans constructed a comprehensive network of paved trunk roads (i.e. surfaced highways) during their nearly four centuries of occupation (43 - 410 AD). This article focuses on the ca. 2,000 mi (3,200 km) of Roman roads in Britain shown on the Ordnance Survey's Map of Roman Britain.[1] This contains the most accurate and up-to-date layout of certain and probable routes that is readily available to the general public. The pre-Roman Britons used mostly unpaved trackways for their communications, including very ancient ones running along elevated ridges of hills, such as the South Downs Way, now a public long-distance footpath.
    [Show full text]
  • The Roman Towns and the Geometry - Examples of Varatio Amelia Carolina Sparavigna
    The Roman Towns and the geometry - Examples of Varatio Amelia Carolina Sparavigna To cite this version: Amelia Carolina Sparavigna. The Roman Towns and the geometry - Examples of Varatio. 2019. hal-02267863 HAL Id: hal-02267863 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02267863 Preprint submitted on 19 Aug 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Zenodo. 18 August 2019 – DOI 10.5281/zenodo.3370498 The Roman Towns and the geometry - Examples of Varatio Amelia Carolina Sparavigna1 1 Dipartimento di Scienza Applicata e Tecnologia, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy Abstract This work is proposing some examples of a possible use of the geometry based on rectangular triangles, the varato, in the planning of Roman towns. It is known that the planning of them is based on the centuriaton, a grid of parallel and perpendicular streets, where the two main axes are the Decumanus and the Cardo. The rato of the cathet of the rectangular triangles gives the angle the Decumanus is forming with the east-west directon. Keywords: Centuriaton, Orientaton of Roman colonies, Varare, Varato Torino, 18 August 2019, DOI 10.5281/zenodo.3370498 The planning of the Roman colonies was realized by the ancient land surveyors by means of a method which is known as limitatio or ceoturiatio.
    [Show full text]
  • Celtic Coins and Their Archetypes
    Celtic Coins and their Archetypes The Celts dominated vast parts of Europe from the beginning of the 5th century BC. On their campaigns they clashed with the Etruscans, the Romans and the Greeks, they fought as mercenaries under Philip II and Alexander the Great. On their campaigns the Celts encountered many exotic things – coins, for instance. From the beginning of the 3rd century, the Celts started to strike their own coins Initially, their issued were copies of Greek, Roman and other money. Soon, however, the Celts started to modify the Greek and Roman designs according to their own taste and fashion. By sheer abstraction they managed to transform foreign models into typically Celtic artworks, which are often almost modern looking. 1 von 27 www.sunflower.ch Kingdom of Macedon, Alexander III the Great (336-323 BC) in the Name of Philip II, Stater, c. 324 BC, Colophon Denomination: Stater Mint Authority: King Alexander III of Macedon Mint: Colophon Year of Issue: -324 Weight (g): 8.6 Diameter (mm): 19.0 Material: Gold Owner: Sunflower Foundation Through decades of warfare, King Philip II had turned Macedon into the leading power of the Greek world. In the summer of 336 BC he was assassinated, however, and succeeded by his son Alexander, who would later be known as "the Great." This coin was minted one year before Alexander's death. It bears a beautiful image of Apollo. The coin is a so-called Philip's stater, as Alexander's father Philip had already issued them for diplomatic purposes (bribery thus) and for the pay of his mercenaries.
    [Show full text]