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© Copyright 2016 Bridget Langley Written on Running Water: Ovidian Poetics in the Roman Waterscape Bridget Alice Langley A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2016 Reading Committee: Stephen Hinds, Chair Catherine Connors Alain Gowing Kathryn Topper Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Classics University of Washington Abstract Written on Running Water: Ovidian Poetics in the Roman Waterscape Bridget Alice Langley Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Stephen Hinds Classics Written on Running Water: Ovidian Poetics in the Roman Waterscape analyzes the symbolic value of water in Ovid’s poetry and considers how this was affected by the reorganization of the Roman water supply under Augustus. Agrippa and Augustus gained enormous political capital by restructuring and coordinating the city’s hydraulic infrastructure, and they altered the Roman landscape and the cultural significance of water in ways that would profoundly influence the building programmes and self-promotion of later emperors. I show that the abundance and beauty of the city’s new waterscape also affected Ovid’s use of images such as the fountain of inspiration and the locus amoenus, and came to represent the ideal aquatic environment. Taking a broad view of Ovid’s water poetics, I examine his depictions of Roman hydraulic infrastructure, his representations of water systems outside of the city, and the transformative waters of the Metamorphoses which challenge human attempts to control nature. Throughout his oeuvre, Ovid harnesses the power of water to figure his life and his poetic activity. I show that the basis for these images can be found in the newly transformed waterscape of the city of Rome. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ iii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1. Building with Water: the Augustan Hydraulic Program ............................................. 10 1.1 Agrippa’s Plebeian Aedileship: Aqueducts, Baths, Sewers and Fountains .................. 14 1.2 20s BCE: Development of the Campus Martius and Tiber Flood Prevention .............. 22 1.3 Post-Agrippan Age: Augustan Aqueducts, River Dredging and a Naumachia ............ 42 1.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 59 Chapter 2. Water and Infrastructure in Ovid’s Urban Poetry ....................................................... 60 2.1 Holy Water: Roman Water Monuments in the Fasti .................................................... 64 2.2 urbs amoena: Roman Waters as Rhetorical Tools ........................................................ 96 2.3 Exile and the Loss of Roman Aquatics ....................................................................... 113 2.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 119 Chapter 3. Poems, Waters, Places: the Generic and the Local in Ovid’s Water Imagery .......... 121 3.1 Springs and Fountains ................................................................................................. 125 3.1.1 Sources of Life ........................................................................................................ 126 3.1.2 Sources of Poetry .................................................................................................... 138 3.2 Flowing Water: Rivers and Streams ........................................................................... 156 3.2.1 Amatory Rivers ....................................................................................................... 158 3.2.2 Rivers in the Fasti ................................................................................................... 178 i 3.2.3 Rivers of Exile ........................................................................................................ 187 3.3 Standing waters: Lakes, Ponds and Marshes .............................................................. 202 3.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 211 Chapter 4. Wrestling with Water in the Metamorphoses ............................................................ 212 4.1 The Anthropomorphic Waterscape: Ovidian Water Deities ....................................... 215 4.2 The Female Waterscape: Women Talking Water ....................................................... 240 4.3 The Perfect Waterscape: Water in the locus amoenus and the hortus ........................ 257 4.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 280 Epilogue ...................................................................................................................................... 282 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 287 ii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1. Arcade of the Aqua Marcia in the Parco degli Acquedotti, Rome. ................ 16 Figure 1.2. Distribution network of the Aqua Marcia.. .................................................... 17 Figure 1.3. The Forum Iulium (a) and approximate location of Atrium Libertatis (b). Location of the Pons Aemilius, or Ponte Rotto (c). Approximate location of the Pons Sublicius (d). Corner of the Naumachia Augusti (e). .................................................................................. 23 Figure 1.4. Plan of the Temple of Venus Genetrix in the Forum Iulium (c. 113 CE). ..... 25 Figure 1.5. The Forum Iulium and the Temple of Venus Genetrix. ................................. 25 Figure 1.6. Presumed location of the Pons Agrippae (a). “Villa Farnesina”, thought to have belonged to Agrippa and Julia (b). Saepta Iulia (c). Thermae Agrippae, originally a sweat- bath with plunge pool known as the Sudatorium Laconicum (d). Stagnum Agrippae (e). Remains of the arcade of the Aqua Virgo (f), close to its terminus. Suggested route of the Euripus, found beneath the Palazzo della Cancelleria (g). ....................................... 27 Figure 1.7. Route of the Aqua Virgo within the city (a) to its terminus near the Pantheon (b), with the possible route to the Transtiberim on the Pons Agrippae (c), and the suggested route of the Euripus found beneath the Palazzo della Cancelleria (d).................................... 30 Figure 1.8. Preserved upper portion of the arcade of the Aqua Virgo which led to the aqueduct’s terminus near the Pantheon (cf. Figure 1.6 f). .......................................................... 31 Figure 1.9. Preserved upper portion of the arcade of the Aqua Virgo which led to the aqueduct’s terminus near the Pantheon (cf. Figure 1.6 f). .......................................................... 31 Figure 1.10. The Thermae Agrippae on the Forma Urbis Romae. ................................... 34 Figure 1.11. Section of the large, domed, circular room from the Thermae Agrippae. .... 34 Figure 1.12. Topographic map of Rome showing in grey a flood at 15 masl. ................. 40 Figure 1.13. Drawing by J. H. W. Tischbein of the Pantheon during the flood of 1686. 40 Figure 1.14. Topographic map of Rome showing in grey a flood at 20 masl. ................. 41 Figure 1.15. Forum Romanum seen through the Arch of Septimius Severus during the flood of 1902. .......................................................................................................................... 41 Figure 1.16. Major bath complexes plotted against a 20 masl flood (in grey). ................ 42 iii Figure 1.17. Plan of the Forum Romanum showing the Lacus Curtius (a) in the centre of the forum square. The Lacus Iuturnae (b) is tucked away between the Temple of Castor (c), Parthian Arch of Augustus (d), and Temple of Vesta (e). ....................................................... 44 Figure 1.18. The three layers of pavement within the Lacus Curtius. .............................. 45 Figure 1.19. Plaster cast of the relief (preserved in the Capitoline Museum) associated with the Lacus Curtius. ........................................................................................................... 46 Figure 1.20. The Pons Aemelius (“Ponte Rotto”)............................................................. 48 Figure 1.21. Detail of (Augustan?) flood protection on the Pons Aemelius. .................... 48 Figure 1.22. The remaining arch of the Pons Aemilius submerged during an unidentified flood. ................................................................................................................................... 48 Figure 1.23. Porta Tiburtina, the monumental aqueduct crossing of the Marcia-Tepula-Julia. ................................................................................................................................... 50 Figure 1.24. Route of the Aqua Alsietina into the city (a). Naumachia Augusti (b). ....... 52 Figure 1.25. Proposed positions of the Aqua Alsietina (a) and the Naumachia Augusti (b) in relation to the fragments of the Severan marble plan. .............................................. 54 Figure 1.26. Marble Dioscouri statues, and marble