The Aurelian Wall and the Refashioning of Imperial Rome, AD 271–855This book explores the relationship between the city of Rome and the Aurelian Wall during the six centuries following its construction in the 270s AD, a period when the city changed and contracted almost beyond recognition, as it evolved from imperial capital into the spiritual center of Western Christendom. The Wall became the single most prominent feature in the urban landscape, a dominating presence which came bodily to incarnate the political, legal, administrative, and religious boundaries of urbs Roma, even as it reshaped both the physical contours of the city as a whole and the mental geographies of 'Rome' that prevailed at home and throughout the known world. With the passage of time, the circuit took on a life of its own as the embodiment of Rome's past greatness, a cultural and architectural legacy that dwarfed the quotidian realities of the post-imperial city as much as it shaped them. |
Contents
1 | |
12 | |
the logistical dynamics of a nearly interminable project | 71 |
the Aurelian Wall and the late Roman state | 110 |
the rise of a topographical institution | 160 |
5 Sacred geography interrupted | 209 |
6 The Wall and the Republic of St Peter | 241 |
Conclusion | 279 |
Numerical data | 283 |
The fourth century revisited the problem of Maxentius | 285 |
The postHonorian additions to the Porta Appia and other fifth and sixthcentury construction | 292 |
The Aurelian Wall and the refashioning of the western tip of the Campus Martius | 304 |
The Pons Agrippae and the Pons Aureli a tale of two bridges | 310 |
315 | |
353 | |
Common terms and phrases
addition appear aqueducts arch archaeological Aurelian Wall beginning Belisarius bricks brickwork bridge building built BullCom Byzantine Campus Martius Celestial Jerusalem Chapter Christian Church circuit Coarelli Coates-Stephens Constantinople construction course Cozza curtains defensive early Middle Ages early-medieval eighth century Einsiedeln Itineraries emperor empire enceinte evidence extramural fifth century Figure fortifications fourth century further gates Gothic Gothic Wars Gregory Hadrian heightening Honorian Honorius ibid imperial inscription intramural Lanciani late antiquity later located LP II Maggiore Maxentius Meneghini moenia monumental mortar muros opus vittatum Pani Ermini papal period Peter’s phase Photo Pinciana pomerium Pons Aelius Pons Agrippae Pons Neronianus popes Porta Appia Porta Asinaria Porta Flaminia praefectus praefectus urbi Procopius Quilici reign remains repairs restoration Richmond river wall road Roma Roman Rome Rome’s Santangeli Valenzani sections siege sixth structures third century Tiber Tiburtina topographical towers Trastevere tufa urban urbe urbem urbis Wall’s