The consequences of a monumental forum: blocked streets

At the opposite end of the forum, waste water on Via delle Scuole and the overflow from the fountain at its northern end flowed into a collection point beneath the southern colonnade. These waters then j oined with the runoff from the limestone pavement of the forum (NSc 1900, 587-599; Maiuri 1973, 63-70). Like the fountain at the northwest corner, the placement and overflow of Via delle Scuole’s northern fountain were carefully orchestrated to support the overall design of the forum. More than merely supplying water to this area, this fountain served the forum’s ornamental goal of excluding vehicles, complementing the blockages on all other streets that met the forum and transforming it into a purely pedestrian zone.

Several of these other blockages, however, were far more dramatic, barring all access and sealing off the forum from the neighborhoods that once connected directly to it. The linking of fapades in the post-earthquake period had particularly strong effects on the east side, where monumental buildings and their new faqades cut off the insulae of region VII, casting them into the shadow of the forum. This penumbral status has supported a number of ideas about the isolation and dubious moral character of this area as a neglected region that “fears the aedile” (Wallace-Hadrill 1995, 54; DeFelice 2007, 479-482). Yet, the separation from the forum was done with measured interest in its effects on the urban environment in the immediate area as well as the city as a whole.

Vicolo del Balcone pensile, south ofthe Macellum, gave access to the forum until the construction of the Imperial Cult Building (ICB) in the period after the AD 62 earthquake(s) (Dobbins 1994, 686). At this time the street became a dead-end with the pavement terminating in a ramp that led into the area behind the Imperial Cult Building (Fig. 10.3). Still, this blockage of Vicolo del Balcone pensile did not impede access to the wide southern door of the Macellum, which now became even more important as it functioned as a proxy entrance to the forum for pedestrians. Similarly, the material supply of bulk goods by wheeled transport was still possible due

Fig. 10.3 — Ramp and drain opening on Vicolo del Balcone pensile (Photo: Kevin Cole).

To the remaining pavement and ramp that allowed access to the open area between the Macellum and Imperial Cult Building where carts could park, load and unload, and even turn around.

In the planning for the effects of the new Imperial Cult Building and reconstruction of the Macellum, Vicolo del Balcone pensile’s role in the drainage for this area was expanded. Inside the Macellum, shops were rebuilt together with the partially preserved southern wall (Dobbins 1994, 674—676; 681—682: figs. 47—48). Individual drains for these shops were constructed in the south wall (Fig. 10.4), just above the foundation level, pouring out into the awkward space formed by the Imperial Cult Building’s apse and alcoves. I hypothesize that these drains emptied into a channel running beneath the previous northern curb of Vicolo del Balcone pensile, a channel that can still be observed east of the Macellum’s south door. This western section of this channel, though no longer visible, must have remained in use and redirected its flow onto Vicolo del Balcone pensile as suggested by the opening in the center of the ramp. Support for this chronology and redirection comes from five similar drains in the eastern section of the south wall, now filled in, which would formerly have poured into this channel (Cole 2009, 189—190).

That the eastern portion of this channel was no longer in service in AD 79 is shown by not only by the blocked drains just mentioned, but also by the fact that the drainage for the open area of the Macellum was diverted beyond it onto Vicolo del Balcone pensile. Running from the center tholos structure towards the southeast of the building and receiving runoff from the rectangular gutter edging the building’s open, central area (Maiuri 1973, fig. 37), the water from this drain was kept out of the channel by a lava stone mortared between it and the flanking curbstones made of tuff (Fig. 10.5). The shift in building materials here is instructive because and indicates the change in drainage schemes. Thus, the constant flow of water

Fig. 10.4 — Drains from the Macellum (Photo: Kevin Cole).

Fig. 10.5 — Lava curbstone blocking drain on Vicolo del Balcone pensile (Photo: Kevin Cole).

Fig. 10.6 — View inside Macellum Drain (Photo: Kevin Cole).

From the tholos drain would have eroded a sarno limestone or tuff curbstone, so a harder stone was placed below the drain to divert the water onto the surface of the street. It is interesting to note that a fresh water supply pipe, heading to the tholos, ran inside the Macellum’s large drain (Fig. 10.6), as was a common technique in other near-contemporary constructions such as the Flavian Amphitheater in Rome (Taylor 2003, 82; Cole 2009, 190-191).

Thus, although Vicolo del Balcone pensile was cut off from the forum by the construction of the Imperial Cult Building, it continued to function as an important support system for and linkage to the forum from the rest of the city. First, as a point of access for traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian, this street remained in active use as demonstrated by the ramp and the rebuilt southern doorway into the Macellum. Moreover, the provision for the drainage of these new structures incorporated the preexisting surface of the Vicolo del Balcone pensile, charging it with the duty to carry nearly all runoff from the northeast quarter of the forum.

Vicolo dei Scheletri, the next street to the south, functioned in a similar manner. The construction of the Eumachia building (before AD 10 according to Dobbins 1994, 647; 681; Ling 2007, 124: AD 22-24) intruded upon the southern side of this street, removing the curbstones and founding the northern perimeter wall in their place. While the Eumachia building occupied an entire insula, the smaller Sanctuary of Augustus (SA) took less than one-sixth the space. The present construction of Sanctuary of Augustus dates to after AD 62, while the earlier version of this building, an Augustan construction, would have intruded into Vicolo degli Scheletri narrowing it to the point of preventing vehicles from reaching the forum (Ling 2007, 122-123; Dobbins 1992, 251-263; 1994, 663; Maiuri 1942, 43-48; Wallat 1997, 275 suggests a Tiberian date for the earlier structure). In this final form, the rebuilt Sanctuary of Augustus joined with a contemporary wedge-shaped facade fronting the Eumachia building and another facade wedge linking the Imperial Cult Building to the Macellum in the post-earthquake period to seal off the entire east side of the forum (Dobbins 1994, 639; Cole 2009, 160-164).

The impact of this closure on Vicolo degli

Scheletri was even greater than on Vicolo del Balcone pensile. Traffic could no longer traverse as far west and there was even less to attract it as the Eumachia building had no entrance on its northern side and its size (the largest building on the forum) meant that no other properties were located on the south side of Vicolo degli Scheletri. On the north side of the street only one property had its primary entrance here (VII 9, 63). The others either faced Via di Eumachia (VII 9, 61) or only opened a rear door to the street (VII 9, 65). Yet Vicolo dei Scheletri’s role in the discharge of runoff from these buildings was equally important, even reminiscent of the Vicolo del Balcone pensile and the drains of Macellum: inside the Sanctuary of Augustus a rectangular gutter collected and directed rain water towards the southeast and onto the street through an opening in the southern perimeter wall (Maiuri 1942, 46: fig. 4).

At the southern end of the forum, examination of the rebuilt monumental buildings and the preexisting streets reveals a similar architectural history, but a more extreme form of suppression. Other than Via delle Scuole, which dead-ends at the forum, all other streets in the south and west became completely vestigial appendages in the transport network in the city’s final decades. Although Vicolo di Championnet and the stretch of pavement between South Building West and South Building Center, here called the Vicolo del Foro, are clearly important for the movement of pedestrians in the western portion of Region VIII, carts were completely barred from both.

Vicolo del Foro is now little more than a short section of paving stones connecting an elevated (relative to the street) pedestrian alley to the colonnade of the forum. As on Vicolo degli Scheletri, the space of one sidewalk and its curb was overtaken by the construction of a monumental building, in this case by the South Building Center, while the western sidewalk was preserved and remained functional. Since no wheeled vehicles could use this street, it seems odd, prima facie, that the paving has survived here. Indeed, why should the pedestrian alley not extend itself all the way to the forum, giving a uniform surface and, more importantly, a uniform elevation? The answer, as we have seen from the east side of the forum, is that these streets were incorporated into the new, overarching plan for the reinvigoration of the forum and their impermeable (and already constructed) surfaces were used for the drainage of new constructions.

Water on Vicolo del Foro flowed into an opening at the north end of the street and into the same drainage scheme as the open area of the forum and Via delle Scuole with its fountain. At the southeastern end of the paved street a drain that once perhaps ran under the eastern sidewalk (as on Vicolo del Balcone pensile) now terminates abruptly just before the southwest corner of the South Building Central (Fig. 10.7), which cut its course. Another opening through the western perimeter wall of house VII.2.13, which is part of its post-earthquake reconstruction of the house, also emptied onto Vicolo del Foro. This drain carried the overflow for the house’s cistern which received its water from both its peristyle and the roofing system of South Building Center and South Building East (Cole 2009, 148—151). The planning for the drainage of this area, therefore, integrated both the needs of both public and private architectures, each using this short section of street paving to carry away runoff.

On Vicolo di Championnet, the Basilica takes up much of the space of the north side of the street and precludes any sidewalk space. Moreover, a large ramp descends to the west from the south door of the building to meet a stepping-stone that gave access across the street. This ramp takes up a quarter of the space of the street but would not, on its own, have prevented carts from passing here. In fact, wearing on the north face of the stepping-stone demonstrates that at one time carts did use this route. The southern curb, however, was later pushed out as far as this stepping-stone, narrowing Vicolo di Championnet beyond use for carts, but creating a wider sidewalk, upon which the house owners laid lavish new sidewalk pavements. The existence of the forum’s Popidian Colonnade meant that Vicolo di Championnet had operated as a dead end for a long time. (Onorato 1951). The extension of the sidewalk, however, almost certainly occurred in Pompeii’s last decades when Vicolo della Basilica

Fig. 10.7 — View of Vicolo delForo.

(the street between the Basilica and the Sanctuary of the Temple of Venus) was taken over by the new eastern sanctuary wall (Mau 1900; Ling 2007, 125; Carroll 2008). The construction of this eastern wall may have been in progress or only recently completed when at the time of the eruption as evidenced by the fact that the paving stones this wall displaced are still lying on the surface of the street, awaiting removal or recycling and reuse (Ohr 1991, pl. 7.3) The extreme narrowing by the new sanctuary wall was compounded by the placement of a water tower against the Basilica. Finally, a

Short wall built across the street, which completed the isolation of Vicolo di Championnet even for pedestrians (ibid, 4; pl. 6.2). At the same time, the expanded sanctuary also truncated Via Marina, preventing all vehicles from continuing eastward and creating a broad, pedestrian plaza connected to the forum on the Baslica’s north side.

Both sides of the Basilica, then, were restricted to pedestrian use; the stepping-stones across Vicolo di Championnet and the eastern portion of Via Marina demonstrate the expectation of the presence of this kind of traffic. Stepping-stones also signal the

Fig. 10.8 — Forum Latrine sewer beneath Vicolo del Granaio (Photo: Kevin Cole).

Presence of water in the street, since their purpose was to provide an elevated crossing. With a pitched roof, each street would have received fully half of all rainwater that fell on the Basilica (Ohr 1991, pls. 34—27). Moreover, there is a large opening onto Vicolo di Championnet through the east wall of the Sanctuary of the Temple of Venus that likely drained at least the eastern portion of that structure. From here water flowed south, possibly on a street now lost but shown in a plan of the forum by Dyer in 1875 (96-97). As with the Vicolo del Foro, Vicolo di Championnet survived in the form of a street during the reconstruction because it could be transformed into a broad channel to carry away

Excess water from the Basilica as well as the very sanctuary that put it out of use.

Returning to the northwest quarter of the forum, behind the Northwest Building, there is another street that was truncated by the redevelopment of the forum. This street, called Vicolo del Granaio here, has all the characteristics of the other streets surrounding the forum. On the east side, the sidewalk is overtaken, but on the west side it remains in place where one property still had a main entrance (house VII 7, 23). At its intersection with Vicolo dei Soprastanti, an unbroken line of curbstones cuts off Vicolo del Granaio, preventing vehicles from entering. Any water that collected here, therefore,

Table 10.1 — Chronology of Suppressed Streets Drainages.

Could not escape to Vicolo dei Soprastanti, not least because the ground slopes southward. Water, must have been directed instead into the sewer that runs beneath Vicolo del Granaio, which connects to the forum latrine. Inside this sewer, which interestingly uses the former curbstones as a false arch ceiling (Fig. 10.8), drain openings can be seen in the northern wall. As on Vicolo del Foro, the short section of this street is preserved to not only serve the drainage needs of the new monumental buildings of the forum, but also is intimately tied to the needs of the private properties — in this case a drain from House VII 7, 21.