Much is known about areas outside the Forum Romanum during the Republican period. In the remainder of this chapter we shall visit markets, bridges, aqueducts, theaters, and the circus (see Figure 20.1).
Markets
The main market area was located near the river. Important markets include the Forum Holito-rium, a fruit and vegetable market; the Forum Boarium, the “cattle market,” a commercial area crammed with shops and warehouses; and the nearby Velabrum, a huge general market. These market areas also contained temples. Two are particularly well preserved: one round, one rectangular. The rectangular temple, the Temple of Portunus, the god of the ford in this place where in earliest times the Tiber was crossed, is particularly well preserved thanks to its transformation into a church (Figure 20.9). Built in the first century BC, it is a good example of a Tuscan-type temple with strong Greek influence. Tuscan elements include the high podium (2.3m high) on which it sits; and its frontality, marked by a broad flight of steps on the front side and a deep front porch with only engaged columns around the sides and rear of the cella. Greek influence includes the Ionic capitals and the shallow pediment. The “Portunium,” the district around this temple, was a center for flower and garland dealers.
Figure 20.9 Temple of Portunus, Rome
An additional market hall stood somewhat to the south alongside the Tiber: the Porticus Aemilia, built by two officials, the aediles M. Aemilius Lepidus and L. Aemilius Paullus, in 193 BC, with restoration in 174 BC. This long hall (487m X 60m) was one of a series of market halls that served as distribution points for goods shipped on the river. In design it consisted of parallel rows of linked barrel vaults, with arched openings in their long sides creating a large interior space. The Porticus Aemilia was built of concrete, whereas others were wooden.
Bridges
Permanent bridges eventually spanned the Tiber; two are of particular interest for us. The Aemil-ian Bridge (Pons Aemilius) was the first stone bridge, complementing wooden and pontoon bridges; its piers, erected in 179 BC, were connected by arches in 142 BC. The bridge was partially destroyed by floods in 1557 and 1598; in 1887 two of the three remaining arches were taken down, leaving only one arch still surviving. The bridge is thus known today as the Ponte Rotto, the Broken Bridge. To the north of the city lies the Milvian Bridge (Pons Mulvius); the important road leading to the north, the Via Flaminia, crossed the Tiber here. The Via Flaminia was built in 220 BC, but the stone version of the bridge arrived a century later in 109 BC. It was here in AD 312 that Constantine defeated his rival Maxentius, thereby securing his rule over the western half of the Roman Empire.
Aqueducts
Aqueducts (Latin aqua, pl. aquae) were the channels by which water was brought to towns and cities. Water flowed downwards, by gravity, from distant sources. Channels were normally underground but, if necessary, could be carried on arches. Rome would eventually be serviced by many aqueducts. The oldest was the Aqua Appia, built in 312 BC by the censors Appius Claudius Caecus (the paver of the Via Appia) and C. Plautius Venox. Most of its length (16km) from an as yet unidentified spring lay underground. The Aqua Appia served low-lying areas, notably the Forum Boarium. The longest of the city’s aqueducts was the Aqua Marcia, 91km in length, of which 80km lay underground. It carried 187,000m3 of water per day, a capacity exceeded only by the Anio Novus aqueduct (190,000m3 per day).
For a spectacular example of an aqueduct surviving from the immediately post-Republican era, we turn to southern France, to the Pont du Gard of AD 14 (Figure 20.10). This bridge was but one segment of an aqueduct that brought water from Uzes to the Roman town of Nemausus (modern Nimes). The level of the water channel slowly fell 18m over its length of 48km. Three stories and 54m high, the bridge carried the water channel, lined with hydraulic
Figure 20.10 Pont du Gard, France
Cement, at its top, and thereby ensured that the carefully maintained level of the water channel would not be interrupted by the river valley. Each story contained typical round Roman arches, the uppermost level (with the water channel on top), the smallest, marked by the smallest arches.
The Theater of Pompey and the Circus Maximus
Republican Rome also saw the building of theaters, under Greek influence, and formal structures for amusement, notably the Circus Maximus. The early Theater of Pompey (55 BC) would remain the city’s most important. The general Pompey, after winning victories in the eastern Mediterranean, celebrated by building Rome’s first stone theater and an enclosed peristyle garden behind. Although the theater was often rebuilt in antiquity, being much favored by emperors, only the substructure of the cavea still remains; in addition, its contours are preserved in the modern street plan of Rome. More details are known thanks to mentions in literary sources and to its appearance in the surviving fragments of the Forma Urbis, a marble plan of the city carved in the Severan period between AD 203 and 211 (Figure 20.11).
The theater is based on Greek models, since theater originated as a Greek practice. Theaters of both wood and stone had already been in use in Italy, especially in southern areas under more direct Greek influence. Although theatrical performances had originated in Greek religious practice, evidently by the first century BC that association had diminished. Pompey renewed this religious connection by having a Temple to Venus Victrix constructed at the top of the cavea, facing the stage, and three, perhaps four, additional shrines. Subsequent Roman theaters did not include such temples. Greek theaters were built on hillsides; this one was not, but instead, profiting from Roman technological advances, was erected on vaults of concrete faced in part with opus reticulatum. The plan departs from the typical Greek theater in having a semicircular cavea. Seating is estimated at 11,000. But it still has open parodoi and a low wide stage, probably made of wood but decorated with portrait sculpture. During the empire Roman theaters would be much elaborated. The cavea and stage building were connected in a single unified structure. Multi-story stage buildings, decorated with marble revetments, featured complex architectural frameworks of architraves and columns, creating niches for the display of full-size statues.
The Circus Maximus, Rome’s oldest and largest track for horse racing events, was laid out south of the Palatine Hill in the early Republic. The first starting gates, probably wooden but painted in bright colors, are dated to 329 BC. The long narrow track was divided lengthwise down the middle by the spina, at first only a natural stream that happened to run through this area, but later elaborated with bridges and structures holding sculpture and such other monuments as an obelisk of the Egyptian king Ramses II. Enlargement to its final size, 621m X 118m, took place in the late Republic. Seating in permanent materials was eventually provided in the lowest of the three cavea zones, first wooden seats, later stone. According to Pliny, maximum capacity was 250,000, a number that indicates the huge popularity of the favorite event, races of chariots drawn by four horses. Teams, or factions, were like modern professional sports teams, with directors and patrons and full support staff as well as the racers themselves, and of course followed by avid fan groups. A race normally consisted of seven laps around the spina; a full day consisted of twenty-four races.
Figure 20.11 Theater of Pompey, shown on the Forma Urbis Romae
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