Despite the interest of Ostia and the importance of Rome itself, well documented in literary sources, later construction in these long-lived cities has destroyed or damaged the remains from the Republican centuries. The fragments from Rome are too important to ignore, however, and we shall examine them shortly. But first let us visit a Republican town that can be appreciated in its entirety: Cosa, a colonia founded in 273 BC, implanted in territory conquered from the Etruscan city of Vulci, strategically placed to block Etruscan access to the sea. Like Priene (Chapter 17), this town owes its importance in modern archaeology to its modest destiny in antiquity. Cosa was sacked in 70—60 BC, perhaps by pirates; subsequent occupation was modest. Medieval and modern times passed it by. Because the town is mentioned only briefly in ancient literary sources, our knowledge of Cosa depends on the excavations conducted in the years 1948—54 and 1965—72 under the direction of Frank Brown of the American Academy in Rome.
The town occupied an area of 13.25ha on a hill by a good harbor 140km north of Rome. The surrounding farmland was fertile, and in fact most Cosans (90 percent of the citizens) lived outside the walled town. A lagoon behind the harbor gave rise to a prosperous local industry, a fishery with a specialty in eels and mullets, and perhaps production ofgarum, a fish sauce much loved by the Romans.
The citadel, known as the Arx, occupied the town’s highest point. The Romans planned the rest of the town from sitings taken here. The city walls were erected first, an irregular perimeter just under 2km in length, with three gates, one postern, and eighteen towers. Measuring 2m in thickness, of irregularly shaped blocks of hard limestone, these sturdy walls are still well preserved to a height of 9m—10m. Despite the varying contours of the site, the space inside was laid out in a regular grid (Figure 20.4), a determined imposing of order on unruly nature that recalls urban planning at Priene.
Figure 20.4 City plan, Cosa
The Arx, protected with its own set of fortification walls, contained the principal shrine of the town, the Temple of Jupiter with, in front, a cistern and a court with an altar. As at Rome, the area sacred to Jupiter lay on high ground. The temple stood on a high podium; in plan, the temple contained a front porch, with four columns, and the usual triple cella. The superstructure has been reconstructed on the basis of terracotta fragments of architectural decorations, with help from comments of Vitruvius (Figure 20.5). The temple was originally built after 241 BC, then rebuilt ca. 150 BC, with the varying styles of its terracotta decorations suggesting a lengthy period of refurbishing and repair.
A major street led directly from the Arx downhill to the other important sector of the town, the forum, or city center, a rectangular space lined with buildings devoted to civic functions (Figure 20.6). By the later third century BC, such buildings included the comitium, the meeting place of the assembly of the people, here a circular open-air area with steps, and behind it, the curia, a covered rectangular hall, the home of the local senate, or council of elders. A shrine and a prison flanked the comitium on one side, a cistern on the other. In the second century BC, additions included a commemorative triple arch at the north-west entrance to the forum and a basilica erected over the cistern. Archive and office buildings lined the rest of the forum.
The basilica is a building type that became common in the Roman world from the second century BC. In the fourth century AD, the basilica plan was adapted as the standard design for Christian churches. Not a religious building in Roman times, the basilica provided space for lawyers, judges, and other officials involved in city and legal affairs. It was always located alongside a forum or a similar open space, with one of its sides penetrated by doors. The basilica typically
Figure 20.5 Arx Temples: Capitolium and Mater Matuta (reconstruction), from Cosa
Figure 20.6 Forum, sixth phase (reconstruction), Cosa
Consists of a central rectangle, roofed, surrounded by a peristyle and walkways, also covered, on all four sides. The central roof rises higher than that over the side halls. This raised roofline allowed for a line of windows, an architectural arrangement known as a clerestory (used in the Hypostyle Hall, Delos: Chapter 18).
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