This is the latest monograph on the Hadrianeum located in the central Campus Martius, after several books, articles and essays published in the past decades.[1] By Hadrianeum the two authors do not mean just the large temple of Divine Hadrian, peripteral (but on a podium and a stairway facing east), with 38 columns 14.8 m high (50 Roman Feet), eight on the short sides and thirteen on the long sides. They include a rectangular square delimited by porticoes with columns 30 RF high and a monumental archway facing the Via Lata (two reliefs from this sectore are displayed in the Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Torlonia). After Hadrian’s death and deification in AD 138, it took less than six years from conception to completion: the temple was dedicated in AD 145 by Antoninus Pius.
This study is not limited to literary sources but relies on information provided by the Hadrianeum’s physical remains. The right-hand side of the temple—11 Corinthian columns in Proconnesian marble—is almost completely incorporated into the façade of the Palazzo della Borsa (Stock Exchange) in Piazza di Pietra. These columns rise on a podium in peperino (Lapis Albanus), about 4 m high and originally faced with marble slabs. The cella was covered by a concrete barrel vault, a section of which is still preserved. Excavations in 1878 and more recent explorations in the cellars of the buildings on the opposite side of the Piazza di Pietra have identified a large curvilinear exedra in squared-stone masonry. No evidence for porticoes on the other three sides of the square has yet been found.
Leaving aside bricks, stone and concrete, the book focuses on the marble elements and, in particular, on the reliefs found near the temple, with allegorical figures representing personifications of peoples of the Roman empire alternating with military trophies. Ten panels are displayed in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, two in Palazzo Massimo alle Terme and five in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples. The provinces were once considered to be the pedestals of the portico (Canina); then, together with the trophies, were assigned to the alleged attic of the temple (Lucas), to the podium (Lanciani), to the cella (Passarelli). Finally, Claridge noticed that the marble blocks have large sockets for wooden beams on their backs, which suggests they decorated the attic story of a porticus which ran under the modern buildings on the northern side of the Piazza di Pietra.[2] Baldi and Parisi Presicce confirm that the reliefs depicting provinces and trophies are not compatible with the temple’s architectural orders and belonged to the attic story of the portico, which is their main topic.
The book consists of 120 pages and over 300 illustrations throughout. Aside from a three-page introduction, the appendices and the bibliography, the book is divided into seven chapters. The introduction begins with the 19th-century discovery of the reliefs and goes on with a brief account of recent research. One of the authors, Massimo Baldi, died in 2016 at the age of 73 while work was in progress; he was a mechanical engineer with a passion for ancient buildings (yet this seems to be his only archaeological publication), whereas Parisi Presicce has expertise in Roman art. The latter has already discussed the style and meaning of these reliefs but, given the technical character of the book, the greater role of Baldi is apparent—suffice it to note the 76 pages of his Appendix A.
Chapter One surveys the temple’s layout. The authors stress the importance of the sketches by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder (Fig. 6) and present minor fragments that have guided their reconstruction. Mark Wilson Jones had already noticed that the lower part of the column shafts rises vertically and the upper part tapers in a straight line, with a transitional curve between these linear sections, resulting in a crude shape that could be completed quickly, but his contribution has been forgotten.[3] Because the emphasis is on the marble elements, the authors overlook the builders’ ability to reduce the weight of the concrete vault in order to improve the stability of the structure. The spring of the massive 18 m. coffered barrel vault which covered the cella is preserved; apparently, the builders made the crown lighter than the haunches by alternating, in the upper part of the vault, rows of Tufo Giallo della Via Tiberina and an imported lightweight volcanic scoria produced by Mount Vesuvius—a building material mentioned by Vitruvius (Arch. 2.6.2-3) and eventually used in the main imperially sponsored buildings in Rome, after the AD 79 eruption.[4] As for the Renaissance drawings, the authors do not discuss Antonio da Sangallo the Younger’s sketches in U1144A that are generally referred to the Hadrian’s temple despite the mention of “Santo apostolo”, that is, the basilica of SS. Apostoli located far from Piazza di Pietra. According to a recent analysis by Francesco Benelli, this drawing refers to the remains of the Basilica Ulpia and one of the twin libraries of the Forum of Trajan.[5]
Chapter Two examines the layout of the portico in both plan and elevation, starting from the cornice, the architrave-frieze, and the three elements that constituted the attic story, that is, the panels of the provinces, the slabs of the trophies, and the upper elements connecting them. The remainder of the chapter is a detailed analysis of the surviving pieces, including the possible identification of fragmentary columns and Corinthian capitals belonging to the Hadrianeum that are preserved or displayed elsewhere in Rome.
The rather short Chapter Three highlights the relationships between the elevations of both temple and portico, relying on the few surviving fragments and on other Renaissance drawings. The façade of the portico running parallel with the northern flank of the temple is proportionately related to it. Yet, according to Claridge, it might date up to twenty years later on stylistic grounds, whereas the authors believe it was more decorated than the temple’s entablature because it was closer to the viewer.
Chapter Four illustrates the remains in situ of the portico, of the exedra aligned with the center of the pronaos, of the monumental entrance along the Via Lata and of the preexisting floor in peperino slabs with a different orientation—the 2nd-century AD floor of the square is lost. The authors reconstruct a symmetrical enclosure measuring 85 by 138.8 m (Fig. 69), with another exedra on the south and a hypothetical courtyard towards the Via Lata that conceals the different orientation of temple and street. On the rear side there would not be the temple of Matidia but that of Plotina, according to Parisi Presicce’s interpretation of fragment 36b of the Forma Urbis, after a failed attempt to assign it to the Forum of Trajan (note, however, that the location of this fragment in the Campus Martius is far from certain).[6]
Chapter Five reconstructs the portico with a light barrel vault similar to that of the porticoes of the Forum of Augustus and Forum of Trajan (surprisingly, there is no mention of the Templum Pacis[7]) according to the recesses carved on the back surface of the reliefs. Three reconstructions are proposed: the favored one is a terrace over the barrel vault (note that at p. 94, in the crucial point, the text indicates fig. 83b that instead has a truss), although this is questionable. The adjoining buildings are the exedra, its transitional rectangular block that connected it to the north portico’s rear wall, and the Via Lata entranceway already discussed in the previous chapter.
In Chapter Six, Baldi reviews the construction process without an attempt to analyze the supply of building materials or to estimate the overall cost of the Hadrianeum and the manpower involved. While perhaps not strictly necessary for the present volume, I believe this would have been a useful addition to research related to the Roman economy. He discusses in detail each marble element that constituted the portico: the architrave-frieze and the cornice, topped by the panels and slabs of the attic story, suggesting the way they were assembled thanks to the traces preserved on the blocks’ surface.
In Chapter Seven, Parisi Presicce examines the afterlife of the complex, which was partially spoliated under pope Sixtus III (432-440) to decorate the Lateran Baptistery, which preserves 11 architrave-friezes. He argues that there was a connection with the later temple of the deified Marcus Aurelius because of the angle of 102° in the marble ceiling of a passageway found in the nearby piazza Montecitorio. Two major interventions on the portico took place between the late 3rd and the 4th century: the construction of a second floor covered by a roof (Fig. 104), possibly in a limited sector of the portico itself, and a reinforcement of the original terrace (Fig. 106).
Baldi’s Appendix A begins with the reuse of the portico’s capitals in the basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le mura and the pieces from the entablature in the Lateran Baptistery. Then it examines the technical characteristics of the surviving elements, with details that may seem to be excessive, but they highlight the connection between design process and actual construction. Recently, Lipps focused on the capitals and noticed that their sides are carved differently, as is often the case in the 2nd century AD: he attributed this characteristic to the division of labor between different craftsmen, but his observations have been overlooked.[8] Surprisingly, despite detailed analysis of the same capitals from scaffolding in 2008 by several scholars, the inscription of a stonemason carved on a Corinthian capital of the N side of the temple has passed unnoticed to date, even to the authors of the present book. It was recorded by Cozza and Claridge in the 1980s and was to be published in a new volume on the temple that was in preparation around 1986 but remained on paper.[9] The inscribed name of the stonemason or, more likely, of the supervisor of the construction process, attests to the builder’s provenance very clearly.
Appendices B, C and D by Parisi Presicce present archival documents and drawings related to past surveys and restorations, mostly dating to the 20th century. The book ends with the bibliography (pp. 253-7). There is no conclusion, no index, and no summary in English. But aside from a few minor typos, it is generally well written and clear; drawings and illustrations are fine. Unfortunately, the topographical and historical context, e.g. the apotheosis of Hadrian, are not discussed at all: there is no engagement with cultural issues and priority is given to the construction process. Likewise, I believe that one might have hoped for some discussion of the origin of the attic story in Roman architecture: unless proven otherwise, one should expect all monumental porticoes from the Flavian age onwards, not only in Rome, to have had an attic story.
As Parisi Presicce concedes (p. x), from the late 19th century onwards nobody could study the dressing and the technical details on the back surface of the marble reliefs of the Hadrianeum. Because of its technical character—most of the text deals with the dressing of marble surfaces, lewis holes, sealing clamps, sockets for dowels, spike holes, positioning of blocks and so on—and due to its narrow historical breadth, I would suggest this book to specialists of Roman architecture and scholars interested in the building industry of imperial Rome. The monograph is well-researched and informative, but does not offer a substantial challenge to the significance of the Hadrianeum in Imperial architecture and sculpture.
Notes
[1] L. Cozza (ed), Tempio di Adriano. Lavori e Studi di Archeologia pubblicati dalla Soprintendenza Archeologica di Roma. Rome: De Luca Editore, 1982; A. Claridge, ‘L’Hadrianeum in Campo Marzio: storia dei rinvenimenti e topografia antica nell’area di Piazza di Pietra,’ in M. Sapelli (ed), Provinciae Fideles. Il fregio del tempio di Adriano in Campo Marzio. Catalogo della mostra. Milan: Electa, 1999, 117-27; R. Novelli (ed), Hadrianeum. Rome: Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato e Agricoltura, 2005; A. Vella, ‘Tempio di Adriano. Nuovi dati’, in F. Filippi (ed), Campo Marzio. Nuove Ricerche. Rome: Quasar, 2016, 179-217; J. Lipps, ‘Das Hadrianeum auf dem Marsfeld in Rom. Einige Beobachtungen zur Architekturdekoration,’ Bonner Jahrbucher 210-211 (2010-2011), 103-38.
[2] A. Claridge, ‘L’Hadrianeum in Campo Marzio: storia dei rinvenimenti e topografia antica nell’area di Piazza di Pietra,’ in M. Sapelli (ed), Provinciae Fideles. Il fregio del tempio di Adriano in Campo Marzio. Catalogo della mostra. Milan: Electa, 1999, 117-27. Likewise, on stylistic grounds, P. Parisi Presicce, ‘Le rappresentazioni allegoriche di popoli e province nell’arte romana imperiale’, in M. Sapelli (ed), Provinciae Fideles. Il fregio del tempio di Adriano in Campo Marzio. Catalogo della mostra. Milan: Electa, 1999, 83-105.
[3] M. Wilson Jones, Principles of Roman Architecture. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000.
[4] L.C. Lancaster, ‘Large freestanding barrel vaults in the Roman Empire: a comparison of structural techniques’ (Second International Congress on Construction History, Queen’s College, Cambridge University, March 29-April 2 2006), in Proceedings of the Second International Congress on Construction History (Cambridge 2006), vol. 2, 1829-44 (1829-31).
[5] F. Benelli, ‘Dicie Vitruvio,’ Antonio da Sangallo il Giovane e il De Architectura. Rome: Officina Libraria, 2024, 76-87.
[6] C. Parisi Presicce, ‘Il tempio di Plotina in un frammento della pianta marmorea severiana. Ipotesi e contesto’, BullCom 122 (2021), 217-28.
[7] P.L. Tucci, ‘Il Tempio della Pace: ricostruzioni e istruzioni per l’uso’, in P. Fleury, S. Madeleine (eds), ‘Topographie et urbanisme de la Rome antique’ (Proceedings of the International Conference Université de Normandie, Caen, December 12-14, 2019), Caen 2022, 203-26.
[8] J. Lipps, ‘Das Hadrianeum auf dem Marsfeld in Rom. Einige Beobachtungen zur Architekturdekoration,’ Bonner Jahrbucher 210-211 (2010-2011), 103-38.
[9] The late Cozza gave me the relevant epigraphic cast, which I plan to publish shortly.