BMCR 2023.08.08

Rethinking the Roman city: the spatial turn and the archaeology of Roman Italy

, Rethinking the Roman city: the spatial turn and the archaeology of Roman Italy. Studies in Roman space and urbanism. Abingdon; New York: Routledge, 2022. Pp. 268. ISBN 9780815361794.

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[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review]

 

Stemming from two seminars and one Roman Archaeology Conference Filippi’s volume tackles the discourse of urban space in the Roman epoch bringing to bear the notion of “Spatial Turn”, as put forth by Henri Lefebvre and Michael Foucault. How space and built environment should be viewed as means to unravel historical and social processes is perhaps, in general terms, the French philosophers’ lesson to archaeology. Filippi advocates for an approach that harnesses the full suite of social and material realities, is cognizant of past intellectual traditions, and positions the individual and their senses at the center of the urban experience. In so doing, Filippi upholds a theoretical angle that, she contends, has not been sufficiently tapped into by the field of Roman studies, balkanized as it is by a panoply of postures, research avenues, and not least, intellectual traditions. Because a wealth of new datasets and information about Roman cities and landscapes is now available, Filippi invites a more vigorous attention to the wedding of social and topographic components that define a Roman milieu. This volume is intended as a manifesto of the possibilities that a more holistic approach unpacks. Rome, Pompeii, and Ostia, in particular, lend themselves well to a phenomenological investigation.

The introduction takes up these lines of thought while spelling out Filippi’s vision, who hopes that the book ushers in “new epistemological paradigms.” Synopses of each chapter, excessive in length, seek to align each chapter with the general plan, charting the discourse of past intellectual traditions as well as rural and urban panoramas. Overall, the reader is pulled in too many directions, and the book’s aspirations should be voiced less magniloquently.

Chapter 1 by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill and Martin Millett opens the book and its “Methodological Approaches” section with a gripping discussion of two trailblazers, William Gell and Antonio Nibby, as they combined their agendas, surveyed vast tracts of the hinterlands of Rome, and produced the monumental Analisi storico-topografico-antiquaria della carta de’ dintorni di Roma, 1837. The essay is seasoned with Wallace-Hadrill and Millett’s erudition, insights, wit, and that gravitas that only access to the original notebooks can convey. The chapter delves deeply into the intellectual and technological climate that framed the partnership of two scholars whose background could not have been more different, amid historiographical controversies, imperial whims, and, ultimately, personal feuds. The falling out between Gell and Nibby, ultimately, is the harbinger of the intellectual conflict between British landscape archaeology and Italian topographical studies, two scholarly avenues that are still reckoning with one another. In Chapter 2, Stefano Campana enters the discourse of landscape archaeology and its current state. The overview of the last thirty years of the discipline and its methodological evolution rehashes well-known theoretical questions and dilemmas. More compelling is the presentation of datasets that show the connection between abandoned urban contexts and their rural counterparts, particularly through the cases of Rusallae and Veii, although only the former and its long narrative of settlement are brought into focus. Campana shows how a rigorous collection of survey data from a battery of approaches has spawned new exciting frameworks about the infrastructural systems that connected town and country, while straddling conceptual divides.

Part II, “Cities with Optimal Data”, engages with the archeological record of Rome, Ostia and Pompeii. In Chapter 3, Paolo Carafa discusses the herculean task of marshaling textual sources, archaeological evidence, legacy data, and more, with a view toward building a new map of Rome during antiquity (9th c. BCE-6th c. CE), thus updating the seminal work of Lanciani. The project previously underpinned the Atlas of Ancient Rome initiative[1] and now offers unprecedented possibilities in terms of navigating the urban landscape through the ages. With more topographical data coming to the fore, the system lends itself well to new interpretative frameworks, as case studies of the Baths of Agrippa and the Arch of Marcus Aurelius demonstrate. The data, of course, is essentially inert, and needs to be imbued with a sense of use and experiencing; the current flurry of topographical studies focused on the city of Rome will no doubt benefit enormously from this tool. Also, one would want to know more about this GIS project as it ties in with the Soprintendenza’s online GIS application, SITAR, which also aims at systematically documenting ancient spatial data.[2] In the following chapter, Ostia takes center space (Chapter 4). Jeffrey Veitch’s essay on porticoes takes up Lefebvre’ theoretical postulations, complementing Filippi’s introduction and stressing the potential of spatial theory when applied through the lenses of body and senses. This is the turf where a profitable comparison with the colonnaded streets of the East and their textual record would have aided the analysis of space and sociality.[3] At any event, a panoply of factors, from the material record to the study of the energetics involved, makes this essay compelling, enabling the visualization of the porticoes of Pio IX along the Cardo Maximus of Ostia, amid the sounds of people milling around and the incessant noise of vehicles trundling into the city.

The late Simon Keay (Chapter 5) then takes up Ostia and Portus, addressing fundamental questions about the two settlements and the Isola Sacra, or, as he puts it, the land in-between. The essay draws on many years of fieldwork and geophysical surveys that have brought to light a panoply of warehouses, routes, a canal, as well as a likely Late Antique defensive wall, thus shedding light on previously unknown features and their spatial implications. This new evidence raises the possibility that the warehouses were also used for accommodation, given the dearth of residential quarters in Portus.Keay explores the connection between Ostia and Portus, addressing fundamental questions about chronology and imperial involvement that ultimately help us model the hub at the mouth of the Tiber. The current work of Évelyne Bukowiecki and the École Française at Portus will no doubt complement these interpretative frameworks.[4] Chapter 6, by Annette Haug and Philipp Kabush, focuses on street communication on façade walls at Pompeii, analyzing different media from religious imagery to commercial references. The sample underscores the paucity of portraits and depictions of people vis à vis the rich repertoire of pictorial and textual graffiti. Overall, spatial relation, agency, and experiencing are the variables observed, with a view toward conjuring up pedestrian movement, routines, and social interaction in ancient neighborhoods.

Next is Part III, which aims at discussing the Forum, “A key public space in the Roman City.” Chapter 7, by Dunia Filippi, takes the reader back to Rome, delving deeply into the heart of the city from the 7th c. AD until its modern “rediscovery.” A story of neglect, political aspirations, and pioneering figures is set against the background of a site that, of course, presents formidable cultural layering as well as great opportunities for a phenomenological approach. The analysis of the sculptural group of the Tria Fata, that is the three Sibyls near the Rostra Augusti, typifies this avenue of research, as it zeroes in on a site that went from pagan use to signifying Christian martyrdom. Overall, tradition, use, and memorialization are prominent in Filippi’s approach, a new way forward in the study of ancient topography, as she quips. However, such a perspective has long pervaded the study of Rome’s topography: Lisa Mignone’s study of the Aventine, to cite but one, is a case in point.[5] In the next chapter, Nicholas Purcell (“Historians in the Forum”) keeps the focus on the forum: its genesis, etiology, commemorative function, and actors. This is a study that has a connection to the recent volume by Courrier et al.[6] Purcell asks paramount questions: when does the Roman forum begin performing as such? What are the drivers that made a public site the locus where all things unfolded? The heady flurry of events that transformed space and added new focal points are brilliantly marshalled by Purcell, and the 4th c. BCE emerges as the watershed in the biography of the forum. In particular, the question of the forum’s dignitas acquires significance in the context of a space that in the days of the Middle Republic was still lackluster in its presentation. The approach is essentially textual but points the reader in many profitable directions like the influence of the Greek poleis of the 4th c. BCE.

In Chapter Nine Ray Laurence then considers children and their perspective of space (“Children and Public Space in Early Imperial Rome”). He discusses the perspective of non-adults being drawn to, and confronted with, a space redolent with the symbols and memories of the principate. Lastly, Chapter 10 by John R. Patterson (“Transformations of public space in the cities of Italy under the Principate. The case of the Forum”) surveys the urban landscapes of the 1st and 2nd c. CE, addressing the proliferation of new fora, public plazas, and markets. The catalog of sites is fairly conspicuous, the trends are tangible, but the function of many sites remains hard to pin down: administrative spaces? markets? The discussion is excellent and dovetails with much recent research—see in particular recent work on commercial areas.[7] Patterson stresses that the spirit of emulation drove most of these projects, producing local glimpses of imperial cityscapes. Competition and imperial largesse may be added to the equation, as attested, for instance, by the many building programs sponsored by the Antonines in central Italy.

In conclusion, the book offers an excellent collection of thought-provoking essays, each foregrounding firm perspectives on the study of space of antiquity. They illustrate robust ways to gauge the nucleation and evolution of ancient space in the Roman period. However, most papers tackle the concept of space in antiquity offering their own perspectives, without adhering to the volume’s particular line. More to the point: is there a dialogue among the authors? Not really, but that is perhaps a good thing. We are grateful to Filippi for this collection of distinguished studies.

 

Authors and Titles

Introduction (Dunia Filippi)

Part I: Methodological approaches

  1. Topography between two worlds: William Gell and Antonio Nibby (Andrew Wallace-Hadrill and Martin Millett)
  1. Some thoughts on current trends in archaeology of once-townscapes compared with rural landscapes in the Mediterranean world (Stefano Campana)

Part II: Cities with optimal data

  1. Topography and Classical Archaeology: Landscape Biography (Paolo Carafa)
  1. Sensory-Spatial History at Ostia: Embodied Space of Street Porticoes (Jeffrey D. Veitch)
  1. Rethinking Relationships between Ostia and Portus (Simon Keay)
  1. Visual Communication in the Streets of Pompeii (Annette Haug, Philipp Kobusch)

Part III: A key public space in the Roman city

  1. Archaeologists in the Forum (Dunia Filippi)
  1. Historians in the Forum (Nicholas Purcell)
  1. Children and Public Space in Early Imperial Rome (Ray Laurence)
  1. Transformations of public space in the cities of Italy under the Principate: the case of the Forum (John R. Patterson)

 

Notes

[1] Carandini, A. and Carafa, P. (eds.). 2017. The Atlas of Ancient Rome. Biography and Portraits

of the City, I-II, Princeton.

[2] https://www.archeositarproject.it/en/

[3] Lib. Or. 11

[4] Bukowiecki, E. et al. 2022. “Étude archéologique du môle nord-sud de Portus,” Bulletin archéologique des Écoles françaises à l’étranger, Italie, mis en ligne le 03 mai 2022, consulté le 05 mai 2022. URL :

http://journals.openedition.org/baefe/5163 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/baefe.5163

[5] See in particular A. Capodiferro, L. M. Mignone, and P. Quaranta (eds.) 2017. Studi e Scavi sull’Aventino. 2003-2015. Roma: Edizioni Quasar.

[6] Purcell 2021 “Connected Spaces: the Forum’s Orientation to the Capitoline”, in Rome, archéologie et histoire urbaine. Trente ans après l’Urbs (1987), ed. by C. Courrier et al. Rome, 151-164.

[7] M. L Caldelli and C. Ricci (eds.) 2020. City of Encounters. Public Spaces and Social Interaction in Ancient Rome. Roma: Edizioni Quasar.