The Mute Stones Speak: The Story of Archaeology in ItalyMacKendrick, Paul Lachlan
History
The Mute Stones Speak: The Story of Archaeology in Italy
MacKendrick, Paul Lachlan
Italy -- Antiquities
_Monuments_
1 Forum
2 Argentina Temples
3 Cloaca Maxima
4 Pompey’s Theater and Portico
5 Imperial Fora
6 Altar of Peace
7 Augustus’ Mausoleum
8 Subterranean Basilica
9 Golden House
10 Coliseum
11 Cancelleria Palace
12 Domitian’s Stadium
13 Temple of Venus and Rome
14 Pantheon
15 Hadrian’s Mausoleum
16 Baths of Caracalla
17 Baths of Diocletian
18 Cemetery under St. Peter’s
FIG. 12.11 Rome, Aurelian’s Wall, plan, with major Imperial monuments.]
Richmond also found that in the phase of the wall identified as
Aurelian’s by building materials and brick stamps, the workmanship
differed sharply from one curtain to another. The inference from
this was that various stretches were assigned to various gangs of
workmen--mostly civilian, since the legions were needed in the North,
and for Aurelian’s campaign against the Parthians in the East. These
workmen belonged to the various city guilds, or _collegia_, some
experienced in construction, some not, but all pressed into service in
the emergency.
Richmond distinguished the bottom twenty-four feet of the wall as
the original phase. It was built of brick-faced concrete--that its
bricks were often second-hand is inferred from the many Hadrianic
stamps--surmounted by a gallery with loopholes outside and an open,
bayed arcade inside, with a crenellated wall-walk above. Access to
the wall was by the towers only; Richmond inferred that the planner
aimed to keep excited and irresponsible civilians from interfering
with defense, and the wall-detail from pilfering or philandering in
the adjoining houses and gardens. In this phase the wall was plain,
efficient, functional, simple, and uniform, built to a standard size
and pattern. Its many gates show that there was no very formidable
danger: the intent was to provide a barrier to shut chance bodies of
undesirables out of the city as on far-flung frontiers structures like
Hadrian’s Wall shut them out of the Empire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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