Public Buildings and Urban Landscape

Abstract

AbstractAmong the several—and sometimes dramatic—defining moments in the urban history of Rome, the first half of the second century bce has long been recognized as a pivotal one, marking the transformation from city-state to Hellenistic capital. Demographic growth together with an impressive inflow of wealth, much of it spent on public buildings or on public decor, were the driving forces behind an intense building activity contracted by censors and aediles that recreated the urban center, the forum with the commercial buildings nearby, streets, sewers, and the river port. Monuments and temples built by victorious imperatores bear witness to a period of architectural innovation and of intense aristocratic competition. New typologies of buildings emerge and reveal through their names a foreign—mostly Greek—influence. Within this well-established picture in modern scholarship, single aspects of this phenomenon and its consequences on the urban fabric have been investigated: its suddenness, the cultural impact, and the social and demographic one. A view from the Tiber—proposed in this chapter—is an excellent perspective for a critical reappraisal of the literature of this defining period, because while the general picture is clear, the details (literary sources, archaeology, recent topographical debates) are much more complicated. The focus will be on the port infrastructure in general—from the Aventine plain up to the Circus Flaminius riverfront—and notably on the Naualia question. The identification of the huge Testaccio building is particularly useful for trying to understand the port system of Republican Rome and its growth.