Urbs....Rome

[Faustus]

Some interesting facts about the development of Rome

from ROME, Its people life and customs by Ugo Enrico Paoli

 

(URBS - 2 parts )

ROME grew from a small hamlet on the Palatine into the greatest city of the ancient world. Her earliest inhabitants descended to feed their sheep and bury their dead in the damp and narrow valley where later the Forum was to stand. After ten centuries, when Constantine transferred the capital of the Empire to Byzantium, Rome covered an area almost twelve miles in circumference and had a large and closely packed population. The banks of the Tiber from the Porta Trigemina to the southern slopes of the Aventine had been covered with docks and quays to ensure an abundant and regular supply of provisions. Eleven aqueducts furnished a daily water supply calculated at 350 million gallons.

 

In the fourth century A.D. the city had 11 public and 856 private baths, 37 gates, 423 parishes (vici), 29 main roads from the centre to the outskirts, to which must be added an enormous number of minor streets, alleys and areae, small squares scattered among the network of streets; 25 suburban roads; 8 bridges, 2 Capitols, 190 granaries, 2 large markets (macella), 254 mills, 8 large parks (all the open land that was left),11 forums, 10 basilicas, 37 marble arches, 1,352 fountains, 28 libraries, 2 circuses, 2 amphitheatres, 2 naumachiae for naval shows and 4 gladiatorial barracks (ludi).

 

From the earliest times the population of Rome increased steadily, first through the assimilation of the neighbouring peoples, who came to live in the city, and secondly through the growth of Rome

Edited June 21, 2008 by Faustus

[Klingan]

Very interesting Faustus, I am very much looking forward to the next post. Does your source explain how he gets all those numbers? I would really like to know, it would be invaluable to me!

[Maladict]

Very interesting Faustus, I am very much looking forward to the next post. Does your source explain how he gets all those numbers? I would really like to know, it would be invaluable to me!

 

If it's the fourth century, the source is most likely the Regionaries.

A source to be used with some caution.

 

I'm a bit baffled by that map with the shaded 'open land' areas in second century Rome.

Obviously it's not 'open' land but rather public buildings and imperial properties, but still it seems to be riddled with errors.

 

Not trying to bash your article, mind you, kudos for putting it up.

[Faustus]

Very interesting Faustus, I am very much looking forward to the next post. Does your source explain how he gets all those numbers? I would really like to know, it would be invaluable to me!(1)

 

If it's the fourth century, the source is most likely the Regionaries.

A source to be used with some caution.

 

I'm a bit baffled by that map with the shaded 'open land' areas in second century Rome.

Obviously it's not 'open' land but rather public buildings and imperial properties, but still it seems to be riddled with errors.

 

Not trying to bash your article, mind you, kudos for putting it up.

 

Klingan: Paoli: The greater part of this information is drawn from a description of Rome in the time of Constanine, which has come down to us in two editions, one by the name of Notitia (A.D. 354), the other Curiosum (A.D. 375)

 

Other evidence, which helps us to correct the details and draw a complete picture from the information provided by this exceptionally important texts, and generally to reconstruct the topography of Rome, besides purely archaeological date such as the remaining monuments and the result of excavations, etc., can be gained from the following: (1) The marble fragments of a plan of Rome made under the Emperors Severus and Caracalla, and displayed to the public on the north wall of the Templum Pacis, which later became the Church of St Cosmas and St Damian (2) The description of Servian Rome in Varro's De Lingua Latina. (3) The information preserved by Pliny the Elder (N.H., III, 66-67) about the survey of Rome carried out be Vespasian.(4) Inscription with topographical references, particularly the Monumentum Ancyranum is a copy on stone, discovered in 155 at Ancyra (Modern Ankara), of the Index rerum gestarum, which his will, inscribed on two bronze tablets, on the front of the Mausoleum which he had built for himself (28 B.C.) in the Campus Martius. The Monumentum Ancryanum is in Latin with a Greek translation....The best edition is that of J. Gage (1934). The other inscription (CIL, VI, 975) of A.D. 136 gives information about the vici of Regions I, X, XII, XIII, XIV.

 

 

Maladict: I noted that but thought it was worth cautious viewing. The locations of public buildings would loosely fit the descripton 'uninhabited' but 'open land'(?). The second most obvious area is the rectangular projection which we know to be the Praetorian Camp (at about 1-oclock).

[Faustus]

(URBS)

Life was at its busiest in the valley at the foot of the Capitol and the Palatine; politics, business, the administration of justice, official meetings, as well as the city

[M. Porcius Cato]

Where do you find such old reference works, Faustus?

 

In light of recent archaeology, the notion that Rome sprung from the Palatine strikes me as quaint and simple. Part of the problem is that when modern Rome began to develop during the 1870s, massive amounts of ancient material were removed from the Quirinal and Esquiline hills and were not catalogued until much later. Consequently, classic turn-of-the-century reference works on the prehistory of Rome failed to examine important prehistorical sites from the Quirinal and Esquiline, such as the Osteria dell'Osa and Castel di Decima, which date to before the founding of the city. In contrast, the sites near the Palatine were splendidly preserved and continuously researched, leading these sites to be seen as the first and foundational settlements that later spread down into the Forum valley, the epicenter of ancient Rome. In truth, all the major evidence of the importance of the Palatine hill--evidence of settlement, religion, encircling walls, etc--can be found on other hills surrounding the Forum, and these hills--no less than that haunt of the patricii--deserve credit as the mothers of Rome.

 

For a systematic look at the issue (as well as being a fantastic book in itself), see Gary Forsythe's (2005) Critical History of Early Rome.

[Antiochus III]

That book that was linked to had a chart that showed what appeared to be the number of men eligible for military service, even though they make it seem like the number of troops already levied. I made some calculations, and according to that chart, in 225, the Romans could raise 799,100 men from Italy and Sicily. Are there any sources that have info regarding this?

 

Antiochus III