Forma Urbis Romae

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

Until I'd looked through Klingan excellent pictures from Rome I was completely unaware of the existence of the Forma Urbis Romae otherwise known as the Severan marble plan of Rome. This fascinating piece of Roman history is a crucial resource for studying the ancient city of Rome. Enormous in size (18.10 x 13 meters ca. 60 x 43 feet) and astonishingly detailed, it contains irreplaceable information about the city in the early 3rd c. CE--its famous monuments and its lesser-known neighborhoods, its major streets and its back alleys, its commercial infrastructure and its religious life. The Plan also tells us about ancient Roman ideas of the city, ideologies of representation, and mapping and surveying. The more we know about the Marble Plan, the more we know about imperial Rome.

 

Unfortunately, only 10-15% of the Plan survives--and in 1,186 pieces. Starting in the 4th c. CE, this map suffered the same fate as many other public monuments in the city of Rome. Many of the slabs onto which it was carved were simply stripped from the wall of the Templum Pacis on which it was mounted and used in the construction of new buildings, or burnt in kilns to make lime. Even after the Plan's rediscovery in the 16th c. CE, pieces of it were used as construction material and lost.

 

Meanwhile, the surviving fragments are difficult to work with--many are large and very heavy; others are so small that their carved surfaces don't provide much identifiable information; finally, 1,186 is simply a very large number of pieces of marble to spread out and work with. All this means that the work of identifying and interpreting pieces of the Plan has been painstaking and slow, and has focused on the most identifiable public monuments rather than on the urban fabric as a whole. It also means that this immensely important monument is little known outside the community of specialists who work on Roman topography.

 

Take a LOOK at the best jigsaw I've ever seen.

Edited April 10, 2009 by Gaius Paulinus Maximus

[Klingan]

Wow, I had no clue that all of it was to be found online. Amazing! Anyway, there are actually more maps of this kind, about a dozen I recall mostly in even more fragments.

 

Worth to remember about this Severan plan is that it can't to be used as a modern map, the scale is not constant (even if it's not too much off from place to place). Another thing that should be remembered is that the plan is composed of a lot of smaller maps put together and carved into this piece and because of this we find irregularities - the buildings simply doesn't fit together at some places.

 

Even so, it is invaluable.

 

Here's a link to the picture.

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

It seems that some of the experts working on the map have come to the conclusion that rather than serving as an actual map of Rome it was actually just an elaborate decorative showpiece. They argue that in fact there was probably two Forma Urbis Romae, that the other one was an actual cadastral record of Rome which was written on papyrus and stored in the records house and was easily accessible and regularly updated and the one made of marble's sole purpose was to decorate the room that stored the cadastral records of the city.

 

Pretty amazing really, the lengths the Romans would go to just to decorate a wall.

[Kosmo]

I'll rather believe roman decorators then "experts", they had at least seen Ancient Rome.

[sylla]

It seems that some of the experts working on the map have come to the conclusion that rather than serving as an actual map of Rome it was actually just an elaborate decorative showpiece. They argue that in fact there was probably two Forma Urbis Romae, that the other one was an actual cadastral record of Rome which was written on papyrus and stored in the records house and was easily accessible and regularly updated and the one made of marble's sole purpose was to decorate the room that stored the cadastral records of the city.

 

Pretty amazing really, the lengths the Romans would go to just to decorate a wall.

Actually, the main argument against an administrative function for this monument is that it was not readable at all; in place, its upper panels were some 18 meters above the floor level.

[Northern Neil]

Was this map orientated with south at the top?

[sylla]

Was this map orientated with south at the top?

No; the top is facing southeast. That was standard practice; just compare with the Tabula Peutingeriana.

[Ludovicus]

The last time I was in Rome I unsuccessfully tried to locate the museum where the Fora Urbis Romae was displayed. My guide book said that you could find it in one of the temples on the Forum's edge. Any help here?

Edited April 11, 2009 by Ludovicus

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

The last time I was in Rome I unsuccessfully tried to locate the museum where the Fora Urbis Romae was displayed. My guide book said that you could find it in one of the temples on the Forum's edge. Any help here?

 

I maybe wrong but I think it's located in Museum of Roman Civilization (Museo della Civilt Romana), located in the Roman suburb of EUR (Exposizione Universale di Roma). Which I believe is quite a long way from the city centre.

[Aurelia]

According to Wikipedia, it is kept in the Palazzo dei Conservatori of the Capitoline Museums. I didn't see it when I visited the museum last year but then I wasn't looking for it.

[Ludovicus]

According to Wikipedia, it is kept in the Palazzo dei Conservatori of the Capitoline Museums. I didn't see it when I visited the museum last year but then I wasn't looking for it.

 

Thank you. The link is very helpful!

[Silentium]

The last time I was in Rome I unsuccessfully tried to locate the museum where the Fora Urbis Romae was displayed. My guide book said that you could find it in one of the temples on the Forum's edge. Any help here?

 

I maybe wrong but I think it's located in Museum of Roman Civilization (Museo della Civilt Romana), located in the Roman suburb of EUR (Exposizione Universale di Roma). Which I believe is quite a long way from the city centre.

 

What they keep at the Museo della Civilt

[M. Porcius Cato]

The remains of the Forma also include the plan of the Theatre of Pompey, the first permanent theatre in Rome (and where you-know-who met his end).