Water, Aemulatio, and Legitimization: Republican and Augustan Fountains in the City of Rome Public
Lytle, Elizabeth Gardiner (2015)
Published
Abstract
This dissertation examines expressions of political legitimacy through fountain construction in the center of Rome during the second and first centuries BC. My research reveals that victorious generals, from Aemilius Paullus to Augustus, intentionally employed the Roman practice of aemulatio in fountain design to visually celebrate supreme status earned through military conquest, political authority, and divine favor. Aemulatio, close emulation of an existing form with observable enhancements, is apparent in the design, location, and symbolism of five public water monuments located along triumphal routes in the Roman Forum and Imperial Fora. Modern scholarship, which frequently privileges Greek forms, has not yet fully considered Roman originality in the creation of Roman water monuments. This dissertation argues that the earliest known lacus (pools) in the Roman Forum were once natural recessions in the archaic landscape, which republican Romans intentionally monumentalized as forms of commemoration of their heroic past. Generals, dictators, and emperors accessed the Roman tradition of aemulatio to memorialize existing pools as well as create original fountains to proclaim collective and individual glory. Affiliation with a public water monument that referenced archaic Roman topography, received a continuous supply of water, and required careful maintenance insured perpetual memory of a patron's accomplishments for generations past his own lifetime. Fountain construction, accessible to only the elite few, therefore survives as a paradigm of the power struggles that led to the formation of the Roman Empire.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations i
INTRODUCTION 1
1 THE LACUS CURTIUS: A CELEBRATION OF THE
HEROIC MARSH 12
Previous Scholarship 13
History of Excavation 15
Archaeological Evidence 19
Phase I (c. 184 BC) 19
Phase II (c. 78-74 BC) 21
The Monument: The Marsh Preserved 26
Romulean Sulla as Grand Patron 38
Aemulatio: Similar but Better 49
Conclusion 54
2 THE LACUS IUTURNAE: A SYMBOL OF ROMAN ORIGINS 57
Previous Scholarship 60
History of Excavation 62
Archaeological Evidence 65
Phase I (c. 164 BC) 65
Phase II (c. 117 BC) 68
Phase III (Early Imperial Period) 70
Phase IV (Trajanic Period) 73
Phase V (Late Severan Period) 73
Phase VI (Early Fourth Century AD) 74
Phase VII (Late Antique to Medieval)75
The Lacus Iuturnae: A Monument to the Roman Landscape 75
The Patronage of Lucius Aemilius Paullus and
the Collective Glory of Rome 81
Roman Origins, Roman Dominance 85
Conclusion 91
3 THE APPIADES IN THE FORUM IULIUM: A FOUNTAIN OF
DIVINE LEGITIMACY 93
Previous Scholarship 95
History of Excavation 98
Archaeological Evidence 99
Phase I (Late Caesarian to Augustan Period) 100
Phase II (Trajanic Period) 103
The Monument: Reconsiderations 108
Dating 109
The Appian Dilemma 111
The Appiades Fountain as a Security Barrier: A Reevaluation 119
Caesar as Patron: Divine Ambitions 124
The Appiades Fountain: Simulated Lacus 133
Conclusion 138
4 THE MARS ULTOR FOUNTAIN AND BAETYL FOUNTAIN
(SO-CALLED META SUDANS): SYMBOLIC LANDMARKS IN
THE NEW AUGUSTAN LANDSCAPE 140
Part I: The Mars Ultor Fountain 140
Previous Scholarship and History of Excavation 142
Archaeological Evidence 143
The Mars Ultor Fountain Within Context: The Forum of Augustus and Temple of Mars Ultor 147
Aemulatio: Building Upon the Appiades Model 153
The New Augustan Landscape 157
Part II: The Augustan Baetyl Fountain (So-Called Meta Sudans) 162
Previous Scholarship 164
History of Excavation 169
Archaeological Evidence 171
Phase I (Augustan/Julio-Claudian Period) 171
Phase II (Flavian Period, c. AD 80)173
Phase III (Constantinian Period, Beginning of the Fourth Century AD) 175
The So-Called Augustan Meta Sudans: Reevaluations 176
The Augustan-Flavian Confusion 176
Aniconic Baetylus: The Meta Sudans Reconsidered 177
Romulean Topography Transformed 186
Augustus the Caretaker 192
Conclusion 196
CONCLUSION:
THE LACUS CURTIUS TO THE BAETYL FOUNTAIN: EXPRESSIONS OF COLLECTIVE AND INDIVIDUALGLORY THROUGH THE PRACTICE OF AEMULATIO 199
Illustrations 207
Catalogue 234
Bibliography 268
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