Water, Aemulatio, and Legitimization: Republican and Augustan Fountains in the City of Rome 公开

Lytle, Elizabeth Gardiner (2015)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/000000417?locale=zh
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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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