The Aurelian Wall was built quite quickly - 19 kilometers in length, 3.5 m thick, 6 m high, 4 years spent in construction, 271 to 275 AD. Why? Because the barbarians were almost literally at the gate and kicking Rome's behind, that's why! How humiliating it must have been for all Romans to have to build that wall. Not for at least 600 years had they had to worry about Germanic or Gaullic peoples threatening them anywhere except at the fringes of the Empire.
My, how things change.
The Aurelian wall was the second wall to be built around Rome; the first was the Servian Wall. Built by Servius Tulius, the second to the last of the kings of Rome, It was a much smaller undertaking since the city was much smaller in the sixth century BCE. It was 11 km long, 10 meters high and comfortably encompassed the city at the time. Not much remains today, but a few portions can still be seen. One section is visible as you pull into Termini Station, the other is on the back side of the Aventine Hill near the Pyramid of Gaius Cestius on Viale Aventino.
Back in Emperor Aurelian's reign, time was of the essence. The Barbarians were running roughshod all over the Italian peninsula. The Romans' desperation is evident; as many existing structures as possible were incorporated into the structure including the Amphitheater Castrense, the wall of the Castra Pretoria and several aqueducts. Square towers were created every 100 roman feet, the equivalent of about 30 meters. At the major roads, huge gates were built, double-arched with semi-circular towers, several of which still exist today. The best examples are Porta San Sebastian, Porta San Giovanni and Porta Ardeantina. If you stay in a hotel on Via Veneto (and especially the Grand Hotel Flora at the very top of the Via) you have an excellent opportunity to examine this wall up close. Via Veneto ends at Corso d'Italia, which parallels the wall's northern run. In February, 2000, I stayed at the Flora and walked through the gate in the wall at the intersection everyday for Super PDR Week.
The wall is a good example of "typical" Roman construction techniques of the time. It was constructed of "green brick" with a concrete center. Green brick was baked but not kiln-fired and so are not as hard as modern-day bricks. They also tended to be flatter, longer and wider than modern bricks, too. Roman construction styles and techniques changed over the centuries. I won't try to cover them in this essay, but here is a good site for more information.
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Casual aside - You know, we think we are so darn smug, with our modern construction techniques and materials and our hard hats and walkie-talkies and big cranes lifting things into place. But the Romans were nothing if they weren't good civil engineers. You've read my treatise on aqueducts (and if you haven't, you should) and the Pantheon. When you come to Rome, besides the trying to absorb the great art and the magnificence of St. Peter's and the sheer glory of the ruins of the ancient empire, think about how these guys managed to design, build and maintain these incredible works. |
The Aurelian Wall was built-upon and added to by Maxentius about 30 years later, before all of that messiness he had to endure with Constantine (note to myself, do a write-up on what a ruthless bastard Constantine (I know you know who Constantine was) was). Honorius in the very early 5th century doubled the height of the wall, covering the original walkway with a roof and built a new walk way on top of that. All of this is very clear at the Via Veneto/Corso d'Italia intersection, as well as the section between San Giovanni in Laterano and Santa Croce di Gerusalemme.
Honorius' efforts were in vain, however. A mere 4 years after he completed the work (410 AD), the Goths sacked Rome, thus providing a convenient but not necessarily accurate point at which to say, "Game Over" for the Western Roman Empire. The Eastern Empire, aka the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople, continued for more than another 1000 years. They were routed and sacked and raped and pillaged by the Ottomans in 1453.
Echoes of the Empire reverberated throughout Europe for another 1500 years, though. First, the Franks and the Germans took the title "Holy Roman Emperor". Charlemagne was the first, crowned Christmas Day in 800 AD. The Holy Roman Empire lasted until Napoleon's day. Russian kings were Czars or Tsars, a derivation of Caesar. German kings were Kaiser from the same word. The last "Caesars" were the Bulgarian Tsars - they were finally ousted in 1946.
Not a bad run, I'd say.
Everyone knows the major amphitheater in Rome - the Colosseum, of course. Not many know there is another one, though. It is much smaller and much more difficult to get into. It is the Amphitheater Castrense.
The amphitheater is a part of the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme and is quite difficult to visit. But, because I have singled it out for a write-up here, you can bet it's because your intrepid and self-declared Rome expert got hisself in dere, oh yeah! And that's why I wrote "My Life as a (Petty) Criminal in Rome)". So go read it already!
Built between 218 and 222 AD by that wacky emperor Elagabalus (who was a monotheist, but not Christian - he viewed himself as the embodiment of the sun and remodeled the temples in Rome to reflect the worship of a single sun god. E-bus wasn't very popular and didn't last too long as emperor.) and used by the royal court exclusively, by 271 AD or so it was included in the structure of the Aurelian Wall and was thus no longer used. It was constructed entirely of brick - even the column capitals were brick work instead of carved marble or tufa.
Even though it only held 3 500 people, it was as functional as the big guy across town - it had a velarum (the canvas cover over the seating area) and a complete under-structure, which can be seen today (assuming you are as clever as me!). The complex where the animals were housed and trained was located in the nearby modern Porta Maggiore area and is the possible area where the Goths successfully broke through the wall and entered (but didn't capture) the city in the early 6th century. Like the famous one across town, the Amphitheater Castrense has been used as a source of building materials over the centuries; what exists today is merely a shadow of what once was. Only the first level is extant; the second and third levels were removed in the middle of the 16th century for defensive reasons. All that's left is the outer wall and some interior decorative superstructure.
Not much is known about this place; for one it wasn't used too long, for another it was used by an unpopular emperor and for yet another it was small and private. I can't really add much to the literature. I do have two photographs of the signs placed at the excavation site inside the walls. They are here, along with a translation provided by an acquaintance of mine. Hi, Bill!
It's an interesting place, if only because it's such a mystery.
A porticus was an open space that contained a temple or two to the builder's favorite god or gods and some sort of public building, such as a library. The Porticus Octaviae was built by Augustus between 33 and 23 BCE and was dedicated to his sister (what a nice brother!). It is in the same neighborhood as the Theater of Marcellus (also built by Augustus) and today lies in the Jewish quarter. Right next to it is a great Italian Jewish restaurant, da Gigetto.
I have been intrigued with this place since we as a group stumbled on it one night while looking for a place to eat dinner. The monumental gateway is being excavated and once again I was utterly fascinated at the resourcefulness of Romans, ancient and modern. There is an entire length of buildings directly to the left of the gate that have incorporated the original lintels in the walls of the buildings. If you walk through the gate and into the neighborhood, you can see recycled columns from one of the temples in one of the buildings. The entrance has been heavily reinforced over the years. One of the entryways has been bricked up with a supporting arch; at least one or two of the inner columns are held together with heavy iron bands and long lengths of pipe.
I walked along a walkway built for the excavation team and was able to get a backside view of the theater, too. Hmm... what does that sign with a red circle and slash mean?
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