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Proposed location of the Arch of Augustus in the Forum.

Arch of Augustus, Rome edit

The Arch of Augustus (Italian: Arco di Augusto) was the triumphal arch of Augustus, located in the Roman Forum. It spanned the road between the Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Temple of Caesar, near the Temple of Vesta, closing off the eastern end of the Forum, and it can be regarded as the first permanent three-hinged arch ever built in Rome.[1]

The archaeological evidence shows the existence of a three-hinged arch measuring 17,75 x 5.25 meters between the Temple of Caesar and the Temple of Castor and Pollux, although only the travertine foundations of the structure remain.[2]

Ancient sources mention arches erected in honor of Augustus in the Forum in two different occasions: the victory over Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BCE, and the recovery of the standards lost to the Parthians in 20 BCE.

Actian Arch edit

 
Denarius with one-hinged Augustan arch, probably struck in Rome in ca. 30-29 BCE.

Cassius Dio reports that after the Battle of Actium the Senate granted Augustus a triumph and an arch in an unspecified spot in the Forum.[3]

No description of the structure remains, although it is possible that the Actian Arch is represented on a coin minted in ca. 30-29 BCE.[4] However, the arch depicted on the coin could also refer to another instance in which Augusts was granted a triumphal arch[5] after the victory over Sextus Pompey in 36 BCE.[6]

A marble slab long 2.65 m. and high 0.59 m. bearing an inscription in honor of Augustus as savior and keeper of the Republic discovered in 1546 and subsequently lost was attributed to the Actian Arch.[7]

Parthian Arch edit

Cassius Dio mentions an ovatio and another triumphal arch granted to Augustus after he recovered the eagles lost in the battles of Carrhae and during Antony's campaign in Atropatene[8] without specifying its location. A Veronese scholiast commenting Vergil's Aeneid situates the structure next to the Temple of Caesar.[9]

 
Denarius with three-hinged arch, struck in Tarraco in 18 BCE.

Coins minted in Pergamon, Tarraco, and Rome in the years 19-16 BCE show a three-hinged arch with a quadriga on the top and figures holding bows and standards on the lower hinges. Accordingly, the proposed reconstructions display a structure comprised of a higher central vaulted hinge with Corinthian semi-columns and a triumphal chariot on top, flanked by two lower hinges with square-topped pediments with Doric columns or semi-columns surmounted by statues of Parthians holding bows and the recovered eagles.[10][11]

The Fasti Consulares and the Fasti Triumphales, unearthed in the Forum in 1546, may have been originally part of this monument, standing in the lateral aediculae;[12][10] alternatively, they may have belonged to the nearby Regia.[13]

The arch is not mentioned by Augustus in his autobiography; moreover, Suetonius and Cassiodorus report that he refused to celebrate a triumph in 19 BCE,[14][15] leading some scholars to believe that the Parthian Arch might have been projected but never realized.[16][17]

 
Denarius with three-hinged arch, struck in Rome in 16 BCE.

Bibliography edit

Brian Rose, C. (2005). The Parthians in Augustan Rome. American Journal of Archaeology, 109, No. 1, pp. 21-75.

von Freytag gen. Löringhoff, B., and Prayon, F. (1982). Praestant Interna. Festschrift Ulrich Hausmann.

Hammond, N.G.L. and Scullard, H.H. (eds.) (1970). Oxford Classical Dictionary, Clarendon Press.

Holland, L. B. (1946). The Triple Arch of Augustus. American Journal of Archaeology, 50, No. 1, pp. 52-59.

Horaceck, S. (2015). “Arco Partico,” digitales forum romanum, http://www.digitales-forum-romanum.de/gebaeude/partherbogen/?lang=en.

Nedergaard, E. (1994). La collocazione originaria dei Fasti Capitolini e gli archi di Augusto nel Foro Romano. Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, 96, pp. 33-77.

Reale Accademia dei Lincei. Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche (1883). Memorie della Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche.

Richter, O. (1889). Die Augustusbauten auf dem Forum Romanum. Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 4, pp. 137–162.

Sandys, J.E. (1919). Latin Epigraphy: an Introduction to the Study of Latin Inscriptions, Cambridge University Press.

Simpson, C.J. (1992). On the Unreality of the Parthian Arch. Latomus, 51, Fasc. 4, pp. 835-842.

References edit

  1. ^ Holland, The Triple Arch of Augustus, p. 53.
  2. ^ Idem, p. 52.
  3. ^ Cassius Dio, Roman History 51, 19
  4. ^ Holland, The Triple Arch of Augustus, pp. 53-54.
  5. ^ Cassius Dio, Roman History 49, 15
  6. ^ Richter, Die Augustusbauten auf dem Forum Romanum, p. 154.
  7. ^ Reale Accademia dei Lincei, Memorie della Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche, p. 343.
  8. ^ Cassius Dio, Roman History 54, 8
  9. ^ Briar Rose, The Parthian in Augustan Rome, p. 29.
  10. ^ a b Briar Rose, The Parthians in Augustan Rome, pp. 30-32.
  11. ^ Holland, The Triple Arch of Augustus, p. 56.
  12. ^ Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd Ed., pp. 429, 430 ("Fasti").
  13. ^ Sandys, Latin Epigraphy, pp. 167–172
  14. ^ Suetonius, Augustus 22, 2
  15. ^ Cassiodorus, Chronica 19 B.C.
  16. ^ Simpson, On the Unreality of the Parthian Arch, pp. 841-42.
  17. ^ Prayon, Praestant Interna, p. 325.

Temple of Isis and Serapis edit

The Temple of Isis and Serapis was a double temple in Rome dedicated to the Egyptian deities Isis and Serapis on the Campus Martius, directly to the east of the Saepta Julia. The temple to Isis, the Iseum Campense, stood across a plaza from the Serapeum dedicated to Serapis. The remains of the Temple of Serapis now lie under the church of Santo Stefano del Cacco, and the Temple of Isis lay north of it, just east of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.[1] Both temples were made up of a combination of Egyptian and Hellenistic architectural styles.[2] Much of the artwork decorating the temples used motifs evoking Egypt, and they contained several genuinely Egyptian objects, such as couples of obelisks in red or pink granite from Syene.[3]


Plan of the central Campus Martius

History edit

The cult was probably introduced in Rome during the 2nd century BCE, as attested by two inscriptions discovered on the Capitoline Hill mentioning priests of Isis Capitolina.[4] Cassius Dio reports that in 53 BCE the Senate ordered the destruction of all private shrines inside the pomerium dedicated to Egyptian gods;[5] however, a new temple to Serapis and Isis was voted by the second Triumvirate in 43 BCE.[6] Repressive measures against Egyptian cults were decreed by Augustus in 28 BCE,[7] Agrippa in 21 BCE,[8] and Tiberius who, in 9 CE, had the priests of the goddess executed and the cult statue thrown into the Tiber.[9][10]

The cult was officially reinstalled sometime between the reign of Caligula and 65 CE,[11] and it continued to be practiced until the end of the late imperial period,[12][13] when all pagan cults were forbidden and Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire.

The precise date of the construction of the sanctuary in the Campus Martius is not known, but it has been suggested that it was built shortly after the Triumvirate's vote in 43 BCE, between 20 and 10 BCE,[14] or during the reign of Caligula (37-41 CE).[15] The whole complex was also rebuilt by Domitian after its destruction in the great fire of 80,[16][17] and later restored by Severus Alexander.[18] Another fire in the 5th century CE left the structure dilapidated,[19] and its last remains were probably destroyed in the following centuries,[14] although parts of it (such as the two entrance arches) might have survived until the Middle Ages.[20]

Placement and architecture edit

Juvenal[21] mentions the temple being standing next to the Saepta Iulia, a placement confirmed by the depiction on the Forma Urbis Romae showing a southern part comprising a semicircular apse with several exedrae, and a courtyard surrounded by porticoes on the north and southern sides, with an entrance to the East.

It is difficult to gather more precise data about the original aspect of the sanctuary, as its architecture has been completely erased by later buildings and modifications to the area. The generally accepted reconstruction proposes that the whole area was a rectangle measuring about 220 x 70 meters[22][23] that comprised wells, obelisks, and Egyptian statues, along with a small temple of Isis in the northern section.[24][25]

Depictions edit

The only known depictions of the sanctuary apart from the plan on the Forma Urbis are four denarii minted during the reigns of Vespasian and Domitian.[26] The earliest coin shows a small Corinthian temple on podium, with an Egyptian-style architrave with solar disk and ureai topped by a pediment showing Isis-Sothis riding the dog Sirius; the columns frame the cult statue of the goddess inside the cella.[27] The temple appears slightly different in a later emission, in which it has a flat roof, but the presence of the identical cult statue allows the identification with the same temple. Another coin shows a tetrastyle temple on podium with flat top, and a similar structure with a pediment, interpreted as the temple of Serapis. The last denarius depicts a three-hinged arch that could be the propylon to the sanctuary.[26] A similar arch with the inscription ARCVS AD ISIS is present in one of the reliefs from the 2nd-century-CE Mausoleum of the Haterii. This structure has been identified with the Arco di Carmigliano, once standing across Via Labicana and dismantled in 1595, which would have constituted the eastern entrance to the sanctuary built by Vespasian.[14][28][29][30][31] It has also been proposed that the area could be accessed from the West through a quadruple arch built by Hadrian,[32] now part of the apse of the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva.[33][34]


 
Roman buildings depicted on the Haterii tomb; the arch 'to Isis' is the first on the left.

Archaeological finds edit

 
'Madama Lucrezia'

Several Aegyptaca, possibly coming from the sanctuary, have been discovered in the area.[35] Among them, there are four couples of obelisks:[36] the Pantheon Obelisk, the one in Villa Celimontana, the obelisk in Piazza della Minerva, the one on the Monument to the Battle of Dogali, and the one on the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona; one obelisk lays buried near the church of San Luigi dei Francesi; lastly, two more are outside Rome: one is in Boboli Gardens (Florence), and one in Urbino. Other artifacts include Madama Lucrezia, considered by some scholars part of the decoration of the sanctuary or of the pediment of the temple of Isis;[37][38] the marble foot that is the namesake of Via del Piè di Marmo; three columns with friezes representing Egyptian priests; several Egyptian-style lotus-shaped capitels[39]; the Vatican Museum Pinecone; the statue of the Nile in the Vatican Museums, and the statue of the Tiber river with Romulus and Remus; a statue of Thoth as a baboon; and possibly the statues of lions now decorating the Fontana dell'Acqua Felice and the staircase leading to Piazza del Campidoglio and the statue of a cat in the adjacent Via della Gatta, along with the Bembine Tablet.

Cult statues edit

It has been suggested that the cult statue of Isis might have been similar to the one currently in the Capitoline Museums based on the depictions of the statue found on coins.[40]

Other possible remains of a cult statue from the sanctuary are a head of Serapis in the Capitoline Museums and a statue of Cerberus in Villa Albani.[41]

 
Statue of Isis in the Capitoline Museums.

See also edit

Temple of Isis (Pompeii)
Serapeum

References edit

  1. ^ Turcan, Robert. The Cults of the Roman Empire. Wiley, 1996. p. 106
  2. ^ Lollio Barberi, Parola, and Toti, Le antichità egiziane di Roma imperiale, p. 60.
  3. ^ Donalson, Malcolm Drew. The Cult of Isis in the Roman Empire: Isis Invicta. The Edwin Mellen Press, 2003. pp. 93, 96–102
  4. ^ CIL VI, 2247, 2248.
  5. ^ Cassius Dio, Roman History 40, 47
  6. ^ Cassius Dio, Roman History 47, 15
  7. ^ Cassius Dio, Roman History 53, 2
  8. ^ id., 54, 6
  9. ^ Tacitus, Annales 2, 85
  10. ^ Suetonius, Tiberius 36
  11. ^ Lucan, Pharsalia 8, 831
  12. ^ Takacs, Isis and Sarapis, p. 129
  13. ^ Ensoli and La Rocca, Aurea Roma, p. 279.
  14. ^ a b c Versluys, Aegyptiaca Romana, p. 354
  15. ^ Roullet, The Egyptian and Egyptianizing Monuments of Imperial Rome, p. 23
  16. ^ Cassius Dio, Roman History 66, 24
  17. ^ Eutropius, Breviarium ab Urbe condita 7, 23
  18. ^ Historia Augusta, Alexander 26, 8
  19. ^ Versluys, "The Sanctuary of Isis on the Campus Martius in Rome", p. 164.
  20. ^ Ensoli, and La Rocca, Aurea Roma, p. 282.
  21. ^ Juvenal, Satires 6, 527 f.
  22. ^ Lembke, Das Iseum Campense in Rom.
  23. ^ Lollio Barberi, Parola and Toti, Le antichità egiziane di Roma imperiale, p. 59.
  24. ^ Lollio Barberi, Parola and Toti, Le antichità egiziane di Roma imperiale, pp. 64-65.
  25. ^ Roullet, The Egyptian and Egyptianizing Monuments of Imperial Rome, pp. 31-32.
  26. ^ a b Ensoli, L'Iseo e Serapeo del Campo Marzio, pp. 411-13.
  27. ^ Lollio Barberi, Parola and Toti, Le antichità egiziane di Roma imperiale, p. 65.
  28. ^ Ensoli, L'Iseo e Serapeo nel Campo Marzio, p. 411-14
  29. ^ Castagnoli, "Gli edifici rappresentati in un rilievo del sepolcro degli Haterii", p. 65
  30. ^ Platner, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, "Arcus ad Isis"
  31. ^ Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, p. 212
  32. ^ Versluys, "The Sanctuary of Isis on the Campus Martius in Rome", p. 160.
  33. ^ Ten, "Roma, il culto di Iside e Serapide in Campo Marzio", p. 274.
  34. ^ Takacs, Isis and Sarapis, p. 101.
  35. ^ Roullet, The Egyptian and Egyptianizing Monuments of Imperial Rome, pp. 34-35
  36. ^ Platner, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, "Obeliscus Isei Campensis"
  37. ^ Ensoli and La Rocca, Aurea Roma, pp. 276-77.
  38. ^ Ensoli, L'Iseo e Serapeo del Campo Marzio, pp. 421-23.
  39. ^ Ensoli, L'Iseo e Serapeo del Campo Marzio, p. 421.
  40. ^ Ensoli and La Rocca, Aurea Roma, p. 272.
  41. ^ Häuber and Schütz, "The Sanctuary Isis et Serapis in Regio III in Rome", pp. 90-91.

External links edit

Bibliography edit

Castagnoli, F. (1941). "Gli edifici rappresentati in un rilievo del sepolcro degli Haterii". Bullettino Comunale 69, pp. 59-69.

Donalson, M.D. (2003). The Cult of Isis in the Roman Empire: Isis Invicta. The Edwin Mellen Press.

Ensoli, S. (1998). "L'Iseo e Serapeo del Campo Marzio con Domiziano e i Severi. L'assetto monumentale e il culto legato con l'ideologia e la politica imperiale." L'Egitto in Italia. Dall'Antichità al Medioevo. Rome: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, pp. 407-438.

Ensoli, S. and La Rocca, E. (2000). Aurea Roma: dalla città pagana alla città cristiana. Roma: L'Erma di Bretschneider.

Häuber, C. and Schütz, F.X. (2010). "The Sanctuary Isis et Serapis in Regio III in Rome: Preliminary Reconstruction and Visualization of the ancient Landscape using 3/4D-GIS-Technology." Bollettino di Archeologia Online.

Lembke, K. (1994). Das Iseum Campense in Rom: Studie über den Isiskult unter Domitian (in German). Verlag Archäologie und Geschichte.

Lollio Barberi, O. Parola, G. and Toti, M.P. (1995). Le antichità egiziane di Roma imperiale. Roma: Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato.

Platner, S. (1929). A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. London: Oxford University Press.

Richardson, L. (1992). A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Baltimore (MD): JHU Press, pp. 211-13.

Roullet, A. (1972). The Egyptian and Egyptianizing Monuments of Imperial Rome. Leiden: Brill.

Takács, S.A. (2015). Isis and Sarapis in the Roman World. Leiden: Brill.

Ten, A. (2017). "Roma, il culto di Iside e Serapide in Campo Marzio: alcuni aggiornamenti." Vicino Oriente XXI , pp. 273-277.

Versluys, M. (2002). Aegyptiaca Romana: Nilotic Scenes and the Roman Views of Egypt. Leiden: Brill, pp.353-355.

Versluys, M. (1997). "The Sanctuary of Isis on the Campus Martius in Rome. A Review Article." BaBesch 72, pp. 159–69.

Vigliarolo, P. (2015). L’iseo Campense tra Mito e Archeologia: Ricostruzione di un Percorso Urbano.

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