Roman cities from the outside in: the visitor's perspective

32 Pages·2012·4.22 MB·English

Roman cities from the outside in:
the visitor’s perspective
Travellers on an open four-wheeled wagon.
Tomb stele from Hungary.
Source: http://www.ubi-erat-lupa.org
Dr. Penelope J. Goodman, University of Leeds
Imperial visits
Septimius Severus and his wife arriving in Leptis Magna, North Africa (c. AD 200)
Suetonius, Augustus 59:
‘Some Italian cities voted that their official year should
commence on the anniversary of his first visit to them.’
Other state officials and wealthy elite travellers
Strabo, Geography3.4.20 (on Spain in the Augustan period)
‘The governor himself spends his winters dispensing justice in the districts by the
sea, especially at Carthago Novaand Tarraco, while he goes on tour during the
summer, continually keeping an eye on things which need improvement.’
Horace, Satires 1.5.1-4 (the journey to Brundisium)
Leaving great Rome for Aricia, a modest inn
Received me. The rhetorician Heliodorus
Was with me, most learned of Greeks. To Forum Appii, then,
Crammed with bargemen and stingy innkeepers… (etc.)
Cicero, Letters to Atticus5.1
‘On arriving at my place at Arpinum, my brother came to see me, and our first
subject of conversation was yourself, and we discussed it at great length…. Next
day we started from Arpinum. A country festival caused Quintus to stop at
Arcanum; I stopped at Aquinum; but we lunched at Arcanum. You know his
property there. When we got there Quintus said, in the kindest manner,
"Pomponia, you ask the ladies in; I will invite the men”... But she, in the hearing
of us all, exclaimed, "I am a guest here myself!”’
Cooley & Cooley D70:
Plan of the temple of Isis at Pompeii
‘(Portrait) of Gaius Norbanus Sorex, (theatre visible to the south)
actor of second parts; the presidents of
the Fortunate Augustan Suburban
Source: http://sites.google.com/site/ad79eruption
Country District (set this up). Space
given by decree of the town councillors.’
Now in Naples Archaeological Museum
Cooley & Cooley D20 (CIL4.7994): Cooley & Cooley D25 (CIL4.3881):
‘49 pairs. The Capinian troupe will fight ‘Twenty pairs of gladiators provided by
at the games of the Augusti at Puteoli Quintus Monnius Rufus are to fight at
on [12], 14, 16 and 18 May. There will Nolaon May the 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and
be awnings. Magus (wrote this).’ there will be a hunt.’
A covered goods wagon on a
funerary relief from Austria
Source: http://www.ubi-erat-lupa.org
Goods arriving at Ostia
Source: http://www.ostia-
antica.org/portus/reliefs.htm
Approaching Ostia
Approaching Pompeii
Approaching
Herculaneum?
Pompeii
Main clusters of tomb monuments shown in red