TMA symposium "Public Works" - February 9, 2018

2013

In the Roman period, construction and maintenance of civic monuments and infrastructure were regarded as the normal duty of well-off citizens. For the subsequent centuries, encompassing the 4th to the 7th century AD, changing social and political conditions within the Roman Empire assumingly resulted in a severe reduction of expenditure and concurrent loss of sentimental and aesthetic attitudes towards public space. This book challenges this assumption. It reconstructs how cities of the Eastern Mediterranean in late antique and Early Byzantine times represented themselves towards outsiders by assessing the care given to urban fortifications, streets and squares, decorative and religious monuments and, finally, statuary. Thereafter, the architectural changes that distinguished these centuries from previous times are discussed. The book then evaluates the identity and motives of the diverse initiators of interventions, as well as the skills and work organisation of the actual constructors. Finally, the priorities of the users of public space, as well as their responses to it, are explored.

the modern visitor to the New acropolis Museum in athens can share with their ancient counterparts the experience of viewing the sculptures and architectural members from the periclean program in close proximity to the inscribed marble stelai that tell the story of their design and construction. today, the periclean monuments stand isolated atop the acropolis, but the many hundreds of cuttings in the bedrock surrounding them remind us that in antiquity they were framed by a confused forest of inscribed standing stones informing passersby of battles won, statues dedicated, and of building accounts rendered.

Urban History, 2014

Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia, 2010

In this study an alternative perspective of public space is adopted through the use of four aspects of architecture: the sequence (relative chronology), edges (material boundaries of space), circulation paths (possibilities of moving in space), and the unfinished features observable in public space; a distinctive approach to viewing and explaining architecture emerges. The results of the investigation can be applied to public space in different areas and situations. In the sequence, the long use of buildings as elements in the composition of space (termed endurance) can be noted, stressing the appearance of the older buildings. Considering the use of dismantled or unfinished buildings in significant locations, the offert of designing and erecting buildings can be identified as an important aspect of construction. The investment in architecture included not only the material characteristics of the structure but also the visible labor involved. The edges and circulation pattern were arranged to manipulate the three-dimensional quality of the environment, by positioning terraces as well as buildings in such a way that the natural terrain had an eliminating or emphasizing effect, not least the contrast between built and unbuilt space. In regard to the endurance of a majority of the buildings in the composition of space, minor elements like statue bases and votive monuments served to articulate the circulation paths within the environment. These monuments became important guides and transformers in the public space in relation to the older framework of buildings which persisted through time.

STUDIME SHOQËRORE 7 , 2020

The characteristics of the public and community spaces and, in particular, the types of structures contained in them, can be good indicators for the nature of a certain urban entity. For example, the public area of a civitas stipendiaria in a Roman province is certainly different from that of a colonia or of a municipium. The cities with a privileged status, in fact, played a fundamental role for the whole territory which was part of their jurisdiction and, in these cities, the forum was a celebratory space of particular importance, in which, in the various monumental phases, some specific characters played a role in the construction or renovation of public buildings. In these operations, the euergetism has often guaranteed the financing of numerous public works, which contributed, often in different times, to the achievement of an urban amoenitas. The public monuments of the cities, in fact, were often built with the donations of wealthy citizens. These type of donations were connected with the desire for ostentation of economic power and social prestige and gave to the donors a strong political power at a local level. It will be analyzed, through some significant examples of Roman cities in Italy and in Spain, the relationship between the legal status of the settlement and the “monumentalization” of their public areas.

Catalònia, 1996

This conference builds upon recent and ongoing discourse in the study of Roman urbanism to explore the relation between architecture and society in the Roman world. While recent decades have seen spectacular developments in the theories and concepts that inform the study of Roman urbanism, not all spheres of urban life have profited equally, a lot of discourse has gravitated around a limited number of showcase sites (particularly Pompeii and Ostia), and there have been relatively few attempts to draw links with the world beyond Central Italy. This conference focuses on four spheres of activities—religion, politics, commerce, and movement—and brings together specialists focusing on several parts of the Roman world, with a particular focus on the more densely urbanized regions in the Mediterranean. Approaches will vary between micro-scale and more wide-ranging, and issues on the agenda particularly include the identification of regional trends, and the impact of urban development on local communities. Confirmed speakers include Touatia Amraoui, Marlis Arnhold, Eleanor Betts, Chris Dickenson, Elizabeth Fentress, Miko Flohr, Annette Haug, Patric-Alexander Kreuz, Simon Malmberg, Stephan Mols, Eric Moormann, Cristina Murer, Candace Rice, Amy Russell, Saskia Stevens, Christina Williamson, Andrew Wilson, and Sandra Zanella. A detailed program can be found below the break. PROGRAMME Wednesday 7 December Gravensteen (Pieterskerkhof 6), Room 1.11 I. Urban life between theory and practice Chair: Eric Moormann, Radboud University 14:15 – 14:45 Introduction: Urbanism, urban space, and urban life (Miko Flohr, Leiden University) 14:45 – 15:30 Multisensory approaches to Roman urban space (Eleanor Betts, Open University (UK)) 16:00 – 16:45 Emotion and the City: the example of Pompeii (Annette Haug, University of Kiel) 16:45 – 17:30 Rome – the Moving City: Approaches to the Study of Urban Space (Simon Malmberg, University of Bergen) Thursday 8 December Gravensteen (Pieterskerkhof 6), Room 0.11 II. Urbanism and the sacred Chair: Tesse Stek, Leiden University 10:00 – 10:45 Urbanizing the sacred landscape. Rural sanctuary complexes in Asia Minor (Christina Williamson, Groningen University) 11:15 – 12:00 Religion in the urbs: Defining the special case of Imperial Rome beyond the political centre (Marlis Arnhold, University of Bonn) 12:00 – 12:45 The Economy of the Sacred (Elizabeth Fentress, Rome). III. Landscapes and Citizens Chair: Luuk de Ligt, Leiden University 14:00 – 14:45 Topographical permeability and dynamics of public space in Roman Minturnae (Patric-Alexander Kreuz, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Amman) 14:45 – 15:30 Statues and public life in the cities of Roman Greece: Athens, Corinth and Messene (Chris Dickenson, University of Oxford) 16:00 – 16:45 Political space and the experience of citizenship in Republican Rome: monumentality, interpellation, and performance (Amy Russell, Durham University) 16:45 – 17:30 Female Citizens and Cityscaping in Africa Proconsularis (Cristina Murer, Free University, Berlin) Friday 9 December Gravensteen (Pieterskerkhof 6), Room 0.11 IV. Landscapes of Interaction Chair: Nathalie de Haan, Radboud University Nijmegen 09:30 – 10:15 The urban borderscape as an arena for social, political and cultural interaction (Saskia Stevens, University of Utrecht) 10:15 – 11:00 I risultati delle recenti indagini in una zona suburbana di Pompei. Per una rilettura del dato topografico (Sandra Zanella, Université Montpellier – Labex Archimede) 11:30 – 12:15 Roman roads as indicators of urban life: the case of the Via Appia near Rome (Stephan Mols & Eric Moormann, Radboud University Nijmegen) 12:15 – 13:00 The commercial landscape of Roman ports (Candace Rice, University of Edinburgh) Chair: Tyler Franconi, University of Oxford 14:00 – 14:45 Urban workshops in Roman Africa: location, ownership and management (Touatia Amraoui, Casa de Velázquez, Madrid) 14:45 – 15:30 Fora and commerce in Roman Italy (Miko Flohr, University of Leiden) V. Concluding Remarks & General Discussion Chair: Tyler Franconi, University of Oxford 16:00 – 16:20 Concluding Remarks (Andrew Wilson, University of Oxford) 16:20 – 17:00 General Discussion

A brief overview on the roles of public buildings within Roman Towns and cities. it will also discuss how Roman culture invested greatly in, and produced, a great number of public buildings to in the fulfillment of three criteria for the populus Romanus; religious worship, entertainment and political necessities.

Anderson, M.A. 2015. ‘Public buildings and private opportunities: some dynamics in Pompeii's urban development.’ Journal of Roman Archaeology. 28. pp. 71-96 , 2015

Pompeii's urban fabric presents a complicated palimpsest of construction, amalgamation, fission, renovation, and destruction, each being a reflection of the current social, economic and political realities at the moment the work was accomplished. Taken together, these data reveal how changing socio-cultural values gradually altered the face of the urban environment over time. 1 However, while the overall transformation of the urban fabric is clearly a collective reflection of shifting concerns, it was really the actions of individuals that served to translate these trends into the physical reality that survives in the archaeological record. It was their particular decisions, undertaken in response to localised stimuli but expressing broad cultural trends and fashions, that served to produce, piece by piece, the complex and layered tapestry of the urban environment. Yet archaeological data only rarely provide the detail necessary to be able to identify the specific, small-scale motivations behind structural changes and the sequence of development, much less the ability to assess the positive or negative outcomes of particular decisions. Cases where it is possible to do so provide a rare window onto the localised, small-scale and often personal dynamics taking place wthin the broader process of urbanisation. Such cases emphasize the central rôle of individual actors in reacting to and reifying the forces of urban transformation through their private construction activities. 1 For discussion of the urbanisation of Italy, and particularly the need for archaeological data, see N. D. G. Morley, "Urbanisation and development in Italy in the late Republic," in L. De Ligt and S. J. Northwood (edd.), People, land, and politics: demographic developments and the transformation of Roman Italy 300 BC-AD 14 (Leiden 2008) 126. 2 Publication of the preliminary phasing for the block can be found at M. A.

2023

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