Competition, Meaning, and Monumentalization in Gallia Comata

P. Christesen and D. Kyle, Companion to Sport and Spectacle in the Greek and Roman Worlds, 2014

… conference held at Chester, 16th-18th …, 2009

The academic literature on monuments has boomed in the last 30 years. Together with museums, tourist sites, and community rituals, monuments play a key role in the construction of the past. This article examines how monuments worked in the Roman world. It considers one monument as a case in point-the collection of summi viri that lined the porticoes in the Forum of Augustusexamining it in light of recent scholarship on monuments and historical commemoration. The story of the summi viri collection cannot be separated from its public life. Many have presented the summi viri and indeed the entire forum as an ideological production. That fits a reading of the monument itself, but the collection was not a static record of Rome's past. Rather, if we look at its public life, especially the ways in which it was viewed and reproduced, we see that its meanings were much more dynamic.* monuments and memory

Corinth in Context. Comparative Perspectives on Religion and Society. Ed. by S. J. Friesen, J. Walters, and D. Schowalter, 2010

City Walls in Late Antiquity, 2020

A survey of the 'classic' late Roman city walls in Gaul arguing that they respond more to the requirements of the state than they express civic monumentalism.

Political Landscapes of Capital Cities, edited by Jelena Bogdanovic, Jessica Christie, and Eulogio Guzman, 2016

Bull. della Comm. Arch. di Roma, 1982

Pervading Empire Relationality and Diversity in the Roman Provinces, Potsdamer Altertumswissenschaftliche Beiträge, 2020

A. Haug - M. T. Lauritsen (Eds.), Decorative Principles in the Roman World, International Conference Kiel 20.–22. february 2019, Decor. Decorative Principles in Late Republican and Early Imperial Italy 2 (Berlin 2021), 2021

The Capitolium at Brescia is one of the rare well-preserved examples of this temple type in Roman Italy. Large parts of its architecture, interior design and the forum area to which it was connected, can be reconstructed. This case study will provide a systematic analysis of the Capitolium, focusing on the aesthetic and semantic effects of its decorative elements, as well as their correlation and interaction in the creation of specific spatial qualities. Consequently, various aspectssuch as the urban setting, architecture and layout, different features of the interior design and the framework of action, i. e., that of ritual performances-will be taken into account. Temples located in the forum helped to define the political and religious centre of Roman cities. At Brescia (Roman Brixia), located between Milan and Verona 1 , the Capitolium was rebuilt during the reign of the emperor Vespasian, a process that was completed in A.D. 72/73 2 (Figs. 1-3). Distinctive features of the temple were its position on a high terrace on the southern slope of the Colle Cidneo and its transverse layout, which included three large cellae (dedicated to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva), two rooms of unknown function 3 and lateral porticos. The elongated forum was situated directly to the south of the Capitolium area, enclosed by porticos at the sides and a basilica at the end of the square. The two areas were separated by a remarkable difference in height and by the elevated decumanus maximus, which crossed the city in an east-west direction. In recent decades, numerous studies and new excavation projects have helped to delineate the development and architectural design of the temple and the forum 4. Apart from a few exceptions, the individual decorative features that adorned the exterior and interior spaces have been analysed only in isolation 5. According to Vitruvius, the urban setting of Roman temples, and especially Capitolia, guaranteed their visibility in the ancient cityscape 6. Moreover, certain principles of decor-including symmetry, consistent proportions and a certain set of ornamenta-were appropriate for the design of such a temple 7. As a result, the perception of the temple was affected by the building's proportions, rhythm, the tectonic structure, as well as the decorative features applied to the columns, entablature and pediment. From Vitruvius' point of view, all forms of decor were related to one another. 1 The city, which was located in the former territory of the Cenomani, was given the rank of a colonia civica Augusta in the Augustan period. For the history of Brescia, see Albertini 1979, 152-171 and Rossi 2012. 2 The Flavian date is confirmed by the inscription preserved on the architrave (CIL V, 4312): cf. Panazza 2012. The interpretation of the temple as the Capitolium is secured by a dedicatory inscription belonging to an altar, which has been fragmentarily preserved. See Gregori 2014, 319 f. Fig. 1. 3 For the room next to the eastern cella, see Dell'Acqua 2014, 346-348. 4 The first excavations in the area of the temple were carried out between 1823 and 1826. For a history of research, see Dell'Acqua 2012, 80-82. In addition to the important studies of Hanns Gabelmann and Antonio Frova, which concern the layout and architecture of the temple and the forum, the results of excavations carried out during the 1990s are fundamental;