Decoration and Display in Rome's Imperial Thermae by Maryl B. Gensheimer;

Author:Maryl B. Gensheimer;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: OUP Premium
Published: 2018-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Severans and Associations with North Africa

The Severan building program in Rome—particularly the new construction utilizing or emphasizing an aquatic component—can be understood in the context of establishing and affirming Severan legitimacy and the divine right to rule. The question still remains why, precisely, this particular zone of the city was chosen for such ambitious construction. On a related note, it is important to consider why Caracalla would have chosen to endow his own eponymous baths in the same district that his father had previously built upon.

This area of the city abutting the Palatine Hill, the Porta Capena, and the Via Appia was free for dynastic building on a monumental scale. Focused building here by Severus and his architects could and would profoundly transform this area of the city in a manner analogous to earlier dynastic building programs. Augustus and the Julio-Claudians, for instance, focused a great deal of their patronage in the area of the Campus Martius.53 Similarly, the Flavians had embellished the land formerly occupied by Nero’s Domus Aurea (c. 64–68 c.e.), both in the valley between the Palatine and Esquiline and on the hills themselves.54 In his concentration on this district south of the Palatine, Severus was following imperial precedent; by choosing a distinct area of the city for his own building program, Severus adeptly claimed this area as his own. But why would this area, in particular, have been chosen? Why not some other neighborhood? Severus’ attention to a single area of the city of Rome is not unusual, but the precise choice of the district favored with his patronage is quite noteworthy.

In terms of purely practical considerations, one should note that this neighborhood offered both open construction space and an audience for Severus’ projects. In the immediate area, there is evidence for wealthy private homes, like the Hadrianic-period house later embedded in the platform of the Baths of Caracalla55 or the house given by Septimius Severus to L. Fabius Cilo, the urban prefect, in 203 c.e.56 The homes on the Aventine Hill could also be served by Severus’ baths and nymphaeum, as could visitors arriving from the south on the Via Appia. Moreover, various urban cohorts, such as the Castra Peregrina and the stationes of the fourth and fifth cohorts of vigiles, were stationed at barracks just to the east of the Via Appia and presumably also were served by Severus’ projects.57 In functional terms, therefore, there was a ready constituency for an infrastructure program in this area of the city. The requisite supplies, such as wood for the furnaces of Severus’ baths, also could be easily provided via either the Via Appia or (after its completion) the newly constructed Via Nova.

There are, of course, also ideological explanations that underlie Severan building in this area of the city. According to the Historia Augusta, the Septizodium was deliberately situated at the end of the Via Appia and oriented such that it faced visitors arriving to Rome from Africa. The Historia Augusta goes on to report that

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