Ways of Being Roman by Louise Revell

Author:Louise Revell [Revell, Louise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781785701887
Google: _7DvjgEACAAJ
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Published: 2015-01-15T03:43:14+00:00

Entangled spaces

I want to deal with the idea of entangled spaces first, and here I want to return to urban public architecture. We saw in chapter four how the identity of the elite magistrate was maintained through a privileged experience of the public architecture of the town, in particular the forum and basilica. Many of these activities were carried out in circumstances in which a large portion of the rest of the community was present. The elite magistrate had a particular role to play during these encounters, and, in part, it was through their differential experience of these encounters that their more powerful identity was maintained. Nevertheless, these public spaces were used by more than one group, and as such, they can be seen as entangled spaces. To demonstrate this, I want to look more closely at the architecture of public entertainments.

We have already seen that the theatre and amphitheatre were places where the urban magistrates could occupy a prominent position through their role in sponsoring the games, but this was in the presence of the rest of the community, making these places where different experiences were possible. An important part of the creation of different experiences is where each social group was allowed to sit. Any analysis of this begins with the lex Iulia theatralis, the Augustan law on seating restrictions in the theatre reconstructed by Rawson (Rawson 1987). Using both the accounts of the law and other circumstantial evidence, she reconstructs an idea of seating in the theatre and the amphitheatre reflecting the complex hierarchies of society in Rome. This included seats for the senators and the 14 rows allocated to the equites, but also sections for soldiers, the plebs romana, married men, and freeborn boys, with slaves consigned to the rear of the seating. In this way, all those present internalised their own position within society, not in terms of a binary polarity between elite and non-elite, but as part of a graded system of status. However, it is debatable how far we can apply this to the theatres and amphitheatres of the western provinces. There are conflicting pictures from the urban charters. The lex coloniae Genetivae stipulated that seating should be divided according to similar guidelines (Crawford 1996: 393–454): places were to be reserved for the local magistrates and those with imperium in all shows (§125), and in theatres, the orchestra was to be reserved for local and Roman magistrates, senators (including former senators) and the sons of senators (§127). However, the lex Irnitana allowed local custom to continue, subject to ratification by the local magistrates (González 1986: §81). Nevertheless, the charter is clearly underpinned by the assumption that there would be some form of hierarchical ordering to the seating, ordered by formal rank rather than by ability to pay.

Whilst these laws clearly privileged the experience of the urban elite, it is possible to gain a different picture from the viewpoint of the non-elite. They were at risk of substantial penalties if they did not follow

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