Archaeological Research and Cultural Heritage: towards a New Vision of the Augustan Forum
Recherche Archéologique et patrimoine : vers une nouvelle vision du forum d'Auguste
Résumé
New excavations in the area of the imperial fora, on the occasion of the jubilee, have led to the revision of the traditional interpretation of the shape of the square. The discovery of an exedra on the north-west side of the portico suggests that, for reasons of symmetry, there must have been another one on the other side. We must consider that the forum had two exedras in each portico, just like the Trajan’s one, as the 3D model shows. However, there is no evidence for admitting the presence of a basilica, similar to the Basilica Ulpia, on the south side of the square, even though ancient texts insist on the juridical function of the forum. The iconography of the forum and the temple of Mars Ultor, after all, is to be conceived in function of the ideology of power, precisely in reference to Augustus’ father, Caesar, and his own forum. There was probably only a statue of Mars Ultor in the cella and not a group with Venus and Divus Caesar as suggested by the so called relief of Alger. Divus Caesar would have been placed in the colossus room, at the extremity of the north-west side, facing the equestrian statue of Caesar in the middle of the Forum Iulium. forum Iulium
Origine : Fichiers éditeurs autorisés sur une archive ouverte
Loading...