Friday, May 16, 2014

CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS - TABULARIUM (State Archive)

Tabularium
State Archive of Rome, built in 78 BC by the architect Lucius Cornelius for the consul Quintus Catulus Lutazio in the lower area called ASYLUM in between the higher area to the south known as ARX, corresponding to the Temple of Juno Moneta, and the higher area to the north known as CAPITOLIUM, corresponding to the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus
The building is 73.60 m (242 feet) long in blocks of tuff and lava stone from the River Aniene
It was used in the Middle Ages as a deposit of salt and as a prison
The name comes from the bronze tabulae (plate) on which laws and official acts were inscribed
In the first period of Roman history the Asylum was used to house the refugees and those expelled from other cities, who were quickly proclaimed Roman citizens. One of the big differences between Rome and other cities of antiquity was this willingness to accept foreigners as citizens, regardless of their religion, language or color of skin, as long as they would accept the laws of the Roman state. It was perhaps one of the reasons for Rome's extraordinary success
130 INSCRIPTIONS grouped by topics:
Languages, The Tomb, The Cult, The Law, Professions and Trades, the Games, Roads and Aqueducts, Military, The Roman Aristocracy
"Altar dedicated to the Sun god and the gods of Palmyra" second half of the first century AD with on the left side inscription in Syrian language from Palmyra. It was dedicated by Felix, an imperial freedman who worked in Testaccio in the Horrea Galbana and by his wife Helpis. It represents an early testimony of the oriental cult of the god Sun in Rome
"Ancient capitals" with inscriptions in Hebrew dating back to 1560/76 from the Campus Iudeorum the Jewish Cemetery which used to be located in the Trastevere district near Porta Portese. It was used from the early Middle Ages until 1645, when Innocent X Pamphili (1644/55) gave to the Jewish community a new area on the Aventine for their cemetery
"Cinerarium-shaped shrine with portraits of the dead"
"Stele of the gladiator Anicetus" still with traces of color
"Base of statue known as Vicomagistri's" 136 dedicated to Adriano (117/138)
"Base of a statue" dedicated by the Fifth Cohort of the Fire Brigade to Caracalla (211/17)
During the excavations of 1939/40 the TEMPLE OF VEIOVIS was found, an infernal young god maybe originally Etruscan, dedicated in 192 BC but rebuilt in the first century BC with headless "Cult statue of Veiovis"
"Inscription of the tomb of Agrippina Maggiore" with on the right side inscription of the twelfth century by the City of Rome that transformed this block of marble into an instrument of measurement of food units
"Base of a statue of Cornelia" the famous mother of the Gracchi brothers already placed in the Portico of Metellus later known as Portico d'Ottavia
"Relief of the knight Marcus Curtius" of the first century BC as he jumps in the chasm, found near the Column of Phocas. The relief was recycled for the paving of the Forum of 12 BC and its back is engraved with a part of the inscription which mentions the funder of the work, the praetor Lucius Naevius Surdinus
"Base of a statue of Hadrian" important for the lists engraved on the sides of vici (roads and districts) of three of the fourteen regiones (neighborhoods) in which Rome was divided. This is an extraordinary document for topographical knowledge of Rome during the first half of the second century AD
PORCH with eleven spans and gallery with "Fragment of a lintel from the Temple of Vespasian and Titus" decorated with absolutely incredible detail, richness and virtuosity that makes the nearby "Fragment of a lintel from the Temple of Concord" of 12 AD sober in comparison
ROOMS IN THE FOUNDATIONS
Remains of a building predating the Tabularium on the room ground level. In one of the three rooms "Mosaic floor" among the oldest ever found in Rome, dating from the second half of the second century BC, with a white background and irregular flakes of colored marbles

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