Public Spaces

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Public Spaces

Temples. Strictly speaking, the word templum referred to a sacred area and not just to the building dedicated to a god or goddess. Families would go to templa for several reasons, most often to ask the god or goddess for something and to offer the deity a sacrifice in return. If a family member were sick, someone might go to the temple of Asclepius to offer a sacrifice for the person’s recovery. A married woman who had not yet produced children would go to the temple of Juno or Diana to ask the goddess’s help in becoming pregnant. Businessmen or travelers would appeal to Mercury to protect their interests and their journeys, whereas sailors or merchants might sacrifice to Neptune before a voyage.

Fora. Every town of any size had a forum —an open area surrounded by shops or temples that served as a political, religious, and commercial space. Rome had severalfora —some serving all three purposes, some with more limited functions. The best known of the fora, the Forum Romanum, or Roman Forum, was originally an open market with shops, but was also a place with reli-

gious importance and of political convenience. Bordered on one end by the Capitoline Hill and on one side by the Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum contained the state treasury, law courts, the Senate House, many temples, the House of the Vestals, and the Rostra—a platform from which speeches could be delivered to all those who gathered in the flat, open space in front of it. In times of turmoil and war, families flocked near the Rostra or to the steps of the curia (senate house) to hear news of victories and defeats. They watched from the Roman Forum as triumphal processions passed down the Sacred Way. Since the Roman Forum quickly became less of a marketplace and more of a political and religious area, other fora took over the commercial aspects: the Forum Boarium, located near the Tiber, was a cattle market; the Forum Holitorium (also near the Tiber) was a vegetable market; and the Forum Piscarium (near the Forum Boarium) was a fishmarket. These four for were all in place near the beginning of the Republic and even as far back as the monarchic period. As the Republic ended and the Empire began, individuals began adding new fora. The Forum of Julius Caesar was dedicated in 46 B.C.E., even though it was not complete at that time. (Octavian finished the construction after Caesar’s death.) This area, adjacent the Roman Forum, was bordered on all sides by a colonnade with a series of shops on one side and a temple to Venus Genetrix (Venus the Producer) dominating the middle. The Forum of Augustus was dedicated in 2 B.C.E. and surrounded the temple to Mars Ultor (Mars the Avenger), which Octavian had vowed to build at the battle of Philippi when he defeated Brutus and Cassius. This forum functioned as a place dedicated to Rome’s glorious past and to the belief in a glorious future. The people could come and gaze on the statues of great men from Roman history and from the Julian gens. In the temple itself stood the statues of Venus, Mars, and their descendant, the Divine Julius Caesar. This temple became the place where boys became men as they publicly assumed the toga virilis. Roman officials who had been appointed governors of foreign provinces began their journeys from this temple as well. And the Senate moved from the curia to the temple of Mars Ultor when it began deliberations about declaring wars, military strategy, and awarding triumphs.

Forum of Vespasian. The Forum of Vespasian was the next area enclosed by an emperor. The centerpiece for this space was the Temple of Peace, begun in 71 C.E. after the capture of Jerusalem and completed in 75 C.E. The area around the temple appears to have functioned as a parklike setting in the midst of the bustling city.

Forum of Nerva. The Forum of Nerva was begun, and almost completed, by Domitian, but was not dedicated until 97 C.E. by Nerva. Located between the Forum of Augustus and the Forum of Vespasian, the Forum of Nerva organized the last open area bordering the northern side of the Roman Forum. At the end near the Roman Forum stood the Temple of Janus. At the opposite end was a Temple to Minerva. Doorways in the walls between the Forum of Nerva and the Forum of Augustus on one side and the Forum of Vespasian on the other earned the Forum of Nerva another name: the Forum Transitorium (The Passageway Forum), by which it was most commonly known from the third century C.E. on.

LIVING OVER A BATHHOUSE

In one of his philosophical letters (56 C.E.), Seneca describes what it is like to live over a bathhouse. Although it is doubtful that Seneca himself lived in such a place, and the point of his letter is to prove that the true Stoic scholar has enough self-discipline and self-control to block out the noise, the description offers a powerful view of life in the city.

Here am I in the middle of a roaring babel. My lodgings are right over a bath! Now imagine every sort of outcry that can revolt the ear. When the more athletic bathers take their dumb-bell exercise, I hear grunts as they strain or affect to strain, hissing and raucous gasps as they expel their breath after holding it: when I run against some sedentary soul, who is content with the mere humble massage, I catch the smack of the hand as it meets his shoulders, with a different note according as it alights flat or hollowed. But if a tennis-professional comes along and starts scoring the strokes, all’s up. Next add the quarrelsome rowdy and the thief caught in the act and the man who loves his own voice in a bath: after that, the people who jump into the plunge-bath with a mighty splash. Besides those whose voices are the real unvarnished thing, if nothing else, you must imagine the remover of superfluous hair emitted from time to time a thin falsetto. … Then there is the cordial-seller with a whole gamut of yells, and the sausage-vendor, and the puff-pastry-man, and all the eating-house hawkers crying their wares each with a distinctive melody of his own.

Source: Michael Grant, Latin Literature: An Anthology (Harmondsworth, U.K. & New York: Penguin, 1978).

Forum of Trajan. The final large imperial forum, the Forum of Trajan, was actually begun by Domitian but completed in phases, first by Trajan and then by Hadrian. The first half of the Forum of Trajan was dominated by a new law-court, the Basilica Ulpia. The second part contained the Column of Trajan, libraries, and the Temple of the Divine Trajan. The primary purpose of the area, demonstrated by the Basilica Ulpia, was to provide a new venue for the growing number of legal cases being processed in the city. The Basilica Ulpia also provided a place to store official records, display laws, and for emperors to make public declarations: Hadrian used the venue to burn the records of those who owed money to the state; Aurelian also burned some of the public records; and Marcus Aurelius auctioned imperial gold to raise money for his war efforts. In the fourth century C.E. the Emperor Constantine began to dismantle the Basilica Ulpia to use some of its architectural details for his own triumphal arch.

Baths. Part of one’s daily routine was a visit to the baths. The wealthiest Romans had private baths in their houses, but the majority of people living in cities went to the public baths to wash the dirt off their skin and to meet up with friends and neighbors to catch up on the gossip. In the Republic the baths were primarily a place for cleaning and exercising. As the complexes grew in size, they added other spaces for leisure activities and other means for improving one’s physical appearance. There were libraries, rooms to sit and talk, and places one could hear music or play games. Seneca describes all the sounds he heard—the masseur, the hair-plucker, the hot-waxer, and the snack-seller. Important figures such as Augustus’s military adviser Agrippa and the emperors Nero, Titus, Trajan, Caracalla, and Diocletian built baths in the city of Rome and around the empire.

Theater. Throughout most of the Republic, theaters were temporary buildings set up only for certain games at which plays were performed. In 55 B.C.E. Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus built the first permanent stone theater. Now plays could occur year-round. Children went to plays with their parents—one playwright complains about the disturbing sound of crying babies—but families did not sit together in the theater. Women and men sat in separate sections, so the children sat with one parent, probably their mother. Boys close to the age of maturity might have joined their fathers. In addition to offering plays as part of the state-sponsored games, individuals paid for plays and other entertainment to be provided for the people to mark military victories or in honor of the death of a family member. Romans of all classes attended plays.

Nero. Among the emperors, Nero alone is known for having performed onstage. Romans considered acting a lower-class and demeaning profession. For an emperor to appear onstage was shocking, to say the least. That Nero forced upper-class Roman citizens and even women to appear onstage as well did not help his popularity.

Bread and Circuses. All emperors, however, learned the importance of providing plays and other spectacles for the people as a means of keeping them happy and occupied. Because Rome was full of idle poor, emperors needed to find something for them to do. In the Republic, political figures—those holding the office of aedile in particular—had used games to gain popularity. In the Empire, the emperor used them as a way to pacify the people. From this practice came the saying that “bread and circuses” were what the mob wanted.

Amphitheaters. In the amphitheaters men and women watched gladiators fight and battles between animals and between humans and animals. In the Republic, gladiator fights were given in the Roman Forum, where spectators watched from seats constructed just for the event. The first wooden amphitheater in the city was built in the Campus Martius (the Plain of Mars) in 29 B.C.E. The most famous such structure, the Flavian Amphitheater (better known as the Colosseum) was begun in 79 C.E. by Vespasian and completed by the emperor Titus in 80 C.E. From the time of Augustus, men and women sat separately in the amphitheater (as in the theater): men had the better, lower seats; women had the upper seats. Boys had their own section, with their paedogogues seated nearby. Behind the women’s seats was an open area for the standing crowd who could not pay for a place to sit. During most shows, some sort of awning was drawn over the crowd to protect them from the sun.

Circuses. Circuses in Rome are not what modern people think of—traveling animal shows; rather, the circus was an oblong racetrack around which horses and chariots raced. The oldest in Rome, the Circus Maximus, dates from the period of the monarchy. The Circus Flaminius was added around 220 B.C.E. in the Campus Martius. The Circus of Nero (known now as the Vatican Circus) provided the venue for his persecution of the Christians (not the Colosseum, as one sees in the movies). The Circus of Maxentius, first dedicated in 309 C.E., still remains in good condition outside the city along the Appian Way. Only at these races did women and men sit together to watch and cheer for their teams—the Reds, Greens, Blues, and Whites. (The emperor Domitian added Gold and Purple to the list, but they disappeared with his reign.) The poet Ovid in the Ars amatoria (Art of Love) talks about the races as the best place to meet potential lovers, but they also served as an opportunity for a family outing.