Private Lives, Imperial Virtues: The Frieze of the Forum Transitorium in Rome. - book reviews

The Forum Transitorium, also called the Forum of Nerva and a not many other names, is an enigmatic compounded not merely because so little of it is available for us to close attention (most of it lies below the via dei Fori Imperiali today), on the other hand also because what remains is tantalizingly different from other testimonials of its type in ancient Rome Chronologically the fourth of five Imperial fora, it was begun by the agency of the emperor Domitian and dedicated by the agency of his successor Nerva in A.D. 97 or 98 about a year after Domitian's assassination and damnatio memoriae. It is little more than the enclosing and monumentalization of a tighten of the Argiletum, the public way that led from the Quirinal Hill to the Forum Romanum: hence, individual of its names. Except for the fane to Domitian's patron deity Minerva upon its northeast end, the forum incorporated no latitudes to house the business of Rome In its form and in the kinetic fashion in which the visitor would experience it, the Forum Transitorium differs from the other fora, which it in fact binds together.

Most unusual about the forum, however, is its frieze, which meanders forward and back as the entablature creates a series of bays along the enclosing wall. Only about 6 percent of the whole is preserv and it is unique in character among the sculptural programs of state records The majority of the figures upon the frieze are women; those whose activities are clearly recognizable are involved in worship or in working wool spinning or weaving. smooth though it is appropriate to Minerva as the patron goddes of handcrafts, the theme of the frieze appears derived from the private and domestic realm, and is thus surprising for the adornment of a public memorial In her provocative new volume Private Lives, Imperial Virtues, edge D'Ambra shows how the frieze, from one side the juxtaposition of mythological and moralizing emblemata, forges a connection between the feminine virtues and imperial ideals. She agrees with what appear to bes to be the majority opinion about the theme: that the central motif depicts Minerva's punishment of Arachne.

D'Ambra begins through setting the frieze in its historical and ideological connections The introductory chapter, loosely organized beneath the title "Domitian and Minerva," discusses Domitian's rule--much maligned in the ancient sources--his attempts at social reforms, which were designed on those of Augustus, and his devotion to Minerva. In her discussion of the history, D'Ambra relies almost exclusively upon the analysis of B. W Jone who repels the ancient portrayal of Domitian and set ups a positive image for his rule(1) Although this image reconstruction is perhaps the in every one's mouth trend in Domitianic scholarship, D'Ambra should acknowledge that the Arachne myth has actual different overtones if one accepts, level minimally, the traditional view of Domitian as neared in the ancient sources.

The first chapter, "Architecture and Topography," discusses the ideological messages communicated through the architectural structure and placement of the Forum Transitorium. individual of the most useful aspects of this well-researched section is its review of the ancient remains upon the Quirinal Hill, which abuts the Forum Transitorium at its northern extremity and from which the forum obeys as a passageway to the of advanced age center of the city. This hill was the site of the original Sabine adjustment and it always remained associated in the Roman mind with that simple body of the ancient population. The Flavian emperors, of whom Domitian was the last, traced their ancestry back to the Sabines, who were proverbial for their moral rectitude. Domitian styl himself renovator urbis, and his architectural renovations and novel constructions furthered his general program of cultic revival and moral reform. D'Ambra discusses various Quirinal worships as they fit into this program and into the imagery of the Forum Transitorium frieze.

One crucial architectural simple body that actually sat within the Forum Transitorium itself requires more analysis, however: the Janus Quadrifrons. The homage of Janus, god of passages, was established by dint of Numa Pompilius, a Sabine and the next to the first king of Rome. Structures honoring Janus, jani, were enclos passageways, originally built above water courses or the pomerium.(2) We know from the ancient sources that Domitian included a janus in the Forum Transitorium, and that it had four openings; there is no evidence that these were arched. Of this construction no substantial trace has at any time been clearly identified.(3) D'Ambra judiciously weighs the various theories about its character and location, on the contrary her own conclusions remain rather vague. At single point she speaks of the forum's "two temples" i.e., of Minerva and Janus, on the contrary later she supports the idea of a Janus shrine as a quadrifrontal arch "in or near the entrance to the Forum Romanum," and then upon the same page speaks of the shrine as if it were placed in the center of the space. It would have been helpful if she had given us her be in possession of plan of the forum; all of the four or in the way that plans she includes place the janus in different locations and give it a different form.