BMCR 2009.04.75: Macaulay-Lewis on Haselberger, Urbem adornare: die Stadt Rom und ihre Gestaltumwandlung unter Augustus = Rome's Urban Metamorphosis under Augustus (English translation of the main text by Alexander Thein). Journal of Roman Archaeology. Supplementary Series; no. 64

Lothar Haselberger, Urbem adornare: die Stadt Rom und ihre
Gestaltumwandlung unter Augustus = Rome's Urban Metamorphosis under
Augustus (English translation of the main text by Alexander Thein).
Journal of Roman Archaeology. Supplementary Series; no. 64.
Portsmouth, R.I.:  Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2007.  Pp. 288.  ISBN
9781887829649.  $99.00.

Reviewed by Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis, Oxford University
([email protected])
Word count:  2039 words
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[Table of Contents (in English and German) at the end of the review.]

Rome and its physical transformation under Augustus remains one of the
most popular subjects for scholars and students of the ancient world.
Because of this interest in Augustan Rome, saying something new is
often a challenge. One of the scholars at the forefront of recent work
on Augustan Rome has been Lothar Haselberger. Haselberger's
contribution to the study of the topography of Rome is considerable,
specifically in the form of his Mapping Augustan Rome project and his
work on imagining ancient Rome.[[1]] Here he explores the well-known
topic of the transformation of the city of Rome under Augustus and
builds on the work of previous scholars, specifically Zanker, Favro and
Huelscher  (p. 18).[[2]] In six chapters, a postscript and addenda,
Haselberger examines how the Augustan Revolution affected the urban
image of Rome.

Chapter 1, "Adorn this city," sets the stage for the main arguments of
the book. This chapter focuses on the idea of "adorning the city," (Dio
52.30.1) and the visual built image of Rome as perceived in the ancient
sources. The discussion is heavily focused on textual analysis, with
archaeology a distant second place here, which is surprising
considering the considerable archaeological evidence there is on the
topic. However, the rest of the book draws on archaeology, epigraphy
and the ancient sources.

He also sets out the two main arguments of the book. First, the Campus
Martius was the center of the Augustan building program and its
development reflects a shift away from the center of the Urbs and a new
focus for the city of Rome.  Second, he argues that the Augustan
reforms of 7 BC, specifically the reorganization of the city into
fourteen regions and "the all-encompassing 'opening' of the urbs, along
with the neglect of its walls," (p. 36) reflect a radical
transformation of the city. It is this two-pronged transformation of
Rome that allowed Augustus to articulate his "revolutionary realities"
(p. 28). Haselberger sees Augustus as the driver for all of these
programs even if he was not explicitly involved in them; specifically,
he sees Augustus and Agrippa working in concert (p. 36).

In Chapter 2, "Rome--a deficient metropolis," Haselberger retraces the
well-accepted facts that Rome was not constructed, planned or organized
the way that a leading ancient metropolis should be and that Augustus
tried to address the scruffy image of Rome, now the capital of the
ancient world, through this extensive building project. The position of
the city on seven hills and its organic development dictated its form
and, as a result, its failure to be as architecturally grand as many
Greek and Hellenistic cities.  He argues that the Campus Martius was
the only place where orthogonal planning in accordance with cardinal
points could be applied since it was outside the heart of the city of
Rome (pp. 40-43). In other words, in Haselberger's opinion, it was the
only part of the city whose urban image could be made into something
comparable or superior to the cities of the Greek East and, even,
Alexandria.

Chapter 3, "La grande Rome--creating and preserving the new Rome" (pp.
70-221), explores the development of the Campus Martius. The
development of the Campus Martius, which commenced under Caesar and
Pompey, continued unabated under the auspices of Augustus and Agrippa.
It became a "new urban landscape" of gleaming monumental architecture
and green space (p. 126). There is little doubt of this from the
textual and surviving archaeological data. However, Haselberger's image
of an orderly, designed Campus Martius, is not sustained in his
discussion of the various building projects. This argument becomes
increasingly difficult to support when one considers the buildings
whose locations in the Campus Martius are known archaeologically and
those buildings and properties whose placement in the Campus Martius
remains unknown. The boundaries of the Horti Agrippae, Thermae
Agrippae, Horti Pompei, the park complex associated with the Mausoleum
of Augustus are unknown. Even Haselberger's maps from Mapping Augustan
Rome suggest that there are large portions of the Campus Martius that
we simply do not know enough about to assess its organization
accurately.

Furthermore, Haselberger sees the Campus Martius as the focus of the
Augustan building program. It was certainly a critical part of the
program; however, he underplays Augustus's restoration or construction
of new monuments within the bounds of the old Urbs, specifically the
eighty-two temples mentioned in the Res Gestae, his completion of the
Forum Iulium, the construction of the Forum Augustum, the restoration
of the city gates, and his building projects in the Roman Forum. While
Haselberger discusses these projects (pp. 127-144), he sees them as
secondary to the building works of Agrippa and the construction of
monuments on the Campus Martius.  Clearly, Augustus focused on these
monuments; the construction or restoration of temples reflected his
ideological goal of restoring pietas, one of Republican Rome's core
values, while Agrippa, probably with Augustus's approval, carried out
the bulk of the improvements to the Campus Martius. While the Campus
Martius was undoubtedly important, as its new public monuments
presented Rome as an imperial city and underlined the importance of
public building, Augustus and his associates focused on restoring and
transforming all of Rome.[[3]] Haselberger also places the
transformation of the city in a strict chronological framework, seeing
the first two decades of Augustus's reign until 7 BC as the most
critical for the development of the new urban image of Rome.

Chapter 4, "The silent revolution of 7 BC--the 'open city,' " serves as
a platform for Haselberger's second argument that Augustus' other
radical transformation of the city occurred with the reorganization of
city into fourteen regions that included the suburban part of the city
and even a whole region across the Tiber. As he observes, Rome became a
city without walls, whose gates became open gateways, and the suburban
edge of the city became subject to the city's administration, although
the pomerium was not extended to include these domains. This was quite
revolutionary, since many cities in Roman Italy were still walled.
Rome, like Sparta, "was protected by its strength rather than its
walls" (p. 230). The opening of the gates, the decline of Rome's walls
and her urban boundaries remain understudied generally and should
provide a fruitful area for further study.

Chapter 5, "Augustus' new Rome," summarizes Haselberger's two
arguments. Although with a slightly different emphasis on the Campus
Martius and the opening of the city, Haselberger presents the same
argument about the transformation of Augustan Rome that we have seen
before. She became an imperial capital from a city of brick. In
conclusion, Haselberger's argument for the centrality of the Campus
Martius in Augustan Rome is less convincing and original than his
argument about the opening of the city and its transformative power.
While the Campus Martius becomes a space for public entertainment and
leisure, the political, religious and ceremony heart of Rome remained
the Forum Romanum and Forum Augustum. The continued imperial focus on
this region remained throughout Rome's history.

This study, however, makes a number of useful contributions. It
provides a clear overview and narrative for the Augustan building
programs and a precise chronology; his list of Augustan buildings
(Chapter 6, "Augustan buildings in Rome: a list") is particularly
helpful, it gives dates for the years of dedication and individuals
involved in the various Augustan building projects. It serves as a good
starting point for a student new to Augustan Rome or for a scholar
engaging with complex topographical arguments.

Now let us briefly discuss certain issues of the bilingual German and
English text, formatting and images. Publishing the text in German and
English is laudable; Haselberger's ideas are quickly available to a
wider range of scholars, and the book achieves its goal of engaging
non-German scholars with the German tradition of Bauforschung (p. 10).
However, the decision not to translate the footnotes or the addenda is
irritating.  Only the most active of readers will hunt through the
long, complicated footnotes to find references. Inevitably, those
reading in English naturally find themselves ignoring the footnotes,
and thus, do not get as much out of the book as they could.
Furthermore, not all of the captions of the images (for example, Abb.
3, p. 47) are translated. As an experiment in this type of bilingual
publishing, the book is fairly successful and should encourage similar
efforts; however, a full translation would make the book even more
accessible and user-friendly.

Finally, for a book on the metamorphosis of Augustan Rome, it is far
too short on maps and images. There are only four figures and a total
of nine images, including one small map that only depicts part of the
Campus Martius. This work assumes that one will have Haselberger's
previous book, Mapping Augustan Rome, or at least a map of Rome, to
hand when assessing his arguments (p. 10); if one does, this book is
much easier to use. It would have been helpful if at least one or two
large-scale maps, perhaps of pre- and post-7 BC Rome, had been included
to allow the reader to follow and dissect Haselberger's arguments.
Considering Haselberger's recent work on creating accurate visual
reconstructions of ancient Rome and the topic of this book on the urban
image of Rome, it is also surprising that no reconstructions play a
role in it. Inclusion of such images might have also strengthened his
arguments, particularly those about the organization of the Campus
Martius, by helping the reader to visualize the transformation of Rome
and understand how the topography of Rome changed during this period in
its history.

Table of Contents (In English and German)

FOR ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF MAIN TEXT
List of figures 6
Special abbreviations 7
Preface 8
I. "Adorn this city" 12
Problems and perspectives 16
The territorial definition of the Urbs 18
built urban image 22
Leading and directing public building 28
Augustus' own urban building as represented in the Res gestae 32
Campus Martius and Urbs 36
II. Rome--a deficient metropolis 40
Not yet adorned 40
Attempts at a solution 46
Caesar's inheritance and new initiatives 54
Programmatic building 64
III. "La grande Rome"--creating and preserving the new Rome 70
Staging the project (29/28 B.C.) 72
Building the Campus Martius: monumenta Agrippae (27-19 B.C.) 100
Suburb and "the rest of the Urbs" (27-19 B.C.) 128
A Rome transformed: aurea saecula (19-7 B.C.) 150
Sealing and confirming (7 B.C.-A.D. 14) 192
IV. The silent revolution of 7 B.C.--the "open city" 222
Regiones and urban territory 224
A city without walls 230
V. Augustus' new Rome 238
New city and old Urbs 238
Traumatic notions 244
Augustus' program and "deception" 248
VI. Augustan buildings in Rome: a list 256
Postscript 266
Addenda 272
Select bibliography 275
Indices 277
Rome: buildings and localities 277
Other cities and places 280
Terms, aspects, concepts 280
Prosopography (except authors) 282
Ancient authors 283
Inscriptions, papyri, coins 287

INHALTSVERZEICHNIS
Abbildungsverzeichnis 6
Besondere Abkuerzungen 7
Vorwort 9
I. "Schm7uuml;cke diese Stadt" 13
Fragen und Perspektiven 17
Die Urbs 19
Gebautes Stadtbild 23
Lenkung und Leitung 29
Die Res gestae 33
Marsfeld und Urbs 37
II. Rom--Weltstadt mit Maengeln 41
"Noch nicht geschmueckt" 41
Loesungsversuche 47
Caesars Erbe und neue Initiativen 55
Bauen als Programm 65
III. "La grande Rome"--Schaffen und Bewahren des neuen Rom 71
Programmatisches Inszenieren (29/28 v.Chr.) 73
Grossbaustelle Marsfeld: monumenta Agrippae (27-19 v.Chr.) 101
Vorstadt und "uebrige Stadt" (27-19 v.Chr.) 129
Ein verwandeltes Rom: aurea saecula (19-7 v.Chr.) 151
Besiegeln und Bekraeftigen (7 v.Chr.-14 n.Chr.) 193
IV. Die stille Revolution von 7 v.Chr.--die "offene Stadt" 223
Gebietsreform und Stadtgebiet 225
Stadt ohne Mauern 230
V. Das neue Rom des Augustus 239
Neue Stadt und alte Urbs 239
Traumatische Stadtfragen 245
Augustus' Programm und "Augentaeuschung" 249
VI. Augusteisches Bauen in Rom: eine Liste 257
Postskript 267
Addenda 272
Bibliographie in Auswahl 275
Register 277
Rom: Bauten und Oertlichkeiten 277
Andere Staedte und Orte 280
Begriffe, Aspekte, Konzepte 280
Antike Personennamen (ohne Autoren) 282
Antike Autoren 283
Inschriften, Papyri, Muenzen 287
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Notes:


1.   Mapping Augustan Rome, directed by Lothar Haselberger in
collaboration with David Gilman Romano; edited by Elisha Ann Dumser.
Journal of Roman archaeology. Suppl. 50, 2002; Imaging ancient Rome:
documentation, visualization, imagination, ed. Lothar Haselberger and
John Humphrey. Journal of Roman Archaeology Suppl. 61, 2006.

2.   See Hoellscher, T. "Augustus und die Macht der Archaeologie," in
F. Miller et al. La re/volution romaine apre\s Ronald Syme. Bilans et
perspectives (=EntrHardt 2000), 331-58; Favro, D. The Urban Image of
Augustan Rome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996; Zanker, P.
The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, trans. by Alan Shapiro. Ann
Arbor, 1988.

3.   Haselberger downplays the importance of the building programs
within the traditional bounds of the city. For example, he sees the
construction of the Naumachia Augusti and the Forum Augustum as two
parts of a "twin project," because the Naumachia was to host a
spectacle celebrating the completion of the Forum Augustum (pp. 194-6).
This seems to overstate the importance of the Naumachia, as the Forum
Augustum was not only one of the most important constructions for its
ideological significance, but it was used on a daily basis and as a
setting for major public events and sacrifices.