The Aurelian Wall And The Refashioning Of Imperial Rome, Ad 271–855

"This book explores the relationship between the city of Rome and the Aurelian wall during the six centuries following its construction in the 270s AD, a period when the city changed and contracted almost beyond recognition, as it evolved from imperial capital into the spiritual center of Western Christendom. The wall became the single most prominent feature in the urban landscape, a dominating presence which came bodily to incarnate the political, legal, administrative, and religious boundaries of urbs Roma, even as it reshaped both the physical contours of the city as a whole and the mental geographies of 'Rome' that prevailed at home and throughout the known world. With the passage of time, the circuit took on a life of its own as the embodiment of Rome's past greatness, a cultural and architectural legacy that dwarfed the quotidian realities of the post-imperial city as much as it shaped them"--Provided by publisher. Cover 1 Half-title 3 Title 5 Copyright 6 Contents 7 Abbreviations 9 Figures 12 Acknowledgements 16 Introduction 19 1 Toward an architectural history of the Aurelian Wall, from its beginnings through the ninth century 30 1.1 The basics: an overview 30 1.2 Aurelian's Wall 35 1.3 Honorius' Wall 50 1.4 The fifth and sixth centuries 66 1.5 The early-medieval renaissance of the Aurelian Wall 81 2 Planning, building, rebuilding, and maintenance: the logistical dynamics of a (nearly) interminable project 89 2.1 The planning and placement of the Wall 90 2.2 Building the Wall 105 2.3 Subsequent history 118 2.4 The Wall and the refashioning of the urban administration 120 3 Motives, meaning, and context: the Aurelian Wall and the late Roman state 128 3.1 The motives for Aurelian's Wall 129 3.2 The meaning and message of Aurelian's Wall 134 3.3 New walls, old realities, and the changing face of the late-antique city 141 3.4 Honorian Rome and Celestial Jerusalem 155 3.5 Sedes Petri; caput mundi? Rivals of Rome and the imitation of the Aurelian Wall 173 4 The city, the suburbs, and the Wall: the rise of a topographical institution 178 4.1 Urbs and suburbium 179 4.2 The immediate topographical impact of the Wall, local 181 4.3 The immediate topographical impact of the Wall, regional 187 4.4 The immediate topographical impact of the Wall, citywide 203 4.5 Big walls, small town: Rome after empire 214 4.6 The topographical Nachleben of the Aurelian Wall 217 5 Sacred geography, interrupted 227 5.1 Muros dilatavit, pomerio addidit: the immuring of the pomerium 227 5.2 The Wall, the law, and the definition of urban space in the fourth century 231 5.3 Spheres of sacrality and the circumscription of Roma Christiana 235 5.4 The Wall, stational liturgy, and the boundaries of the urban church 243 5.5 In urbe, extra muros 248 5.6 The decline of the suburbium and the rise of the worlds largest reliquary 253 6 The Wall and the "Republic of St. Peter" 259 6.1 The Aurelian Wall and the post-Roman “state,” from Justinian to Charlemagne 259 6.2 The Aurelian Wall and Pope Hadrian's Rome: the home front 268 6.3 The Aurelian Wall and the international public of Pope Hadrian's Rome 278 6.4 Old walls don't die, they just fade away... 289 Conclusion 297 Appendix A: Numerical data 301 Dimensions of projecting towers (in meters) 301 Thickness of curtains (in meters) 302 Modules (in centimeters) 302 River wall, south of Testaccio 302 Appendix B: The fourth century revisited: the problem of Maxentius 303 Appendix C: The post-Honorian additions to the Porta Appia and other fifth- and sixth-century construction 310 Appendix D: The Aurelian Wall and the refashioning of the western tip of the Campus Martius 322 Appendix E: The Pons Agrippae and the Pons Aureli: a tale of two bridges 328 Bibliography 333 Editions 333 Secondary literature 336 Index 371