ROME 250—CLASS NOTES FOR SBRAGIA, THURS, WEEK 4

Topics covered: Literature: Nero and Tacitus;
Architecture: Arches & Concrete: Domus Aurea & Pantheon;
                     Roman Insula (apartment bldg) & Domus (house);
Art: Roman Wall Painting, 4 Pompeian Styles.

Julio-Claudian Dynasty (31 BCE-68 CE) Augustus 31 BCE – 14 CE
Tiberius 14 – 37
Gaius (Caligula) 37-41
Claudius 41-54
Nero 54-68

The Julio-Claudian succession descends from three main family branches:
a) Augustus through his daughter Julia;
b) Augustus’s sister Octavia through her various children;
c) Augustus’s wife Livia, grafted onto the Julian stock by marriage.

Last of the Julio Claudian dynasty
NERO: (lived 37-68AD/ ruled 54-68AD) see Tactitus reading on Nero
             original name:Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, becomes
             Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus
49 AGRIPPINIA (daughter of Julia) marries CLAUDIUS (her uncle)
50 CLAUDIUS adopts NERO (Agrippina's son by prior marriage)
53 NERO marries Claudius' daughter Octavia
54 Agrippina poisons Claudius to assure Nero's succession
     NERO becomes Emperor at age 17
55 Nero poisons his stepbrother Britannicus
54-59 First 5 years of Nero's reign uder tutors Burrus and Seneca
      considered by historians as "golden era" (aurum quinquennium)
      but in 62 Burrus dies and Seneca forced to retire
59 Nero has his mother Agrippina assassinated, then
62 Nero has his wife Octavia murdered (for her lover Poppea)
64 Fire in Rome (Nero fiddles while Rome burns)
     Christians persecuted, scapegoated as cause of fire
       after which Nero builds
     GOLDEN HOUSE (DOMUS AUREA):
65 Conspiracy against Nero discovered, leading to assassinations
                      and forced suicides, including Seneca
67-68 Nero tours Greece and wins prizes for his poetry and music
69 Rebellion of generals in provinces, Nero commits suicide
     at Nero’s death, damnatio memoriae or erasure of memory by Senate
                   includes destruction of his Golden House

Problem of Imperial succession:  (much of Nero’s drama concerns this issue)
          1)  Hereditary succession vs 2) Military power; 3) later Adoption
69 AD = Year of the four emperors Galba 68-69 Otho 69 Vitellius 69 Vespasian 69-79
             struggle for power: among rival military candidates
             Army enters politics, now Emperor doesn’t necessarily have to be made in Rome

TACITUS -- Publius Cornelius Tacitus (c 56-117AD)
                 Senator: aristocratic, conservative, hostile to Empire
                  Historian: revises the myth of Augustus
                                  emphasizes his seizure of power, end of Republican liberty
                 Orator  wrote Dialogue on Orators, laments decline of oratory in
                                  Roman culture, lost after end of Republic, no open debate
                 political office during the Terror of Domitian (81-96)
                 Consulship in 97 under Nerva; Governor of Asia under Trajan c 112
Historical Works:
                 AGRICOLA on his father-in-law, Roman governor of Britan
                 GERMANIA on German tribal society, contrasted with decadent Rome
                 HISTORIES on Flavian period 69-96
                 ANNALES on Julio Claudian period 14-68: reading on Nero for week 3

              Other Latin sources for Nero:
                      Suetonius 75-150 AD, private secretary to Hadrian,
                             biographies of the 12 Caesars (De vita Caesarum)
                       Dio Cassius 155-230 AD

Organization of the Annales of Tacitus: by year and by place
     Tacitus wrote under Trajan in an age of expansion, but we are reading only Rome sections

DOMI ET FORIS (at home in Rome and abroad) [we are reading at home sections]. 
          Focus is on the private realm of the all-powerful, decadent and sinister imperial court
          Court is ruled by fear and servility. Emperor’s vice infects Rome itself. 
MORALIZING: Livy vs Tacitus
         Livy’s moralizing is positive: eg Lucretia
                  stress on public realm of politics founded to protect virtue
         Tacitus’ lessons almost always negative: decline & disaster due to VICE,
                    focus on corrupt private realm of the imperial court

AUTOCRATS as corrupting, causes moral degeneracy; stresses evils of rule by one man.
Senate is weak and sycophantic. Oppressive rule causes and is caused
            Even though writing under Trajan Tacitus is embittered and pessimistic.

RELIGION: In Tacitus the emphasis falls on prophecy and portents of evil.
                 Opposite of positive view of supernatural in Augustan propaganda

FIRE IN ROME as perverted founding legend:
         Nero's rebuilds Rome as his private space; confusing the PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

GOLDEN HOUSE (DOMUS AUREA): makes public Roman space private
             Criticizes its ARTIFICIALITY: rural villa in the center of Rome = wrong
             Called Domus aurea because gilded but also a reference by Nero to
                         his own golden age, with himself as sun god, Helios.

Suetonius describes it as follows:
The palace had a vestibule, in which stood a colossal statue of Nero himself, 120 feet high.
The area it covered was so great that it had a mile-long portico with three colonnades; it also
had a pool which resembled the sea and was surrounded by buildings which were to give the
impression of cities; besides this there were rural areas with ploughed fields, vineyards,
pastures, and woodlands, and filled with all types of domestic animals and wild beasts.

The succeeding Flavian emperors, as a political move, gave back Nero’s private expropriation
to the public: Vespasian had the Colosseum built where Nero’s artificial lake had stood and
Trajan constructed public baths on the site. See Martial’s commentary in poem.    

Martial on the building projects on the site of Nero ’ s Golden House

Where the starry colossus sees the constellations at close range and lofty scaffolding rises in the middle of the road, once gleamed the odious halls of a cruel monarch, and in all Rome there stood a single house. Where rises before our eyes the august pile of the amphitheater, was once Nero ’ s lake. Where we admire the warm baths, a speedy gift, a haughty tract of land had robbed the poor of their dwellings … Rome has been restored to herself and under your rule Caesar, the pleasances that belonged to a master now belong to the people.

Colosseum [Flavinian amphitheater] inaugurated 79-80

ARCHES AND CEMENT: 

1) ARCH: made of voussoirs (wedge shaped blocks) + keystone.
            supports and distributes great weight; allows building on a more
            massive scale (Roman aqueducts for ex.).
            Extend an arch in either direction and you get a barrel vault.
            Intersect two arches and you get a groin vault.

2) CONCRETE (1st century BC): lime mortar, volcanic ash/sand, water, small stones
            more economical than stone; allows shapes not possible with masonry
                         especially huge freestanding vaulted and domed ceilings.
            Roman architecture becomes an architecture of space.

GOLDEN HOUSE: brick-faced concrete (for rapid construction).
              Domed octagonal room in the center with its five rooms radiating from it symmetrically.
              Oculus and diffusion of light. Slits let light; revolutionary potential of concrete was later
                 realized in Hadrian’s domed Pantheon and the great Bath complexes.

PANTHEON: dedicated 125 by emperor Hadrian on site of original (built in 27 BCE by Marcus Agrippa)
Temple to all the gods; In 7 th century becomes a Christian church [tomb of kings of Italy and Raphael]
Eclecticism: Classical temple porch leads into domed circular space (142 ft diameter)
drum of supporting arches with coffered concrete ceiling and central oculus (27 ft diameter)

                     Full potential of concrete for the shaping of architectural space.
                    Immense concrete cylinder covered by a hemispheric dome 142 feet in diameter.
                    Intersection of two perfect circles: orb of earth and dome of heaven.
                    Thickness of dome decreases as it reaches oculus (30 ft in diameter).
                    Sunlight plays on the interior of the building through oculus at different times of the day.

BATHS OF CARACALLA (Thermae Antoninianae) 216
             Core of Caldarium, Tepidarium, Frigidarium, Natatio
             Concrete walls with barrel and groin vaulted ceilings (140 ft)
             Periphery: dressing rooms, gymnasia, small stadium, libraries, meeting rooms, gardens
             Marble veneering; Mosaics of robust athletes and colossal statuary

LIVING STRUCTURES: Roman population over 1,000,000 inhabitants (1st C AD)

INSULA: MULTI-STORIED (4 to 5 stories) APARTMENT COMPLEXES. 90% of pop.
            Shops on ground floor. Poorer people lived higher up

DOMUS (House): Private houses, which vary according to rank in society.
Cicero: domus as “sacred sanctuary” of each citizen, repository of his altars, his hearth, his family gods.
 ATRIUM: Typical Roman house is entered through a fauces (throat), leads to atrium: large central reception area, which received both light and air, and rainwater through a compluvium, which gathered in an impluvium below, water could be stored in underground cisterns for household use.

Cubicula or small bedrooms opened onto atrium, with tablinum (or main reception room).

TRICLIMIUM: Dining room and peristyle—or garden at the rear of the house surrounded by more rooms.

WALL PAINTINGS: --examples in Rome but the best and largest collection is to be found in Pompeii and
             adjacent cities that were buried in ash and soot during the explosion of Vesuvius in 79 AD.

Roman wall painting up to 79 AD divided into FOUR Pompeian STYLES
             originally defined by the German art historian, August Mau, at the end of 19th century:

1st style. 2nd century BC. Masonry, Encrustation, or Structural style.
             Imitation, using painted stucco relief, of expensive colored marbles.
             Frescos, colors applied while plaster was still damp, surface polished>

2nd style: (also called Architectural style) begins about 80 BC
Opposite of first style: dissolves walls of a room and replace them with the illusion
             of a 3-dimensional world, principally architectural features.
Villa of the Mysteries: early 2nd style, articulated by pilasters with life size figures
Rite of passage into the mystery cult of the god Dionysus.
Cubiculum of the Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale near Pompeii

Reconstructed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York: painter has opened up the walls and
given vistas of Italian towns and sacred sanctuaries. Solid grasp of single point perspective,
in which receding lines converge on a single point along the central axis of the painting.

Houses of Augustus and Livia in Rome are painted in second style.
Gardenscape in House of Livia : ultimate example of 2nd Style picture window.
use of atmospheric perspective: depth is indicated by the increasingly blurred appearance
of objects in the distance, things up close are distinct, foliage in background is indistinct. 

3rd STYLE (or Ornamental style). Augustan age. With delicate rectilinear and organic patterns against a
monochrome background, it emphasizes the ornamental value of the designs. Columns of the
Second Style have been replaced by the insubstantial colonettes supporting featherweight canopies.
Tiny floating landscapes painted directly upon typically black, red or white backgrounds.

4th STYLE: (or Composite style, middle of 1st century). combination of the 2nd and 3rd styles.
Most paintings in Nero’s Golden House are 4th style (60s AD).
Wall is broken up into different spatial levels with vistas upon more distant scenes