CONTINUING THE DEBATE ON ROME'S EARLIEST CIRCUIT WALLS

Seth Bernard

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Classical Antiquity Studies Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History Historical and Literary Studies

Abstract

Rome's pre-Imperial circuit walls pose a particular problem of reconstruction: collectively, their 11 km course represents the largest single monument of the early city, but our understanding of this structure is based on an assemblage of several dozen disparate archaeological sites. After tracing the interpretation of these fragments from antiquity to the present, this article examines the literary, topographical and archaeological evidence for the wall's character and date. Ultimately, the non-archaeological data are inconclusive, and the material evidence seems to affirm an early phase (sixth century bc ) focused on individual hilltops, rather than encompassing all hills within a full course. Following this logic, I continue to question the presence of a unified circuit wall at Rome prior to the mid-Republic (fourth century bc ). A concluding section reviews the historical circumstances in support of this view.

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1992A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome 1969The Renaissance Discovery of Classical Antiquity 2012The Beginnings of Rome 1994A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome 2008Rome and Environs: An Archaeological Guide 1995The archaeology of early Rome and Latium 1984Il Foro Romano: periodo arcaico. By Filippo Coarelli.1996Early Rome and Latium

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