Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Rome's public monuments stood in various stages of decay

By the beginning of the empire, many of Rome's public monuments stood in various stages of decay. As the Mediterranean's newest power, Rome demanded a public image that would rival the famed cities of the Attalids and the Ptolemies. Augustus' political strategy as the new leader in the capital city included not only new construction, but rebuilding of Rome's infrastructure and renovations of its older structures. These typically were reattributed to their Augustan patrons as older patronal affiliations took second stage. Such was the case with Octavia's portico. Metellus' structure was razed and its foundations re-used for a grand rebuilding. Reconstruction began contemporaneously with other projects by Augustus and various members or the imperial retinue in the Campus Martius: In the north, the emperor began his mausoleum and its associated monuments; Agrippa, Augustus' son-in-law and military comrade, built his bathing complex, completed the Saepta lulia, and erected the Pantheon. To the south, Augustus' ally Sosianus restored the Temple of Apollo Medicus while Augustus took over construction (begun by Julius Caesar) of a large theater, later dedicated to the late Marcellus. The whole of the region, previously characterized by victory monuments built by rivaling republican generals, began to emerge as a center of Augustan civic beneficence specifically tied to the imperial family. Octavia's portico was the principal contribution by a woman.

In its refurbished state, the colonnaded complex provided the Roman people with a splendid, enclosed quadriportico set off from the bustle of the nearby forum Boarium (Rome's cattle market), the Campus Martius, river traffic, and urban life in general (Fig. 5).  A large portal centered along the building's southwest facade provided access to the interior court. Inside, the portico's walls and floors were covered in colorful marbles and, according to Pliny the Elder, other famous statues and sculptural ensembles joined the Granikos monument and Cornelia's portrait. To the restored temple's inside, Octavia added a curia (a meeting hall) and two libraries for Greek and Latin literature inside the precinct.



The Porticus Octaviae's Significance in Augustan Politics and Propaganda. It seems that the impact of the portico and of Octavia as its patron has been overlooked in past scholarship primarily because its reconstruction occurred at a time when other building projects by men of note were just beginning. However, careful analysis of the complex will reveal that Octavia and her monument were critical links in the developing dynastic ideology focused on women and family. Her beneficence, not only represented a highly generous outlay of capital, but a virtuous selflessness that characterized the ideal Augustan woman. It was this facet of her persona that had garnered her fame as Antony's beleaguered wife. From this perspective, the Porticus Octaviae emerges as both a part of a larger Augustan initiative to rebuild Rome, thereby promoting the emperor's political hegemony and social legislation, and as a unique monument that spoke to the life of its patron. Octavia, a woman--albeit of high standing--had gained access to this predominantly masculine region, thereby also gaining placement among some of Rome's most powerful men. Her access to the region can be seen in the context of political transformations taking place in Rome.

With a shift to dynastic rule from a republic came a contemporaneous shift in the importance of women as producers of heirs. It is for this reason, as Natalie Kampen has contended, that mortal women began to be represented in the visual arts of the imperial era, specifically in Roman historical reliefs. Kampen has argued that women appear in visual arts at moments when they were ideologically most central to the dynastic or hegemonic claims of a regime. We might consider Octavia's entrance into the male-dominated world of architectural patronage in the Campus Martius analogously. Octavia's prominence in Augustan politics after the Battle of Actium was largely due to her role as mother to Augustus' heir apparent and as a figure with the potential for fecundity. In this position she provided in her son a link in the new dynastic line of succession. Her architectural patronage in the Campus Martius must be seen as a logical extension of her role in the imperial family dynamics.

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