At the
Roman Forum in the center of Rome there once stood a grand monument called the
Temple of Peace, built by Emperor Vespasian to project his might and fortify
his strong public image. The Temple was razed to the ground when Rome was
sacked by the Goths in the early 5th century. Only a fire-ravaged interior wall
survives. This wall later became the exterior of the Church of Saints Cosmas
and Damian.
Back
then, an enormous map of Ancient Rome carved in marble and measuring 60 feet by
43 feet adorned this wall. The holes in the wall reveal where the individual
marble slabs were attached with metal clamps. Known as the Forma Urbis Romae,
or Severan Marble Plan of Rome, the map depicted Rome’s urban landmarks across
five square miles in incredible detail, showing ground plans of every
architectural feature in the ancient city, from large public monuments to small
shops, rooms, and even columns and staircases. Each structure was meticulously
labeled. It was one of the most extraordinary maps ever produced in ancient
times.
Although the Temple was built by Emperor Vespasian,
the map wasn’t produced until some 150 years later, by Emperor Septimius
Severus sometime between 203 and 211. Rendered at a scale of approximately 1 to
240, the Severan Marble Plan was engraved on 150 marble slabs and was oddly
oriented with South at the top. After Rome fell and the Temple of Peace was destroyed,
the map was broken up into thousands of pieces and scattered throughout the
city.
Wall
of the Temple of Peace where the Forma Urbis was mounted.
For
centuries scholars have been trying to piece together the lost map like a giant
jigsaw puzzle, but only about 10 to 15 percent of the map survives, in almost
twelve hundred fragments that range in size from a few inches to several feet.
Even
though the Marble Plan is only partially reconstructed, it provides scholars
with new and unique information concerning the layout and organization of
ancient Rome. “The Plan itself is vitally important because it is our only
source for the urban fabric of Rome,” says Stanford University professor Jennifer
Trimble. “Standing ruins of major monuments and keyhole excavations throughout
the city have given us individual details, but the modern city overlies the
ancient remains and makes it impossible to see how different kinds of spaces
and buildings worked together, or what particular streets and neighborhoods
were like.”
Images
and 3D models of all the 1,186 surviving fragments of the map are now viewable
online, along with descriptions of each piece.
Map of
ancient Rome and Forma Urbis, circa 1835-1839.
A
fragment of the Severan marble plan showing the Porticus of Octavia.
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