Via Roma: The History of Rome in Fifty Streets

233 Pages·2018·33.587 MB·English

by  Willemijn van Dijk, Robert Naborn

Via Roma
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Via Roma
The History of Rome in Fifty Streets
Willemijn van Dijk
Robert Naborn
translator
BAYLOR UNIVERSITY PRESS
Via Roma © 2015 by Willemijn van Dijk
Originally published by Ambo | Anthos
Uitgevers, Amsterdam
First published in English in 2018 by Baylor University Press,
Waco, Texas 76798. English translation © 2017 by Baylor
University Press. All rights reserved.
Cover Design by Aaron Cobbs, Baylor University Press.
Cover Art: Map of Rome, Italy, issued by Magro. Leonard
(Leonardo Bufalini), Roma, 1551–1560. © The British Library
Board/The Image Works.
The English translation has been cataloged by the Library of
Congress under ISBN 978-1-4813-0905-9.
This ebook was converted from the original source file. Readers
who encounter any issues with formatting, text, linking, or
readability are encouraged to notify the publisher at
[email protected]. Some font characters may not
display on all ereaders.
To inquire about permission to use selections from this text, please
contact Baylor University Press, One Bear Place, #97363, Waco,
Texas 76798.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
with a minimum of 30 percent post-consumer waste recycled
content.
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
How Is a City Born?
I The Tiber 7
II Via Monte Tarpeo 12
III Via del Velabro 17
IV Via del Tempio di Giove 20
V Piazza dei Cinquecento 23
VI Via Appia Antica 27
VII Via di Monte Testaccio 34
VIII Piazza di Porta Maggiore 39
IX Piazza del Teatro di Pompeo 44
X Piazza della Suburra 50
XI Piazza Sallustio 54
XII Via del Piè di Marmo 59
XIII Piazza Augusto Imperatore (I) 64
XIV Via Mecenate 72
XV Via della VII Coorte 77
XVI Viale della Domus Aurea 80
XVII Piazza dei Protomartiri 85
XVIII Via Sacra 88
XIX Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 95
v
vi Contents
XX Viale Castrense 98
XXI Ponte Milvio 102
XXII Passetto di Borgo 106
XXIII Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta 112
XXIV Via Cola di Rienzo 115
XXV Via del Corso 119
XXVI Via dei Coronari 123
XXVII Via Giulia 126
XXVIII Piazza del Campidoglio 131
XXIX Campo de’ Fiori 134
XXX Via delle Quattro Fontane 138
XXXI Piazza della Rotonda 143
XXXII Via del Babuino 147
XXXIII Piazza Navona 149
XXXIV Piazza San Pietro 153
XXXV Vicolo del Divino Amore 156
XXXVI Piazza del Popolo 159
XXXVII Piazza di Trevi 162
XXXVIII Via delle Carrozze 165
XXXIX Piazza di Spagna 168
XL Piazza della Cancelleria 171
XLI Piazzale Garibaldi 174
XLII Piazza Colonna 178
XLIII Via dei Fori Imperiali 181
XLIV Via della Conciliazione 185
XLV Via Nicola Zabaglia 188
XLVI Largo 16 Ottobre 1943 190
Contents vii
XLVII Via Rasella 193
XLVIII Via Vittorio Veneto 196
XLIX Via Michelangelo Caetani 199
L Piazza Augusto Imperatore (II) 202
The hisTory of rome in five Walks
Walk 1
In the Footsteps of Classical Rome
207
Walk 2
In the Footsteps of the Popes and the Renaissance
209
Walk 3
In the Footsteps of Bernini and the Baroque
211
Walk 4
In the Footsteps of the Grand Tour and the Belle Époque
213
Walk 5
In the Footsteps of Fascism and the Second World War
215
Conclusion 217
The Path to the Future
Select Bibliography 219
Index of Names and Sights 221
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INTRODUCTION
HOW IS A CITY BORN?
“For, although Rome in its entirety is in ruins, nothing, even
completely unblemished, compares to her.”
— Master Gregory, a twelfth- century visitor to Rome1
How is a city born? Most guidebooks will tell you that
Rome was founded on April 21, 753 BCE. This suspi-
ciously precise fact has often been blindly copied; do not
even the Romans themselves commemorate the founding
of their city every year on April 21? No one seems to have
given any thought to the absurd notion that a city can be
founded on a certain day. Of course, there are examples of
colonies that were founded from scratch, but even in those
cases the actual founding was more of a historical process
than a historical event. Rome was not a colony, and it was
not built in one day. The mythical character of many of
the stories surrounding the founding of the caput mundi
hint at that: there was no Rome on April 21, 753 BCE.
That is, there was no city of Rome yet. The tradition
of naming 753 as the year of its founding is a fabrication
dating back to antiquity, and apparently based on a miscal-
culation to boot.
When can a place actually be called a city? This is a
question archaeologists might struggle with, too. When
does a cluster of huts become a village, and when does
this village become a city? For the period preceding the
1 Magistri Gregorii, The Marvels of Rome (Mirabilia Urbis Romae),
ed. and trans. Francis Morgan Nichols, 2nd ed. with new introduction,
gazetteer, and bibliography by Eileen Gardiner (New York, 1986).
1