15 - Rome and its development under Augustus and his successors

Summary

Augustus' own summary of the impact of his rule on the city of Rome was the boast, often quoted, almost proverbial ‘urbem … marmoream se relinquere, quam latericiam accepisset’, that the city he had taken charge of in brick he passed on in marble (Suet. Aug. 28.3, cf. Dio LVI.30). The philosophically inclined Cassius Dio took him metaphorically and referred the contrast to the might of Rome's power (LVI.30.4); the aim of this survey likewise is to proceed from the physical aspect of the city and the messages which it proclaimed on into the changes in the behaviour of its ordinary inhabitants which were promoted by the arrival and development of the Principate. The double interpretation of the first princeps' remark does suggest after all that changes of this kind were in fact perceived as a unitary achievement, and that the achievement was considered important. This account hopes to show why it was thought important, and why it is impossible to partition off the architectural and physical history of the city from the social and economic history of its populace.

The enormous brick ruins of the monuments of Augustus' heirs which characterize the centre of Rome today make Augustus' words sound paradoxical to the modern visitor: they need some explanation and interpretation.

The ‘brick’ in question, to begin with, is not the kiln-fired, almost indestructible product of later Roman architecture: it is the traditional sundried mud brick of Italian domestic architecture, and also, probably, refers to the terracotta decorations which had so characterized the sacred architecture of Italy from the seventh century B.C.