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An Early Augustan Capital in the Forum Romanum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

J. B. Ward-Perkins
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Extract

The fragmentary upper part of a Corinthian capital which is the principal subject of this note can be seen near the north-east corner of the Temple of Saturn, between it and the Basilica Julia. Until a few years ago the two surviving fragments were separated, one piece lying approximately where it now is, the other among the debris stacked against the base of the temple. It was through the kindness of the Superintendent of Antiquities for the Forum and Palatine that the two pieces were placed together, confirming the writer's suspicion that they were parts of the same badly damaged capital. To Professor Carettoni, to Miss Vanessa Wills (Mrs. P. Winchester) who helped in the initial study of the fragments, and to Dr. F. Rakob and Dr. D. E. Strong, the writer wishes to express his warm thanks. The drawings and many of the photographs here reproduced are the work of Miss Sheila Gibson, A.R.I.B.A.

The two fragments are of a white Carrara marble of which some of the surfaces have been badly damaged by fire. Together they constitute the greater part of one carved face and of half of an adjoining carved face of a large angle-pilaster or anta capital which, when complete, occupied the full height of two courses of the masonry into which it was built. In addition to the two carved faces there are substantial remains of the upper surface and of the two inner vertical faces, and a short stretch of the under surface. On the upper surface can be seen the seatings of an architrave block laid at right-angles across the carved corner. The overall dimensions of the block, when complete, were 1·71 m. long, 70 cm. wide and 68 cm. high (fig. 1).

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 35 , December 1967 , pp. 23 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1967

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References

1 Kähler, H., Die Römischen Kapitelle des Rheingebietes, Berlin, 1939, Beilage 2.6Google Scholar.

2 P.B.S.R., xxviii, 1960, pp. 12–13Google Scholar. Kähler, op. cit., Beilage 2.8.

4 Suet. Aug. 29. CIL, vi, 1316: ‘L. Plancus L. f. cos. imp. iter. de manub.’; cf. CIL, x, 6087. For the probable date, see P.B.S.R., xxx, 1962, p. 4Google Scholar.

5 Column-bases: P.B.S.R., xxx, 1962, p. 11Google Scholar and pl. IX, b. Fourth-century reconstruction: CIL, vi, 937. Cornice: Toebelmann, F., Römische Gebälke, i, p. 5Google Scholar and fig. 6.

6 P.B.S.R., xxviii, 1960, pp. 14–16Google Scholar.

7 Basilica Aemilia: Nash, E., Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome, i, fig. 95Google Scholar. Arch of Augustus: ibid., fig. 100. For the frequent use of mixed Doric and Ionic orders in later Hellenistic architecture, see Stucchi, S., L'Agora di Cirene, i, Rome, 1965, pp. 201–2Google Scholar.

8 Richter, O., J.d.I., iv, 1889, p. 142Google Scholar, figs. 2 and 3.

9 Richter, op. cit., fig. 1 (p. 138).

10 Cohen, Aug. 89. Photographic reproduction in G. Lugli, Il Centro monumentale, p. 201, fig. 45. The coins of Hadrian that show the building (Richter, op. cit., fig. 6a) are too schematic to be of much help.