#rabirius

The Argiletum was the main thoroughfare connecting the Subura to the Forum Roman. Lined with squalid timber houses, this unsightly road contrasted sharply with the Forum of Augustus to the north and the Templum Pacis to the south.

Around AD 85, Domitian undertook to transform the Argiletum into an imperial forum that would also serve as a magnificent traffic corridor. Like the other fora, an imposing temple (in this case hexastyle, prostyle, and pseudo-peripteral) was erected on a tall podium at the eastern end. The temple was dedicated to Minerva (a deity for whom Domitian had a special devotion). Domitian’s forum would be the smallest of the imperial fora.

The numerous architectural similarities to the Domus Augustana confirm that Rabirius, Domitian’s court architect, designed the forum as well. The narrow space precluded the flanking colonnades used in the previous fora. Rabirius retained the idea of the colonnades by placing a row of Corinthian columns 1.75m from the enclosing walls, along the length of the forum.

Rabirius’ daring experimentation is on full display in the Forum Transitorium. The columns carry a densely-ornamented entablature (a Flavian predilection) that projects with each column, but reverts to the wall in the intervals. The attic of each interval received a full-length figure in relief, exemplified by the image of Minerva seen between the two surviving columns. (The two extant columns are referred to by modern Romans as le colonnace.) This striking solution dramatically enriched the articulation of the wall. It also increased the length of the frieze, which depicts the myth of Arachne, who dared to challenge Minerva to a weaving contest, and scenes of Minerva supervising docile sewing women. The latter may have been an illusion to an annual artisan’s festival that took place in the Forum.

At the time of Domitian's assassination in AD 96, the forum was largely completed. The temple was dedicated by his successor, Nerva, in AD 97. Although it was Officially named for the new emperor, the Forum Nervae quickly came to be known as the Forum Transitorium, reflecting its function as a means of getting from one place to another.

In the 230s, Alexander Severus commissioned a group of bronze statues of the deified emperors for the Forum Transitorium, which were placed in between the columns on pedestals. This arrangement echoed the statuary gallery of worthy Romans seen in the neighboring Forum of Augustus.

Part I : Mécaniques et technologies.

Part II : Architecture et construction.

Source : Extrait de Alhambra, Henri et Anne Stierlin, Imprimerie Nationale Editions, pp 147-149

Les planétariums ne font pas seulement appel à des machines: Ils requièrent aussi des constructions architecturales capables de les recevoir ou de les “mettre en scène”.

C’est le cas pour la fameuse “Maison d’or” de Néron que mentionnent Tacite, Suétone et Sénèque. Ils font allusion à une salle cosmologique tournante.

Vestiges de la Domus aurea ou Maison dorée de Néron, Rome, Italie.

Le premier cite les ingénieurs qui en sont les auteurs:

“Serverus et Celer, dont l'imagination audacieuse consistait à réaliser, au moyen de leur art, tout ce que concevait le prince et que la nature ne pouvait fournir” (Annales, XV,42)

Le second précise: 

“Le plafond des salles à manger était fait de marqueterie d’ivoire, avec des caissons mobiles par les ouvertures desquels on pouvait répandre sur les convives des fleurs et des parfums. La salle principale était ronde et tournait continuellement sur elle-même, jour et nuit, comme le fait le monde” (Vie de Néron).

Et le troisième se demande s’il faut admirer 

“le mécanicien qui a inventé comment faire s’écouler d’une grande hauteur de l’eau couleur de safran par des tuyaux cachés et qui assemble les caissons du plafond de la salle de telle manière que l’image qu’ils donnent à voir se modifie à volonté” (livre XIV, 90,14).

On retrouve donc ici le pouvoir de faire pleuvoir associé à la capacité de faire tourner une construction en harmonie avec le ciel dont l’image change sans cesse au plafond. 

PIAZZA D’ORO

The emperor’s sprawling, cosmopolitan villa suburbana at Tibur (Tivoli) had three dining halls. The so-called imperial tricliunium was reserved for the palace guards; for intimate gatherings at the Serapeum, guests reclined on a stibadium under a semi-dome. The most sumptuous and imposing dining hall, however, was attached to an enormous garden on the north side of the villa. Known today as the Piazza d’Oro, this magnificent space was used by Hadrian for formal dinners honoring distinguished guests.

The gardens, fountains and amenities of the villa required an enormous volume of water. As this was delivered by aqueduct, the villa had to he situated on ground lower than the level of the source, hence its uncongenial location on low, flat land. The trade off was worth it. Guests entered into an immense walled, quadriporticus garden, with a euripus (reflecting pool) running down the central axis, dividing the plantings into symmetrical beds. Flowers and aromatics alternated with water basins and fountains.. Below the shallow soil level, an extensive irrigation and drainage system was channeled through the volcanic tufa.

At the east north stood a vestibule surmounted by a segmented (or pumpkin) dome. Situated at the southern end was a larger, more complex structure, containing a triclinium, libraries and single-person latrines. This building, in all likelihood designed by Hadrian himself, must have been the one of the most spectacular architectural experiences of the villa.

Hadrian built the villa in part because he disdained to live in the Domus Augustana on the Palatine Hill. That disdain did not extend to the architecture of Domitian’s master builder, Rabirius, whose influence on Hadrian’s designs is visible in the Piazza d’Oro. The suite of rooms circular core of the triclinium is pierced by four deep niches. An alternating convex and concave arcade snakes around the room, separating the central space from the ancillary spaces. A segmented dome covered the whole. This series of densely-packed, yet highly differentiated, rooms is the latest in a series of similar palatine dining halls the begins with the octagonal room of the Domus Aurea and includes the triclinium of the Domus Flavia.

The Piazza d’Oro buildings were constructed of concrete faced with brick which was then reveted completely with marble. Fragments of the colorful opus sectile pavements survive.

Excavations of the 18th century uncovered high-quality marble statuary and busts in this area of the villa, further indicating its sumptuous decoration in antiquity and the important place of the Piazza d'Oro in the villa's hierarchy of spaces.

A virtual tour of the site is found here.

HADRIAN’S VILLA SERIES

I. Piazza d’Oro

II. Maritime Theatre

Rabirius – A Photo Artist

Rabirius – A Photo Artist

By Ralph Kratzer

There are countless photographs on the Internet, but only few of them are artistically valuable.

Some time ago, I published an article and pictures of the British photographer of animals, Tim Flach. Click here to remember!

One of the most avid and loyal readers of our website is a man who calls himself Rabirius.

I have visited his own website often, and…