Basilica Opimia

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The Basilica Opimia was a late 2nd century BC. Built building on the Roman Forum in Rome .

Lore

The basilica is only known from a casual mention by Marcus Terentius Varro and from two republican inscriptions. Varro describes in his work De lingua Latina (“About the Latin Language”) the location of a meeting place for the Roman senators , a senaculum , and says that it is above the Graecostasis , in the area of ​​the Concordia Temple and the Basilica Opimia (ubi aedis Concordiae et basilica Opimia) . Accordingly, the basilica rose on the forum, in close proximity to the Concordia temple and the Graecostasis in the (north-) western area of ​​the forum. The Temple of Concordia is known to have been given to Lucius Opimius after the death of Gaius Gracchus and many of his followers in 121 BC. Chr. Has had new built. The temple rose on the same spot as its Augustan , commissioned by Tiberius between 7 BC. Successor construction carried out in 10 BC and 10 AD. Remnants of his podium have been integrated into the foundation of the new building. It is generally assumed that the basilica that bore his name was also built in the vicinity of the new Opimian temple. When Marcus Tullius Cicero in his defense speech for Publius Sestius in 56 BC Chr. Reported from the "extremely frequently visited monument of Opimius" (celeberrimum monumentum Opimi) , this place will be related to the complex of temple and basilica.

This monument, which was supposed to celebrate Concordia , unity, in the temple after the bloody suppression of the uprising of the Gracches and the popular party , was a monument to victory for Opimius and the optimistic Senate aristocracy who supported him . What role the basilica played in this context is just as unclear as the question of what role it played. It may have been a purely representative building, but it may also have served mercantile and administrative tasks, in particular jurisdiction, as can be demonstrated for other basilicas in republican Rome . From two inscriptions of the Basilica Opimia it is known that slaves of the public sector were employed at it (servi publici ex basilica Opimia) , without it being possible to define their area of ​​responsibility.

Design and location

In the archaeological findings , remains of the basilica cannot be proven as an independent building. Both its specific location relative to the Concordia Temple and its architectural characteristics are the subject of scientific discussion. This is due to the fact that the term basilica was primarily defined functionally in antiquity, but not in terms of building typology. Basilicas as parts of buildings or as parts of building complexes are mentioned in inscriptions and in literature in numerous different contexts. In addition to a public forum building, the name for representation rooms in private living areas, especially in villa architecture , appears. He encounters theater complexes and thermal baths , market halls and the principia of Roman military buildings. At least in the Roman Empire , basilicas could also be associated with temples and sanctuaries. The term could therefore designate independent, connected or integrated building structures.

The attempts to approach the basilical of the opimian building are correspondingly varied. German Hafner suggested equating the basilica opimia with the cella of the Concordia temple . He explicitly opposed the assumption made by Carlo Gasparri, who saw the basilica as an independent building and reconstructed its location on the north-eastern long side of the temple. Christian Hülsen already located the basilica in this position .

Nicholas Purcell took another approach , who recognized the basilica in the covered colonnade facing the forum in the lower area of ​​the tabularium . However, Purcell's attempts to reconstruct the Tabularium complex and equate it with the atrium libertatis by Filippo Coarelli were rejected. The most likely location of the basilica Opimia is usually the area south of the Concordia Temple , which was later built over by the Temple of Vespasian . The site would remain the narrow gap between the Concordia Temple , the Temple of Saturn and the Porticus of the Dei Consentes . It is unclear whether the basilica was already destroyed by the new construction of the Tiberian Concordia Temple in order to make room for the significantly larger complex, or - more generally - fell victim to the Augustan building policy and the taking of the forum through its buildings.

literature

Web links

  • Jessica Bartz, Sophie Horacek: The Basilica Opimia on "digitales forum romanum" (accessed on August 3, 2020)

Remarks

  1. ↑ Varro, De lingua Latina 5,156 ( digitized version ).
  2. ↑ Plutarch , C. Gracchus 17.6; Appian , bellum civile 1.26.
  3. ^ Homer F. Rebert, Henri Marceau: The Temple of Concord in the Roman Forum. Part I: Homer F. Rebert: An Analysis of the Remains. In: Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. Volume 5, 1925, pp. 53-75; Carlo Gasparri: Aedes Concordiae Augustae. Istituto di studi romani, Rome 1979, 16 f. 60-62; Ralf Schenk: The Corinthian Temple until the end of the Augustus' Principle (= International Archeology. Volume 45). Marie Leidorf, Rahden / Westfalen 1997, pp. 77-78.
  4. ↑ Cicero, Pro Sestio 140; the translation of the celeberrimum as "very often visited" results from the contrast made by Cicero to the tomb of Opimius, which was desertissimum , that is, "extremely lonely", in Dyrrachium ; see Samuel Ball Platner: Varia topographica. In: Classical Philology. Volume 12, 1917, pp. 194-197, here p. 194 ( online ).
  5. ^ Samuel Ball Platner, Thomas Ashby: A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Oxford University Press, London 1929, p. 81 f., Here p. 82.
  6. ^ Annette Nünnerich-Asmus: basilica and portico. The architecture of the porticoed halls as an expression of changed urbanity in the late republic and early imperial times. Böhlau, Cologne-Weimar-Wien 1994, p. 11.
  7. ↑ On the functions of the basilicas last: Werner Eck : Basilicae and their epigraphic texts: Communication to the outside and inside. In: Journal of Papyrology and Epigraphy . Volume 206, 2018, pp. 3-19 ( online ).
  8. ↑ CIL 06.02338 ; 02339 .
  9. ↑ Werner Eck: Basilicae and their epigraphic texts: communication to the outside and inside. In: Journal of Papyrology and Epigraphy. Volume 206, 2018, pp. 3-19, here p. 4; Markus Arnolds: Functions of republican and early imperial forum basilicas in Italy. Diss. Heidelberg 2005, p. 127 ( PDF ), suggested connecting it to the cleaning of the basilica.
  10. ↑ For the middle imperial period worked out by Pierre Gros : Basilica sous le Haut Empire. Ambiguïtes du mot, you type et de la fonction. In: Bulletin Antieke Beschaving. Volume 78, 2003, pp. 191-204; Generalizing and enriched presentation by Markus Arnolds: Functions of republican and early imperial forum basilicas in Italy. Diss. Heidelberg 2005, pp. 18-25.
  11. ↑ Reinhard Förtsch : Basilica Opimia. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 2, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01472-X , Sp. 472 f.
  12. ^ German Hafner: Aedes Concordiae et Basilica Opimia. In: Archäologischer Anzeiger . 1984, pp. 591-596; recently Markus Arnolds: Functions of republican and early imperial forum basilicas in Italy. Diss. Heidelberg 2005, p. 128 a step in the same direction and addressed the vestibule of the temple as basilica Opimia ; so far, neither proposal has found any further representatives.
  13. ^ Carlo Gasparri: Aedes Concordiae Augustae. Istituto di studi romani, Rome 1979, 16 f. 60-62.
  14. ↑ Christian Hülsen: The Comitium and its Monuments in the Republican Era. In: Communications of the German Archaeological Institute, Roman Department . Volume 8, 1893, pp. 79-94, here p. 83 f. 91 figs ( PDF ); for example Samuel Ball Platner, Thomas Ashby: A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Oxford University Press, London 1929, p. 81 f., Here p. 81.
  15. ^ Nicholas Purcell: Rediscovering the Roman Forum. In: Journal of Roman Archeology . Volume 2, 1989, pp. 156-166, here pp. 161 f .; the same: atrium libertatis. In: Papers of the British School at Rome. Volume 61, 1993, pp. 125-155, here p. 151 m. Note 109.
  16. ^ Filippo Coarelli: Substructio et tabularium. In: Papers of the British School at Rome. Volume 78, 2010, pp. 107-132.
  17. ^ Giuseppe Lugli : Itinerario di Roma Antica. Periodici scientifici, Milan 1970, p. 95; Lawrence Richardson Jr .: A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1992, p. 54 sv Basilica Opimia; Angela Maria Ferroni: Basilica Opimia. In: Eva Margareta Steinby : Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae. Volume 1. Quasar, Rome 1993, p. 183.