Septizodium

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Septizonium of Septimius Severus, engraving from 1582

The Septizodium or Septizonium was a monumental fountain in Rome . It was built by Emperor Septimius Severus in AD 203 .

Septizodium

The New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome makes it clear that the “Septizodium” was an ingenious water feature with no rooms or roof: “The upper floors can only be entered with ladders, and behind this facade there are no signs of a building.” In the Middle Ages the septizodium belonged to the Palazzo del Settizonio of the Frangipani family . After severe damage - including probably by Charles V's troops at the Sacco di Roma in 1527 - the building was demolished under Pope Sixtus V in 1588/89.

The septizodium was at the point where the Via Appia runs along the foot of the Palatine Hill. It was a monumental, probably three-story facade nymphaeum, which was decorated with numerous statues. Its ground plan is also shown on the Forma Urbis Romae , a monumental city map of Rome that was kept in the Temple of Peace .

Septasolium

In the papal election in 1241 , the cardinals, unable to reach consensus, were imprisoned in a monastery called the Septasolium . In medieval and modern tales, the word in septizodium has been corrupted.

The Saepta Solis ("District of the Sun") near Clivus Scauri is an ancient complex that had been converted into a monastery. An indication of what is meant by Saepta Solis is given by a signature of the newly created Cardinal Silvius, around 1130: Silvius diac. S. Luciae iuxta Heligabalum . Heliogabalus , also a Roman emperor of the early 3rd century (he ruled 218–222), had built the District of the Sun ( Saepta Solis ), not far from the Septizodium , at the foot of a street called Clivus Scauri .

In 1119 Pope Calixt II imprisoned his defeated opponent, Gregory VIII. In the Septasolium , in 1152 a cardinal signed Radulfus, diaconus card. Sanctae Luciae in Septa solis , and in 1201 a cardinal with Leo sce. Lucie ad Septa solis diac. card. ,

It was in the Saepta Solis or the Septasolium, and not the Septizodium , where the 1198 papal election , the 1227 papal election, and most importantly the 1241 papal election took place. After the cardinals had gathered there of their own accord in 1198 and 1227, they were in 1241 by Senator Matteo Rosso Orsini , the father of the future Pope Nicholas III. stuck there. The terms of the election were found stressful by a contemporary writer hostile to the Orsini , especially as the urine from Orsini's guards on the roof seeped into the voting chamber along with the rain. The forced retreat in the Saepta Solis actually only took place during the last two weeks of the election.

The church of Santa Lucia in Settizodio (Italian) or Sancta Lucia in Septa Solis (Latin) was named after the Septasolium and was built into the immediately adjacent eastern section of the Circus Maximus .

literature

  • Theodor Dombart : The Palatine Septizonium in Rome . Beck, Munich 1922
  • C. Gorrie, The Septizodium of Septimius Severus revisited. The monument in its historical and urban context , Latomus 60 (2001) pp. 653-670.
  • Karl Hampe : An unprinted report on the conclave of 1241 in the Roman Septizonium . (= Meeting reports of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class; born 1913, Abh. 1). Winter, Heidelberg 1913
  • Christian Hülsen : The Septizonium of Septimius Severus . 46. ​​Program for the Winkelmannsfest of the Archaeological Society of Berlin, 1886, pp. 1–36
  • Susann S. Lusnia, Urban Planning and Sculptural Display in Severan Rome: Reconstructing the Septizodium and Its Role in Dynastic Politics , American Journal of Archeology 108 (2004) pp. 517-544.
  • Lawrence Richardson Jr. (Ed.), The New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome , Baltimore 1992, pp. 349-350

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Johann Matthias Watterich , Pontificum Romanorum Vitae II , 1862, p. 185
  2. ↑ See: The Septasolium (Saepta Solis)
  3. ↑ Giovanni Benedetto Mittarelli, Anselmo Costadoni, Annales Camaldulenses ordino Sancti Benedicti , Volume IV, 1759, p. 168: "Defuncto Coelestino III. Romano pontifice die octava januarii hujus anni vel melius septima, cum quidam cardinalium se contulissent ad Septasolium monasterii , ut liberius et securius ibi possent de successoris electione tractare ... "
  4. ^ Augustin Demski, Pope Nicholas III. A monograph , Münster 1903, pp. 2-5, Richard Sternfeld , Der Kardinal Johann Gaëtan Orsini (Pope Nikolaus III.) 1244-1277 , Berlin, 1905, pp. 1-7
  5. ^ [1] Richard von San Germano : "Eodem mense Augusti iussu imperatoris vastatores de regno aput Insulam pontis solarati et aput Sanctum Iohannem de Incarico, ut intrent Campaniam congregantur. Cardinales qui in Urbe ad papae electionem convenerant, per senatorem et Romanos apud Septisolium includuntur, ut ad creandum papam inviti procedant. " ] and at San Giovanni Incarico [both in the province of Frosinone ], were gathered to invade Campania . The cardinals who were assembled in Rome for the papal elections were locked in by the senators and the Romans in the Septasolium so that they could, even unwillingly, elect a pope ”; for an evaluation of Richard von San Germano, see Karla Mallette, The Kingdom of Sicily, 1100-1250: A Literary History , Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), esp. pp. 45-54
  6. ↑ David Abulafia, Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor , 1988, p. 350, based on Hampe, 1913

Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 8.3 "  N , 12 ° 29 ′ 19.4"  E