ROMAN URBAN TOPOGRAPHY in Britain and the western Empire

Todd: Forum and Capitolium in the early Empire
Fig 41 Bolsena: the forum and basilica
paper makes no attempt at an exhaustive survey. A short
lecture offers only an opportunity to review the present
state of knowledge and highlight certain features of the
subject. I have chosen to pay particular attention to the
Capitolium as an architectural focus, as this aspect has
been under-emphasized by most earlier writers.
Republican fora and the architectural role of
Capitolia
During the 2nd century BC, particularly in the second
half, there occurred a great spurt of building activity,
reflecting partly the accession of wealth in Italy following
the Second Punic War and partly the need for some cities
to rebuild and expand their centres after a long period of
destructive warfare. This was a formative period for the
public buildings of Italian cities, particularly the structures
which surrounded the fora, and the public centres
which emerged during the 2nd century were to influence
powerfully the planning of early imperial foundations not
only in Italy but in the west as a whole. Among the most
striking and significant developments was the addition of a
basilica to the forum in a wide range of cities, from Rome
herself (Basilica Portia in 184, Aemilia in 179, and
Sempronia in 170) to lesser places such as Pompeii (after c
58
150) and Cosa. Porticoes were increasingly used to link
elements of different date and style into a more coherent
whole, often masking such humdrum features as shops
and tabernae. Public temples not only became more
common features of the environs of a forum, but in some
cases emerged as dominant architectural elements. Not
infrequently those temples were Capitolia. All this is well
exemplified at Pompeii after c 150 (Nor Scavi 2 (1941),
371; 3 (1942), 253; 8.5 (195l), 225). The whole of the early
piazza was remodelled, a basilica and macellum were
added, and a portico on a raised stylobate hid a muddle of
structures along one edge. But the most notable new
building was a temple of Jupiter set on a high podium
which commanded the side of the piazza. This was of a
typically central Italian type with a single cella and an altar
placed in front on the podium steps. Further south, at
Paestum, a similar transformation was wrought early in
the 2nd century. Again a large temple was to dominate the
plan, this time a Capitolium, but here the builders chose to
place it in the centre of one of the longer sides close to the
earlier comitium and curia (Sestieri 1963; Greco &
Theodorescu 1980). This very bold design would have
produced an overpowering focus of Capitolium and
comitium, and possibly for that reason never reached
fruition, the unfinished Capitolium being abandoned for a
temple of Pax in about 100 BC. The same development is