Milliarium Aureum |
|
|---|---|
| Location | Regione VIII Forum Romanum |
| Built in | Inauguration 20 BC |
| Built by/for | Emperor Augustus |
| Type of structure | Milestone with gilded bronze finishing |
| Related articles | Augustus |
|
Milliarium Aureum |
|
| This article covers the Ancient Roman Forum of the Republican and Imperial periods |
|---|
The Milliarium Aureum (Classical Latin: [miːllɪˈaːrɪʊm ˈawrɛʊm], golden milestone) was a monument, probably of gilded bronze, erected by the Emperor Caesar Augustus near the temple of Saturn in the central Forum of Ancient Rome. All roads were considered to begin from this monument and all distances in the Roman Empire were measured relative to that point.[1] On it were perhaps listed all the major cities in the empire and distances to them.[2] According to Schaaf[3], the phrase "all roads lead to Rome"[4] is a reference to the Millarium Aureum, as the specific point to which all roads were said to lead. Today, the base of the milestone might still exist in the Roman Forum (see discussion of the problem of the fragments below).
Contents |
Augustus, as curator viarum, erected this monument in 20 BC [5]. Probably the monument received its name of Milliarium Aureum quite immediately after its inauguration. It had to symbolize the starting point of the Roman road system to Italy and to all the imperial possessions.
The plan of this monument is missing in the Imperial Forma Urbis as we have it now. The remaining fragments for this area of the Roman Forum are all in the so called slab V-11, Stanford University #19 (Temple of Saturn with the frontal section and staircase, but the Rostra section is missing, Temple of Concordia, Temple of the Deified Vespasian).
Information from ancient authors are very scarce, so there are many problems of interpretation about this monument.
It is sure that it was hard by [or under] the Temple of Saturn at the head of the Roman Forum, but its exact location is still uncertain and unknown. Due to the new archaeological data from the excavations by Kähler in 1959 which seem to confirm the data from the excavations by Bunsen in 1833, now many scholars think that it was located at the southeast corner of the podium of the Rostra Augusti on a symmetrical axis with the Umbilicus Urbis Romae [6][7].
The Milliarium Aureum seems to have been a marble column sheathed in gilded bronze: according to C. Hülsen, in 1835 a huge marble cylinder was found near the Temple of Saturn and it had still bronze hooks. The whole monument had probably the form of a Roman milestone. Other scholars think that the Milliarium Aureum was entirely made of gilded bronze[7]. According to other scholars, the monument had only gilded bronze letters[8].
Height: 145 in or 345 cm .
Diameter: 1.15 m (the column only); 3 m (the base [?], i.e. the carved Marble fragments labelled as Milliarium Aureum in the Roman Forum).
The ancient sources never say, what was inscribed on the Milliarium Aureum, directly, so every idea one may have about this problem must be considered a modern inference which has its reason in the typical and usual form, structure and function of the Roman milestones.
These are the main hypotheses about the inscription:
The ca. 3 m diameter Marble fragments labelled Milliarium Aureum with an anthemion frieze decoration have been considered part of the base of the monument for a long time. However there's no direct evidence for this to be real, also because the diameter of this base seems to be too large for a Milliarium. Now scholars[7]prefer to consider the fragments a section of the upper part of the Umbilicus Urbis Romae which had a 5.1 m diameter basis and 3 m diameter upper elements.
According to Richardson the ruins labelled 'Milliarium Aureum' can be considered pertinent only if the column of the monument was of a colossal scale almost 3 m diameter and not 1.15 m:
Still less credible is that the carved stone members labelled Milliarium Aureum at the northwest end of the Forum Romanum today actually belonged to the base of that monument. The frieze decorated with an anthemion belongs relatively high on a building, and both elements are of a diameter equal to that of the Umbilicus Romae, too large for a milestone, unless it were of colossal scale.[11]
This way the fragments of the so called Milliarium Aureum are now believed by some to be identical with the Umbilicus Urbis Romae (or Navel of the city of Rome), a structure in the same area of the Forum which served a similar but not identical purpose.
