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The Campus Martius (Latin for 'Field of Mars'; Italian language: Campo Marzio) was a publicly owned area of ancient Rome about in extent. In the Middle Ages, it was the most populous area of Rome. The IV rione of Rome, Campo Marzio, which covers a smaller section of the original area, bears the same name.
This land, "between the city and the Tiber", became the property of Rome's last Etruscan king, Tarquinius Superbus. After his defeat and exile, the plain was dedicated to the god Mars.Livy. Books I and II With An English Translation. Cambridge. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. 2.5.2 Roman men assembled every spring before heading off to fight the hostile tribes that surrounded Rome, and citizens gathered for important religious festivals. With the exception of a small altar to Mars near the center of the field, no visible changes were made to the field until the fifth century B.C.
In 435 B.C., the Villa Publica was established in a prepared 300-meter clearing. The area was a gathering space for citizens to congregate every five years to be counted in a census, but had no permanent structures; no additions would be made for another two centuries.Livy. Books III and IV With An English Translation. Cambridge. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. 4.22.7
With the advent of the Punic Wars in the mid-third century B.C., Roman military expansion moved out of the Italian peninsula, resulting in the reduction of seasonal musters on the field. The number of foreign wars, however, greatly increased the amount of wealth flowing into Rome. Generals who had sworn to various deities to build temples in their honor if victorious used the vast amounts of wealth to fund these construction projects. Besides temples and wooden markets, entertainment venues were built as well, though they were to be temporary.
Starting in the time of Sulla, building lots were sold or granted to influential Romans, and insulae (apartment blocks) and villas encroached on the common land. It later became the place for comitia centuriata, civic meetings with weapons, and for the city's militia. In 55 BC, Pompey constructed a permanent theater, the Theatrum Pompeium, the first stone theater in Rome. When the Curia Hostilia burned down in 52 BC, the theater was sometimes used as a meeting place for the Senate. The area was also used as the assembling ground for elections. Julius Caesar planned for the Saepta Julia (enclosures used for elections) to be placed there; they were later completed by his heir Augustus (Octavian). In 33 BC, Octavian dedicated the Porticus Octaviae, built from spoils of the Roman-Dalmatian War.
During the Augustan period of the early Roman Empire, the area became officially part of the city: Rome was split into 14 regions, and the Campus Martius was divided into the VII Via Lata on the east and the IX Circus Flaminius nearer to the river. The Campus Martius also held the Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace), built by the Senate to mark the establishment of peace by Augustus. It was intended to symbolize the successful completion of Augustus' efforts to stabilize the Empire. Marcus Agrippa had the original swampy ground made into a pool and baths in a setting of parkland and temples, the Laconicum Sudatorium or Baths of Agrippa. Also, he built the Porticus Argonautarum and the Pantheon, which was later rebuilt by Hadrian as it still stands today. In 19 BC, he also completed the Aqua Virgo, to supply water to these new baths and fountains.
In the non-populated northern area was the huge Mausoleum of Augustus. Other buildings that were made were the Theatre of Marcellus, the Temple for Isis (from around the time of Caligula), the baths and bridge by Nero, and Pompey's theatre, where Julius Caesar was murdered by Marcus Brutus and his allies. After the great fire of 64 A.D. Domitian rebuilt the burnt monuments plus a stadium (eventually to become today's Piazza Navona) and an Odeion (a small performance hall). In 119 A.D, reinforcing the themes of imperial divinity and apotheosis established by Augustus, Hadrian and the succeeding Antonines added a temple to Hadrian's mother-in-law, the Divine Matidia, and a temple to the Divine Hadrian himself built by Antoninus Pius.Platner, Samuel Ball, and Thomas Ashby. A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. London: Oxford UP, H. Milford, 1929. Print. 331
As was the case with the first two Flavian and Antonine emperors, the Severans did not commit many resources to construction projects in an already crowded Campus Martius. Their interests lay elsewhere in repairs and commissioning new structures in other regions of the capital.Jacobs II, P., & Conlin, D. (2015). Campus Martius: The Field of Mars in the Life of Ancient Rome. New York City, New York: Cambridge University Press. 162 The Campus did not see another major architectural change until the reign of Aurelian.
The citizens of Rome took great pride in knowing that Rome required no fortifications because of the stability brought by the Pax Romana under the protection of the Roman Army. In 270 A.D., however, barbarian tribes flooded across the Germanic frontier and reached northern Italy as the Roman army struggled to stop them. To alleviate the city's vulnerability, the emperor ordered the construction of a 19-kilometer-long, 6 to 8-meter-high brick wall, fortified with defensive turrets, named the Aurelian Walls. Aurelian did not live to see his work completed under his successor Probus, in 276 A.D. With the completion of the walls, the Campus Martius was finally incorporated into the rest of the city.Platner, Samuel Ball, and Thomas Ashby. A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. London: Oxford UP, H. Milford, 1929. Print. 348–350
By the mid-fourth century, when emperor Constantius II visited Rome, now the former capital, many of the pagan temples were closed. Buildings dedicated to Christianity began to occupy their spaces. Some were reduced to supporting material, some were razed, and some were given new roles, such as the Pantheon. In 663 A.D. its bronze roof tiles were removed and replaced with lead, an act that Gregorius said was the result of "excessive avarice and the 'excessive greed for gold.'"Gregorius, Magister. 1987. Narracio de mirabilibus urbis Romae. Translated by John Osborne in The Marvels of Rome. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies. 29 In the fifth century, Rome was burned and sacked twice: by the Visigoths in 410 A.D. and by the Vandals in 455 A.D. Three earthquakes racked the city between 408 and 508 A.D, and two floods washed over low-lying spaces in 398 and 411 A.D. Many marble facings and columns were tossed into kilns to be burned into lime powder for reuse.Manacorda, Daniele, 2000. Crypta Balbi: Museo nazionale romano. Milan: Electa. 20
Writing in the twelfth or thirteenth century, Magister Gregorius, marveled at those edifices in the Field of Mars whose antiquity was clear but whose names were not as certain.Gregorius, Magister. 1987. Narracio de mirabilibus urbis Romae. Translated by John Osborne in The Marvels of Rome. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies. 10-15 Looking down from the heights of one of Rome's hills, he recorded that the great structures had been replaced by a "forest of medieval towers".Gregorius, Magister. 1987. Narracio de mirabilibus urbis Romae. Translated by John Osborne in The Marvels of Rome. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies. 18 In 1581, French essayist Michel de Montaigne traveled to Rome and noted that "upon the very wrecks of the ancient buildings, as they fall to ruin, the builders set out casually the foundations of new houses, as if these fragments were great masses of rock, firm and trustworthy. It is evident that many of the old streets lie more than thirty feet below the level of those now in existence."Montaigne, Michel de. 1983. Montaigne’s Travel Journal. Translated by Donald Murdoch Frame. San Francisco: North Point Press. 100
The Campus Martius may have been named after the Ara Martis ("Mars' altar"), which was talked about starting in the eighth century BC.Jacobs II, Paul, Campus Marius (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014) 29-30 It is not known exactly when the Ara Martis was built or when it was destroyed.Jacobs II, Paul, Campus Martius (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014) 30
The social climate and events surrounding Campus Martius were significant to Roman culture. Livy describes a horse race called the second Equirria, which started on March 14. The winning horse was killed and sacrificed to Mars.Jacobs II, Paul, Campus Martius (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2014) 28
The second event used to support his claim was the Anna Perenna. This event was when the plebs would go out to Campus Martius to eat and drink.Jacobs II, Campus Martius (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2014)28 The reason why Anna Perenna was important was because she was an ugly hag and she represented the end of a year, and Mars represented the nice beginning of the year.Jacobs II, Paul, Campus Martius, (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2014) 28
The last event Jacobs II talks about is the Tubilustrium festival, which purified military instruments to summon the cruciate assemblies. This celebration used to validate the emperors' imperium, but later on the festival validated the consuls imperium.
This period of Hellenism was the first major step in which the Roman temples, as well as the temples found in Campus Martius were generally made of stone architecture. This new style was in a way, a step up from the simpler early forms, which often appear coarse and bulky in comparison to the aesthetic perfection and refinement of the later structures.Stamper, John (2008). The Architecture of the Roman Temples: The Republic of the Middle Empire. Cambridge University Press This period a transformation occurred from simple experimentation to the strict mathematical complexity of ground plans and superstructures. The Hellenistic Period was not only an expansion in terms of temples numerically within the Campus Martius, but also a stylistic transformation.
In the mid-1980s, Schutz and Bandini challenged the erroneous reconstruction. Bandini found several mistakes made by Buchner on interpreting the ancient texts written by Pliny. Pliny referred to a solar meridian, not a sundial. A solar meridian indicates the length of days and nights, therefore reflecting the timing of the solstices. It was used as an instrument to check the congruence of the civil calendar with the solar year. Further archeological findings where a travertine pavement embedded with a line running north to south with Greek lettering in bronze with zodiac signs confirmed Pliny's writing. Also, the fact that the site was measured to be about a meter too high to be considered of Augustan date, therefore indicated that the instrument built under Augustus lost its accuracy and was renovated by Domitian.Heslin, Peter. "Augustus, Domitian and the So-Called Horologium Augusti."JSTOR. The Journal of Roman Studies, 2007. Web.
Schutz then highlighted some technical failures further refuting the previous reconstruction, such as: The erroneous marking of the site where the obelisk lay, the mislabeling of the angles for the relationship between the three monuments and the fact that the gnomon's shadow would cast several football fields away from the obelisk due to the sun's angle.
It is worth noting, however, that even after those findings, the relevance and the cosmic meaning of the obelisk and the two other monuments constructed under Augustus's reign remain correct. The importance of Augustus's reign is supported by the evidence that Domitian decided to renovate the instrument and keep it dedicated to Augustus.
As this series of architectural changes occurred following Augustus’ defeat of Mark Antony, Augustus’ association with the new political buildings furthered his rise to political power and status in Rome. Years of civil war from The Great Roman Civil War (49–45 BC) to the Final War of the Roman Republic (32–30 BC) had left Rome in a state of near lawlessness, but the Republic was not prepared to accept the control of Augustus just yet. At the same time Augustus could not give up his authority without risking further civil wars among other Roman generals, and even if he desired no political position, it was his duty to look after the well-being of Rome and Roman provinces. Augustus’ aims from this point forward was to return Rome to a state a stability and civility by lifting the political pressure imposed on the courts of law and ensuring free elections in name at least. Not only did Augustus return the Senate and popular assemblies to their former role, his new buildings on Campus Martius provided the Senate and assemblies with new political homes, all of which were closely associated with Augustus. By willingly restoring the Roman Senate and popular assemblies to their former role and building several monumental politically focused buildings throughout Campus Martius, Augustus permanently connected himself with Rome's political atmosphere.
Some of the most significant temples of the campus are the rectangular temples of Largo di Torre Argentina, located in the southern part of the Campus Martius. It is a religious complex composed of four temples: Temple Juturna, Temple Fortuna Huiusce Diei, Temple Feronia, and Temple Lares Permarini. Those temples demonstrate that religious activity is being spread out across Rome and is not focused on the former religious places of the Capitoline Hill or the Forum Romanum. Art historian Stamper argues that the Largo Argentina has marked the beginning of multiple triumphal processions of successful generals. During the 1st century BC, there was a change from the Ionic style to the Corinthian Order. Acanthus leaves were sculpted on the top of these columns.
Two other important temples are the Temple of Apollo Sosianus and the temple of Bellona. One is associated with the cult of Apollo, and the other one is dedicated to the goddess of war, respectively. Both temples are located in the Circus Flaminius and were built during the 2nd century BC. Bellona's Temple was rebuilt in marble and travertine with six Corinthian columns along the front and nine along the sides
Another important religious event was the Secular Games (Latin: ludi saeculares). Established during the Roman Republic, the games were resurrected by emperor Claudius when a man named Valesius prayed for a cure for his children's illness and was instructed to sacrifice to the underworld deities. Claudius did this as a way to not only appease the gods after several lightning bolts struck the city of Rome, but to emphasize the birth of a Golden Age. These games were a sort of a rite of passage that were held over several days and nights to mark the end of a new saeculum and the beginning of the next one. A saeculum was supposedly the longest possible length of a human life, either to 100 or 110 years old. The procession started at the Temple of Apollo, near the Circus Flaminius, proceeded into the Forum, passed along to the Vicus Tuscus, Velabrum, through the Forum Boarium, and finally ended at the Temple of Juno Regina. Augustus, when he revived the games, changed the destination of the procession from the Temple of Juno Regina to the Temple of Ceres, which is on the Aventine. The Temple of Apollo that was most likely used was that of Apollo Sosianus, establishing a religious connection between the Aventine and the southwestern Campus.
One of the last events was the Anna Perenna, also celebrated in the Campus Martius during the Ides of March. The people would go out to the Field of Mars for a day of feasting and drinking.Paul W Jacobs, II; Diane Atnally Conlin, 2014, “Campus Martius : the Field of Mars in the life of ancient Rome”, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2014. According to historian Johannes Lylud, during the festival they also make public and private sacrifice for securing a healthy year.Johannes Lydud “De Mensibus 4.49” translated by Andrew Eastbourne for Roger Pearse, 2013. Web link: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Lydus/4/March*.html
The Tiber flooded in December 791, and the Campus Martius was entirely submerged.
The main road connecting Rome to the rest of Europe was the Via Cassia, entering Rome through the Porta del Popolo in the northern part of the Campus Martius. Via Cassia became the most important road in medieval times, because it connected Rome with Viterbo, Siena, and Florence.
The other main road to Rome, the Via Aurelia, became unsafe in medieval times with the spread of malaria, because it passed through the unhealthy marshes near several coastal lakes in the Maremma lowlands (as Orbetello lagoon, Capalbio lake, and other ), and because its route by the sea made it more susceptible to attack from raiders. The coastal towns around Via Aurelia were areas subjected to kidnapping of women and plunder by Muslim Saracen pirates.
Because of the increasing importance of the area, several popes decided to improve its conditions. In the period 1513–1521, Pope Leo X built a route connecting Porta del Popolo to the Vatican. This road was first called the Via Leonina after the pope, later the more famous Via di Ripetta after the name of the river port. To improve the hygiene of the area, several ancient Roman aqueducts were restored to operating condition.
As the population of Rome greatly increased in the Middle Ages, the Campus Martius became a crowded multi-cultural place where many foreigners settled. In 1555, Pope Paul IV designated part of the southern part of the Campus Martius as the Roman Ghetto to contain the city's Jewish population.
Later, the area became even more crowded, and protecting embankments were built to stop the flooding of the Tiber. This made the area much safer from threat of water, but the tall embankments effectively destroyed the traditional embarkation point called the Ripetta ("little bank"), the narrow streets leading down to the river, and the vernacular buildings along the river edge.
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