Millarium
Encyclopedia
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
, erected by the Emperor Caesar Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
near the temple of Saturn
Temple of Saturn
The Temple of Saturn is a monument to the agricultural deity. The Temple of Saturn stands at the foot of the Capitoline Hill in the western end of the Forum Romanum in Rome, Italy.-Archaeology:...
in the central Forum
Roman Forum
The Roman Forum is a rectangular forum surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, or simply the Forum...
of Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
. All roads were considered to begin from this monument and all distances in the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
were measured relative to that point. On it were perhaps listed all the major cities in the empire and distances to them. According to Schaaf, the phrase "all roads lead to Rome" 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
Roman Forum
The Roman Forum is a rectangular forum surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, or simply the Forum...
(see discussion of the problem of the fragments below).
Inauguration
AugustusAugustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
, as curator viarum, erected this monument in 20 BC
20 BC
Year 20 BC was either a common year starting on Wednesday or Thursday or a leap year starting on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday of the Julian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday of the Proleptic Julian calendar...
. 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
Road
A road is a thoroughfare, route, or way on land between two places, which typically has been paved or otherwise improved to allow travel by some conveyance, including a horse, cart, or motor vehicle. Roads consist of one, or sometimes two, roadways each with one or more lanes and also any...
system to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and to all the imperial possessions.
Plan Missing in the Forma Urbis
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 UniversityStanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
#19 (Temple of Saturn with the frontal section and staircase, but the Rostra
Rostra
The Rōstra was a large platform built in the city of Rome that stood during the republican and imperial periods. Speakers would stand on the rostra and face the north side of the comitium towards the senate house and deliver orations to those assembled in between...
section is missing, Temple of Concordia, Temple of the Deified Vespasian
Temple of Vespasian and Titus
The Temple of Vespasian and Titus is located in Rome at the western end of the Roman Forum between the Temple of Concordia and the Temple of Saturn. It is dedicated to the deified Vespasian and his son, the deified Titus. It was begun by Titus in 79 after Vespasian's death and Titus's succession...
).
Location, General Style and Structure
Information from ancient authors are very scarce, so there are many problems of interpretation about this monument.Location
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 RostraRostra
The Rōstra was a large platform built in the city of Rome that stood during the republican and imperial periods. Speakers would stand on the rostra and face the north side of the comitium towards the senate house and deliver orations to those assembled in between...
Augusti on a symmetrical axis with the Umbilicus Urbis Romae .
General Style and Structure
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 milestoneMilestone
A milestone is one of a series of numbered markers placed along a road or boundary at intervals of one mile or occasionally, parts of a mile. They are typically located at the side of the road or in a median. They are alternatively known as mile markers, mileposts or mile posts...
. Other scholars think that the Milliarium Aureum was entirely made of gilded bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
. According to other scholars, the monument had only gilded bronze letters.
Measurements
Height: 145 in or 345 cm .Diameter: 1.15 m (the column only); 3 m (the base [?], i.e. the carved Marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
fragments labelled as Milliarium Aureum in the Roman Forum).
The problem of the Inscription
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:
- Nothing and probably the name and title of the Emperor only;
- The names of the most important cities of Italy and of the Empire in 20 BC with the distances of these from Rome: according to a vague sentence by Pliny the ElderPliny the ElderGaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
(Naturalis HistoriaNaturalis HistoriaThe Natural History is an encyclopedia published circa AD 77–79 by Pliny the Elder. It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to Pliny...
, 3.66), the distances in Roman miles were measured (so with a difference of ca. 1 mile) starting from the City gates and not from the location of the Milliarium: Via Appia from Porta CapenaPorta CapenaThe Porta Capena was a gate in the Servian Wall near the Caelian Hill, in Rome, Italy according to Roman tradition the sacred grove where Numa Pompilius and the nymph Egeria used to meet. It was one of the main entries to the city of Rome, since it opened on the Appian Way...
(to Brundisium, GreeceGreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and the Oriental Provinces), Via SalariaVia SalariaThe Via Salaria was an ancient Roman road in Italy.It eventually ran from Rome to Castrum Truentinum on the Adriatic coast - a distance of 242 km. The road also passed through Reate and Asculum...
and Via NomentanaVia NomentanaVia Nomentana is an ancient road of Italy, leading North-East from Rome to Nomentum , a distance of . It originally bore the name Via Ficulnensis, from the old Latin village of Ficulnea, about from Rome. It was subsequently prolonged to Nomentum, but never became an important high road, and merged...
from Porta CollinaPorta CollinaThe Colline Gate was a landmark in ancient Rome, supposed to have been built by Servius Tullius, semi-legendary king of Rome 578–535 BC. The gate stood at the north end of the Servian Wall, and past it were two important streets, the Via Salaria and Via Nomentana. Within this area the Alta Semita...
and Via FlaminiaVia FlaminiaThe Via Flaminia was an ancient Roman road leading from Rome over the Apennine Mountains to Ariminum on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and due to the ruggedness of the mountains was the major option the Romans had for travel between Etruria, Latium and Campania and the Po Valley...
(to Northern Italy, RaetiaRaetiaRaetia was a province of the Roman Empire, named after the Rhaetian people. It was bounded on the west by the country of the Helvetii, on the east by Noricum, on the north by Vindelicia, on the west by Cisalpine Gaul and on south by Venetia et Histria...
, NoricumNoricumNoricum, in ancient geography, was a Celtic kingdom stretching over the area of today's Austria and a part of Slovenia. It became a province of the Roman Empire...
, PannoniaPannoniaPannonia was an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia....
and IllyricumIllyricum (Roman province)The Roman province of Illyricum or Illyris Romana or Illyris Barbara or Illyria Barbara replaced most of the region of Illyria. It stretched from the Drilon river in modern north Albania to Istria in the west and to the Sava river in the north. Salona functioned as its capital...
), Via AureliaVia AureliaThe Via Aurelia was a Roman road in Italy constructed around the year 241 BC. The project was undertaken by C. Aurelius Cotta, who at that time was censor...
(to the Galliae and Hispaniae), Via OstiensisVia OstiensisThe Via Ostiensis was an important road in ancient Rome. It ran west 30 km from the city of Rome to its important sea port of Ostia Antica, from which it took its name. The road began near the Forum Boarium, ran between the Aventine and the Tiber River along its left bank, and left the...
(to OstiaOstia AnticaOstia Antica is a large archeological site, close to the modern suburb of Ostia , that was the location of the harbour city of ancient Rome, which is approximately 30 km to the northeast. "Ostia" in Latin means "mouth". At the mouth of the River Tiber, Ostia was Rome's seaport, but, due to...
and to the main harbour to CorsicaCorsicaCorsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
and SardiniaSardiniaSardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
, Sicilia and AfricaAfricaAfrica is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
); - The names of the roads out of Rome and the men of praetorian rank Augustus had made Curatores Viarum to see to the upkeep of them, based on Dio CassiusDio CassiusLucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus , known in English as Cassius Dio, Dio Cassius, or Dio was a Roman consul and a noted historian writing in Greek...
' account of the erection of the Monument.
The problem of the Marble fragments labelled Milliarium Aureum
The ca. 3 m diameter Marble fragments labelled Milliarium Aureum with an anthemion friezeFrieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
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 scholarsprefer 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.
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.
See also
- Kilometre ZeroKilometre ZeroIn many countries, Kilometre Zero or similar terms in other languages, is a particular location , from which distances are traditionally measured...
- Milion, an equivalent monument in Ancient Constantinople
External links
- UCLA Digital Roman Forum page for the "Milliarium Aureum" Archaeological discussion and 3D reconstruction
- Stanford University Forma Urbis Romae: slabs of the Forum Area with the "Milliarium Aureum" (the "Milliarium Aureum" is a missing part near the letters "...ordia")
- The book Article by C. Hülsen about the "Milliarium Aureum" at Lacus Curtius
