https://cgmr.carleton.edu/files/original/43c22fb7d1a8b70904a70d14c3e772ec.png f93b43904f0f4237a07f5a4a31a12769 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Antonio Tempesta's Map of Rome, 1593 Subject The topic of the resource Disabitato Description An account of the resource This map from the late 16th century shows a road, closely following the Salito del Grillo's route, winding past the three towers on the way to the Colosseum. Relevant street highlighted in red. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Antonio Tempesta Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Antonio Tempesta, Plan of the City of Rome, 1593, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plan_of_the_City_of_Rome_MET_DP278701.jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1593 https://cgmr.carleton.edu/files/original/5c16abcffb0e77d879b3045f6c2cfe06.png 28d29b91a39fde21665178d596469ad7 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Arch of the Torre del Grillo Subject The topic of the resource Disabitato Description An account of the resource Viewed from the north, this arch is visible in Tempesta's map of Rome and is the best evidence we have that the Salito del Grillo is a preserved medieval road. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nicholas Ford (2021) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 6/1/2019 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Rights held by creator https://cgmr.carleton.edu/files/original/d6a7559005443d5306bf18fd575e3964.png 5adb090b48e0b464337e8699554a1064 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Tor de' Conti Subject The topic of the resource Disabitato Description An account of the resource Viewed from the south, this tower would have been layered like the Torre delle Milizie. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nicholas Ford (2021) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 6/1/2019 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Rights held by creator https://cgmr.carleton.edu/files/original/63329d9f00eecf08f709ae1a4c0e097e.png 9e2c8525384a8b7d06d905cd23765a12 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Torre del Grillo Subject The topic of the resource Disabitato Description An account of the resource Viewed from the north, wedged next to the Baroque Palazzo del Grillo. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nicholas Ford (2021) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 6/1/2019 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Rights held by creator. https://cgmr.carleton.edu/files/original/0105bc1f66d3045d1a28e295357c67be.png ab133c7fcb47c5792ec3d4496ff387ed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Torre delle Milizie Subject The topic of the resource Disabitato Description An account of the resource Viewed from the top of Trajan's Market, partially obscured by houses that would have belonged to the Annibaldi. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nicholas Ford (2021) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 6/1/2019 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Rights held by creator. Place A location with a street address or larger region. Examples include building, statue, piazza, fountain, port, neighborhood, paintings, sculptures, frescoes, floors. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nicholas Ford (2021) Edited by Julia Tassava (2026) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context salitodelgrillo_2019 Title A name given to the resource The Salito del Grillo/Via de’ Conti: Fortifying the Arteries of the Disabitato Description An account of the resource This rather small road, running adjacent to the Via dei Fori Imperiali linking the Capitoline and the Colosseum, is a must-see for those interested in the barons’ skirmishes that broke out periodically throughout Rome’s late medieval history. Three very well-preserved towers from the 12th-14th centuries overlook the road, which likely follows the same route as a medieval predecessor. If the visitor starts walking from the north, he or she will first come across the enormous Torre delle Milizie crowning the Markets of Trajan. While the present tower was constructed in the early 13th century, it replaced an older fortification, perhaps Byzantine, which the Frangipane had held since 1179. In 1250, however, it was taken by the Annibaldi, just ten years after they had taken half of the Colosseum from the Frangipane. The Torre delle Milizie, then, gives the visitor a sense that they are walking down a key thoroughfare linking the Colosseum to the abitato, one that the family controlling the Colosseum would want fortified. While the visitor can get a decent look of the Torre from the street, he or she is encouraged to go into the Markets of Trajan to get a better look at the complex. Heading further down the street, the visitor will walk under the arch of the Tor del Grillo. While this tower is much more poorly documented than the other two on this tour, it is an important site because its arch confirms that this road would have existed in the medieval period. While today, it looks as if the arch may belong to the 17th century Palazzo del Grillo encircling the Torre, it is visible in Antonio Tempesta’s 1593 map of Rome. The arch, then, was likely attached to the medieval tower, dating from the 13th century. As such, we can rather confidently assume that the Salito del Grillo would have been lain at some point in the Middle Ages. The road ends at the Tor de’ Conti. Notably, only the base of this tower remains today; the upper layers fell down after an earthquake in the 14th century. Unlike the other two towers, the Tor de’ Conti touts a walled housing complex with a small garden. Built in the late 12th century by Innocent III, a Conti, the tower played a role in a small war that broke out between the Conti and the Capocci families in 1202. While the Tor de’ Conti is never mentioned by name in the narrative of the battle in the Gesta Innocentii III, the fighting seems to have been localized to the area around the Torre. Moreover, the narrative reveals that towers were central to this war; clans quickly build towers over enemy towers, come up with schemes to take strategically important towers when makeshift siege engines fail, and rain stones down onto their enemies. Considering how important towers were to this battle, the visitor can imagine how helpful the Tor de’ Conti would have been to its masters, a massive, impregnable tower overlooking a crucial suburban road. However, it should be noted that while the Gesta Innocentii dramatizes the conflict, these battles would have been rather small in scale and confined to the tiny area around the Salito del Grillo. As such, the visitor should bear in mind that as helpful as these towers were in combat, this does not necessarily mean that they “controlled” roads. Indeed, they may have functioned more as status symbols than practical defense systems; more research is needed before we can truly understand how closely the towers would have affected those who travelled the highways of the disabitato. Yet, as the modern traveler will quickly notice, their presence along the road is at once awesome and intimidating, and whether or not the towers actually commanded the street, they certainly dominated the attentions of those travelling between the suburbs and the abitato. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Brentano, Robert. Rome Before Avignon: A Social History of Thirteenth Century Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974. Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000. The Deeds of Pope Innocent III. Translated by James M. Powell. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2004. Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1200s Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Piazza del Grillo, 5, 00184 Roma RM Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1200s 1300s uninhabited rome