Agriculture and Reuse in the Roman Forum
Title
Description
Splitting Rome into the disabitato and the abitato makes it seem as if there is a heavy divide between the inhabited and uninhabited parts of the city. The Mantua canvas, for example, clearly shows the distinction between the green-belt of the disabitato and the occupied portions. The landscape of the disabitato here is portrayed as a green wasteland, solely littered with ancient ruins and bits of antiquity. It barely shows anything else.
However, despite what primary sources from the Middle Ages and modern academic articles portray, the disabitato was not entirely abandoned. The land surrounding the abitato was filled with lots of open, available space used as agricultural fields and farmsteads, vineyards, and uncultivated pastures. As shown in the Mantua canvas, it was also littered with ancient monuments and ruins – some of which were reused and altered to fit the needs of people in the Middle Ages instead of being forgotten entirely.
One of the best sites to truly see this change in function is the Roman Forum, which was included in the disabitato. While the image below was done in 1772, it still shows an accurate depiction of what the forum would have looked like during the Middle Ages. Small houses surround the cultivated pasture in the middle, where vegetables, spices, and fruit trees are being grown. Furthermore, the amount of livestock grazing in the area rebranded the forum as the “Campo Vaccino,” or cow field.
Antique columns and structures don’t have the same meaning as they did for the Romans; in fact, many are spoliated into new buildings and structures that have a new use for these farmers. The most important theme of the disabitato in regards to the Roman Forum is reuse for functionality. During antiquity, the Romans used the space for sacro-civic functions. The purpose changed to focus on agriculture over time, but that doesn’t diminish the forum’s importance. This transformation clearly illustrates the relationship between the people’s needs, functionality, and urban change over time.
Creator
Edited by Julia Tassava (2026)
Source
Cowdrey, H. E. J.. Pope Gregory VII, 1073-1085. Clarendon Press, 1998: 1-4.
Gadeyne, Jan. Perspectives on Public Space in Rome, from Antiquity to the Present Day. Routledge, 2016.
Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Lucentini, Mario. The Rome Guide: Step by Step through History’s Greatest City. Interlink Publishing (2012).
Maier, Jessica. "Francesco Rosselli's Lost View of Rome: An Urban Icon and Its Progeny." The Art Bulletin 94, no. 3, (2012): 37-43.
Sanzio, Raffaello. The Cambridge Companion to Raphael. Cambridge University Press (2005): 59-60.
Waldheim, Charles. Landscape as Urbanism: A General Theory. Princeton University Press, 2016: 98.
Identifier
Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Description
Splitting Rome into the disabitato and the abitato makes it seem as if there is a heavy divide between the inhabited and uninhabited parts of the city. The Mantua canvas, for example, clearly shows the distinction between the green-belt of the disabitato and the occupied portions. The landscape of the disabitato here is portrayed as a green wasteland, solely littered with ancient ruins and bits of antiquity. It barely shows anything else.
However, despite what primary sources from the Middle Ages and modern academic articles portray, the disabitato was not entirely abandoned. The land surrounding the abitato was filled with lots of open, available space used as agricultural fields and farmsteads, vineyards, and uncultivated pastures. As shown in the Mantua canvas, it was also littered with ancient monuments and ruins – some of which were reused and altered to fit the needs of people in the Middle Ages instead of being forgotten entirely.
One of the best sites to truly see this change in function is the Roman Forum, which was included in the disabitato. While the image below was done in 1772, it still shows an accurate depiction of what the forum would have looked like during the Middle Ages. Small houses surround the cultivated pasture in the middle, where vegetables, spices, and fruit trees are being grown. Furthermore, the amount of livestock grazing in the area rebranded the forum as the “Campo Vaccino,” or cow field.
Antique columns and structures don’t have the same meaning as they did for the Romans; in fact, many are spoliated into new buildings and structures that have a new use for these farmers. The most important theme of the disabitato in regards to the Roman Forum is reuse for functionality. During antiquity, the Romans used the space for sacro-civic functions. The purpose changed to focus on agriculture over time, but that doesn’t diminish the forum’s importance. This transformation clearly illustrates the relationship between the people’s needs, functionality, and urban change over time.
Creator
Libby Paulson (2021)Edited by Julia Tassava (2026)
Coverage
1700sSource
Becker, Jeffrey A.. “Forum Romanum (The Roman Forum).” khanacademy.org. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ancient-art-civilizations/roman/beginners-guide-rome/a/forum-romanum-the-roman-forum.Cowdrey, H. E. J.. Pope Gregory VII, 1073-1085. Clarendon Press, 1998: 1-4.
Gadeyne, Jan. Perspectives on Public Space in Rome, from Antiquity to the Present Day. Routledge, 2016.
Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Lucentini, Mario. The Rome Guide: Step by Step through History’s Greatest City. Interlink Publishing (2012).
Maier, Jessica. "Francesco Rosselli's Lost View of Rome: An Urban Icon and Its Progeny." The Art Bulletin 94, no. 3, (2012): 37-43.
Sanzio, Raffaello. The Cambridge Companion to Raphael. Cambridge University Press (2005): 59-60.
Waldheim, Charles. Landscape as Urbanism: A General Theory. Princeton University Press, 2016: 98.