Clivo di Scauri
Title
Clivo di Scauri
Description
Winding their way along the southern slopes of the Caelian Hill, the Clivo di Scauro and the Via San Stefano Rotondo follow the same route as the Clivus Scauri, a medieval (and ancient) road that connected the Palatine Hill to the neighborhood of Saint John Lateran. It was one of two major roads leading to the Lateran area, which made it an important highway for the conduct of church business, transport of goods and raw materials across the disabitato, and travel out of the city to the east.
Along the Clivus Scauri (“the path of the Scaurus family”), we can find that the veil between our world and the past grows thinner and the often-elusive medieval disabitato becomes more visible. Much of modern Rome has paved over its former fields and country paths, but here there are still glimpses of the disabitato as it might have looked. The verdant trees and vineyards that line the road’s start give a sense of the rural setting. Further up the road, there are the churches of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, San Gregorio Magno, and Santo Stefano Rotondo that show how building plans in the 12th century adapted to security threats by building new walls and larger complexes.
The ancient sites that line the road – the Arch of Dolabella, the Neronian aqueduct, and the ruins underneath the churches – did not fall out of use in the Middle Ages and have their own interesting medieval histories. The aqueduct supported by the Arch of Dolabella, for one, was home to the holy man and hermit John of Matha in the thirteenth century! In the disabitato, roads like the Clivus Scauri (built c. 109 BC) reused and built around in the Middle Ages, demonstrating how medieval Romans put the skeletal structures of the ancient past to new purposes in their city.
Along the Clivus Scauri (“the path of the Scaurus family”), we can find that the veil between our world and the past grows thinner and the often-elusive medieval disabitato becomes more visible. Much of modern Rome has paved over its former fields and country paths, but here there are still glimpses of the disabitato as it might have looked. The verdant trees and vineyards that line the road’s start give a sense of the rural setting. Further up the road, there are the churches of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, San Gregorio Magno, and Santo Stefano Rotondo that show how building plans in the 12th century adapted to security threats by building new walls and larger complexes.
The ancient sites that line the road – the Arch of Dolabella, the Neronian aqueduct, and the ruins underneath the churches – did not fall out of use in the Middle Ages and have their own interesting medieval histories. The aqueduct supported by the Arch of Dolabella, for one, was home to the holy man and hermit John of Matha in the thirteenth century! In the disabitato, roads like the Clivus Scauri (built c. 109 BC) reused and built around in the Middle Ages, demonstrating how medieval Romans put the skeletal structures of the ancient past to new purposes in their city.
Creator
Read Wilder (2020)
Source
Brentano, Robert. Rome Before Avignon: A Social History of Thirteenth Century Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.
Coarelli, Filippo. Rome and Environs : An Archaeological Guide. Updated ed. Joan Palevsky. Imprint in Classical Literature, Berkeley: University Of California Press, 2014.
Hülsen, Christian. Le chiese di Roma nel medio evo: cataloghi ed appvnti. Georg Olms Verlag, 1927: 256-57.
Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Platner, Samuel and Ashby, Thomas. A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. London: Oxford University Press, H.Milford, 1929: 125.
Coarelli, Filippo. Rome and Environs : An Archaeological Guide. Updated ed. Joan Palevsky. Imprint in Classical Literature, Berkeley: University Of California Press, 2014.
Hülsen, Christian. Le chiese di Roma nel medio evo: cataloghi ed appvnti. Georg Olms Verlag, 1927: 256-57.
Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Platner, Samuel and Ashby, Thomas. A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. London: Oxford University Press, H.Milford, 1929: 125.
Date
109BC
Identifier
clivodiscauri_2019
Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Clivo di Scauro, 00184 Roma RM
Description
Winding their way along the southern slopes of the Caelian Hill, the Clivo di Scauro and the Via San Stefano Rotondo follow the same route as the Clivus Scauri, a medieval (and ancient) road that connected the Palatine Hill to the neighborhood of Saint John Lateran. It was one of two major roads leading to the Lateran area, which made it an important highway for the conduct of church business, transport of goods and raw materials across the disabitato, and travel out of the city to the east.Along the Clivus Scauri (“the path of the Scaurus family”), we can find that the veil between our world and the past grows thinner and the often-elusive medieval disabitato becomes more visible. Much of modern Rome has paved over its former fields and country paths, but here there are still glimpses of the disabitato as it might have looked. The verdant trees and vineyards that line the road’s start give a sense of the rural setting. Further up the road, there are the churches of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, San Gregorio Magno, and Santo Stefano Rotondo that show how building plans in the 12th century adapted to security threats by building new walls and larger complexes.
The ancient sites that line the road – the Arch of Dolabella, the Neronian aqueduct, and the ruins underneath the churches – did not fall out of use in the Middle Ages and have their own interesting medieval histories. The aqueduct supported by the Arch of Dolabella, for one, was home to the holy man and hermit John of Matha in the thirteenth century! In the disabitato, roads like the Clivus Scauri (built c. 109 BC) reused and built around in the Middle Ages, demonstrating how medieval Romans put the skeletal structures of the ancient past to new purposes in their city.
Creator
Read Wilder (2020)Date
109BCCoverage
Not ApplicableSource
Brentano, Robert. Rome Before Avignon: A Social History of Thirteenth Century Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.Coarelli, Filippo. Rome and Environs : An Archaeological Guide. Updated ed. Joan Palevsky. Imprint in Classical Literature, Berkeley: University Of California Press, 2014.
Hülsen, Christian. Le chiese di Roma nel medio evo: cataloghi ed appvnti. Georg Olms Verlag, 1927: 256-57.
Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Platner, Samuel and Ashby, Thomas. A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. London: Oxford University Press, H.Milford, 1929: 125.