The Roman Middle Republic at Sant'Omobono

Abstract

This dissertation presents the results of an analysis of the middle Republican (ca. 4th–3rd c. BCE) architectural remains of the Roman temples of Fortuna and Mater Matuta at the Sant’Omobono site in Rome’s Forum Boarium. The analysis relies on a total station survey of nearly the entire site coupled with photogrammetric documentation, hand drawing, and archival research. It fills a gap in archaeological knowledge by describing in detail the structures of an important religious site in the center of ancient Rome. The results of the analysis allow new questions to be posed of the Classical texts that describe the temples and the rites performed therein. As part of the contextual material for the mid-Republican architecture, a new overview of the use of volcanic tuff in Roman construction has been prepared. The study identifies three principal phases that can be dated with certainty or a high degree of probability to the middle Republic: a pavement in blocks of Anio tuff that occupies the forecourt of the temples, possibly of the 4th c. BCE; a rebuilding of the temples represented by a pavement in slabs of Anio tuff along with two altars, between the late 4th and mid 3rd c. BCE; and a massive rebuilding of the entire precinct with Tufo Giallo, Lapis Albanus, and Anio tuff foundations and a pavement in thin slabs of Anio tuff, dated to 212 BCE.