Forma Urbis Romae
The Forma Urbis Romae ( FUR), Forma Urbis also marmorea or short Forma Urbis, was a monumental plan of the city of Rome, the 203-211 AD was created under the emperor Septimius Severus and today an important witness for the topography of the ancient Rome is. In the ancient text sources there is no indication on the plan. This means that a date must only be made from the plan itself out.
The plan was approximately 18 m wide and 13 m high and mounted on 150 marble slabs on an inner wall of the Templum Pacis. On a scale of about 1:240, he showed the floor plans of all public and private buildings in the city. In public buildings such as temples and thermae their official names were called. Cassius Dio ( 72,24,1-2 ) reports of a fire in the Templum Pacis. There are many indications that the building under Septimius Severus ( 193-211 AD) was renovated. L. Cozza has shown that large parts of the interior wall on which the plan was fixed, are severisch. In the surviving fragments of the Plan can not find any post- Severan buildings. Two parts of the plan point to the emergence timing out: First, the Septizodium, which can be seen on the fragment 8a and 8bde, defines the terminus post quem ( date after the plan has to be created ). The Septizodium was 203 AD, built by Septimius Severus (CIL VI, 1032 ). Second, one sees referred to as joint rulers to fragment 5abcd an inscription that Septimius Severus and his son Antoninus Aurelius ( Caracalla ). That was between 198 AD, Caracalla was raised as to Augustus, and 4 February 211 AD, when Septimius Severus died. This is the terminus ante quem ( date before which the plan was prepared ).
After the destruction of the Forma Urbis in the Middle Ages emerged since the Renaissance always fragments, which were published at that time. A first collection gave Charles III. , King of Spain and King of the Two Sicilies, in 1741 the Pope, who had it fit in the grand staircase of the Capitoline Museum. 1756 Giovanni Battista Piranesi devoted four leaves of the first volume of his engraving work Le Antichità novels the fragments of the Forma Urbis.
Currently, 1,186 fragments in the original are known, added another 87 that have survived only in old drawings and engravings. They make up only about 10 to 15% of the ancient stock. A project at the Stanford University digitizes the fragments and attempts to assign their original location.
Meaning of the card
There are over does not provide written reports to the contemporary function of the card. It is believed that the assembly hall of the Temple of Peace with the card at the time of Septimius Severus, the office of urban prefect was home, which was responsible for the cadastre. The card may have served as a map or land register. This assumption is based is that the map is shown in exquisite detail, which must have been based on actual survey work. Also, the scale used 1:240, the same that was used by Roman cartographer usual.
Against this, however plausible objections are raised. For a map, the map was too large. The top map areas were located in 13 m height. From the ground, you could barely see them. Also, only a small part of the details were labeled. Also lacked the usual cards in numerical values . Against its use as a basic book talks that the walls are only represented by a line, and not, as is common elsewhere in the Roman land registers, with two lines to indicate the boundaries. Also missing owner information. Despite the astonishing wealth of detail, there are some significant errors in the famous public buildings.
It thus seems to be in the map above all, a representative plot to have acted that should impress the viewer. The Temple of Peace as a land registry should have contained created on papyrus cards, which were then scored on the same scale on the marble slabs. Thus Forma Urbis Romae two issues of the peace in the temple would have been found, one on papyrus and on marble.