The Disfigured City. Management and Perception of Ruins in the Roman World (1st Century BC–4th Century AD).
Ausonius| N° d'inventaire | 23767 |
| Format | 16 x 24 |
| Détails | 430 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Bordeaux, 2021 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782356133663 |
The Roman world did not experience the modern fascination with ruins. The remains of degraded or collapsed buildings were, however, a reality present in ancient cities. Natural disasters, human violence, or the simple passage of time, in this empire that lasted several centuries, all combined to damage or destroy buildings. What was done then with the ruins that inevitably remained in the landscape? Based on an examination of textual documentation, particularly epigraphic and legal, compared with archaeological data, this work aims to study how ruined buildings, both public and private, were perceived by the populations, municipal authorities, or the Roman power and how they were treated. An intermediate state between construction and disappearance, a discontinuity in the built fabric, ruins always pose a problem. Roman public authorities and jurists urged against the demolition of buildings, especially in cities, while literary texts and inscriptions celebrated benefactors who restored monuments damaged by disaster or mistreated by time. Dilapidated buildings were always presented as a disfigurement of the urban landscape, and destroyed cities recalled or foreshadowed troubled times. The city's longevity, on the contrary, required the preservation of buildings and their regular restoration. The ruins thus formed a counter-model, revealing, by contrast, the ideal of an architecture that participated in the ornamentation of the city and contributed to the golden age guaranteed by the emperor.
The Roman world did not experience the modern fascination with ruins. The remains of degraded or collapsed buildings were, however, a reality present in ancient cities. Natural disasters, human violence, or the simple passage of time, in this empire that lasted several centuries, all combined to damage or destroy buildings. What was done then with the ruins that inevitably remained in the landscape? Based on an examination of textual documentation, particularly epigraphic and legal, compared with archaeological data, this work aims to study how ruined buildings, both public and private, were perceived by the populations, municipal authorities, or the Roman power and how they were treated. An intermediate state between construction and disappearance, a discontinuity in the built fabric, ruins always pose a problem. Roman public authorities and jurists urged against the demolition of buildings, especially in cities, while literary texts and inscriptions celebrated benefactors who restored monuments damaged by disaster or mistreated by time. Dilapidated buildings were always presented as a disfigurement of the urban landscape, and destroyed cities recalled or foreshadowed troubled times. The city's longevity, on the contrary, required the preservation of buildings and their regular restoration. The ruins thus formed a counter-model, revealing, by contrast, the ideal of an architecture that participated in the ornamentation of the city and contributed to the golden age guaranteed by the emperor.