Selected

Topics in Italian Studies 11

End of the western Roman Empire. Decline and Fall?

■ Timeline of the city of Rome in late antiquity
312 - Constantine defeats Maxentius at battle of the Milvian Bridge
380 - Theodosius makes Christianity the official religion of Rome
402 - Ravenna becomes the capital of the Western Roman Empire
410 - Rome is sacked by Alaric, King of the Visigoths
455 - Rome is sacked by the Vandals
476 - Romulus Augustulus is deposed by Odoacer/ the end of the Western Roman Empire
537 - Vitiges, Ostrogothic commander cut the aqueducts
546 - Rome is sacked by Totila, King of the Ostrogoths
552 - Rome becomes a territory of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire)
c. 590 - 604 - Pope Gregory I's reformation
756 - Donation of Pepin and the establishment of the Papal State

· Ammianus Marcellinus (380s.) Rome in old age

At the time when Rome first began to rise into a position of world-wide splendor, destined to live so long as
men shall exist, in order that she might grow to a towering stature, Virtue and Fortune, ordinarily at variance,
formed a pact of eternal peace; for if either one of them had failed her, Rome had not come to complete
supremacy. Her people, from the very cradle to the end of their childhood, a period of about three hundred
years, carried on wars about her walls. Then, entering upon adult life, after many toilsome wars, they crossed
the Alps and the sea. Grown to youth and manhood, from every region which the vast globe includes, they
brought back laurels and triumphs. And now, declining into old age, and often owing victory to its name alone,
it has come to a quieter period of life. Thus the venerable city, after humbling the proud necks of savage nations,
and making laws, the everlasting foundations and moorings of liberty, like a thrifty parent, wise and wealthy,
has entrusted the management of her inheritance to the Caesars, as to her children . . . Throughout all regions
and parts of the earth she is accepted as mistress and queen; everywhere the white hair for the senators and
their authority are revered and the name of the Roman people is respected and honored.
Ammianus Marcellinus, History 14.6.3–6

· Rutilius Namatianus (416) “De reditu (il ritorno / A Voyage Home to Gaul)”
“queen of the world and brightest jewel in the vault of heaven.”

· Theodoric's maintenance of Rome
architectus publicorum: repairs. comes formarum: water system

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· Zachariah of Mitylene (sixth century) Rome’s countless wonders

Now the description of the decorations of the city, given shortly, is as follows, with respect to the wealth of its
inhabitants, and their great and pre-eminent prosperity, and their grand and glorious objects of luxury and
pleasure, as in a great city of wonderful beauty. Now its pre-eminent decorations are as follows, not to speak
of the splendour inside the houses and the beautiful formation of the columns in their halls and of their
colonnades and of their staircases, and their lofty height, as in the city of wonderful beauty. It contains 24
churches of the blessed apostles, Catholic churches. It contains 2 great basilicas where the king sits and the
senators are assembled before him every day. It contains 324 great spacious streets. [...]It contains 2 great
capitols. It contains 80 golden gods. It contains 64 ivory gods. It contains 46,603 dwelling-houses. It contains
1,797 houses of magnates. It contains 1,352 reservoirs pouring forth water. It contains 274 bakers, who are
constantly making and distributing annonae [free grain] to the inhabitants of the city, besides those who make
and sell in the city. It contains 5,000 cemeteries, where they lay out and bury. It contains 31 great marble
pedestals. It contains 3,785 bronze statues of kings and magistrates. [...] It contains 2 theatres. It contains 2
amphitheatres. [...]It contains 926 baths. It contains 4 police stations. It contains 14 guardsmen’s barracks. [...]
It contains 2,300 public oil-warehouses. It contains 291 prisons. [...] It contains 673 watchmen, who guard the
city, and the men who command them all are 7. The gates of the city are 37. Now the circumference of the
whole city is 216,036 feet, which is 40 miles; the diameter of the city from east to west is 12 miles, and from
north to south 12 miles.
Zachariah of Mitylene, The Syriac Chronicle 10.16

■ Entertainments in the city of Rome in late antiquity

· Symmachus (380s) The people of Rome expect entertainment

The Roman people look for outstanding benefactions from your Divinities, [...] And so it begs that your
Clemencies, after granting those subsidies which your generosity has made towards our sustenance, should
furnish also the enjoyments of chariot races and dramatic performances to be held in the circus and in
Pompey’s theatre. The city delights in these entertainments and your promise has awakened anticipation. [...]
Symmachus, Official Dispatch 6
· Repair works of Colosseum

217-240: Damaged by the thunderbolt and the fire. Repaired by Elagabalus, Severus Alexander, Gordian III
250: Colosseum was damaged by the thunderbolt and the fire. Repaired by Decius
320: Repairs
443: Damaged by the earthquake. Repaired by Theodosius and Valentinianus
484: Repairs
508: Repairs

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· Last record of gladiatorial combat in the Colosseum is in the mid 430s.

· Rescript of Constantine on Hispellum

Emperor Caesar Flavius Constantine […] Since, indeed, you aver that you have been annexed to Tuscia in such
a way that by the established practice of ancient custom priests are created every other year in turn by you
and by the aforesaid people of Tuscia, who exhibit stage plays and a gladiatorial show at Volsinii, a City of
Tuscia ; but that, because of the steepness of the mountains and the difficulties of the paths through the forests
thither, you most earnestly request that permission shall be granted to your priest to abandon the necessity of
going to Volsinii to celebrate the exhibition ; and that we shall give a name from our cognomen to the
community, which now has the name Hispellum and which you state is contiguous to and lying along the
Flaminian Way and in which a temple of the Flavian Family is being built, of truly magnificent workmanship
worthy of the greatness of its name ; and that there that priest, whom Umbria selects annually, shall exhibit a
festival of both stage plays and gladiatorial shows ; and that this custom shall remain as regards Tuscia : that
the priest created at Volsinii shall celebrate, as has been his wont, the observation of the aforesaid exhibitions
at that place : our assent is gladly granted to your prayer and desire. […]

· CIL VI 1189: Protecting and restoring Rome’s buildings (beginning of the fifth century)

The Senate and People of Rome set this up to the Imperial Caesars, our Lords the two princes Arcadius and
Honorius, victorious, triumphant, ever Augusti, to commemorate the restoration of the walls, gates, and towers
of the Eternal City, after the removal of huge quantities of rubble. At the suggestion of the distinguished and
noble Count Stilicho, Master of both of the Armed Forces, their statues were set up to preserve the memory of
their name. Flavius Macrobius Longinianus, City Prefect, devoted to their majesty and divine power, was in
charge of the work.

· Majorian, To protect the ancient buildings of Rome (458)

While We rule the State, it is Our will to correct the practice whose commission We have long detested, whereby the
appearance of the venerable City is marred. Indeed, it is manifest that the public buildings, in which the adornment
of the entire City of Rome consists, are being destroyed everywhere by the punishable recommendation of the office
of the Prefect of the City. While it is pretended that the stones are necessary for public works, the beautiful structures
of the ancient buildings are being scattered, and in order that something small may be repaired, great things are
being destroyed. Hence the occasion now arises that also each and every person who is constructing a private edifice,
through the favoritism of the judges who are situated in the City, does not hesitate to take presumptuously and to
transfer the necessary materials from the public places, although those things which belong to the splendor of the
cities ought to be preserved by civic affection, even under the necessity of repair.
Therefore, by this general law We sanction that all the buildings that have been founded by the ancients as temples

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and as other monuments and that were constructed for the public use or pleasure shall not be destroyed by any
person, and that it shall transpire that a judge who should decree that this be done shall be punished by the payment
of fifty pounds of gold. If his apparitors and accountants should obey him when he so orders and should not resist
him in any way by their own recommendation, they shall be subjected to the punishment of cudgeling, and they
shall also be mutilated by the loss of their hands, through which the monuments of the ancients that should be
preserved are desecrated. [Leo and Majorian, 458]
Majorian, Novel 4

· Last record of animal hunting in the Colosseum is in 523: the Gothic King Theodoric authorizes the animal
hunts in the colosseum, and ask the consul to organize such entertainment.
・ 5-6th century: Small Church was set up in the arena / arena was used as a cemetery
・ 6th century onwards: Corridors of the Colosseum used for houses or workshops

■ Early Christian Churches in Rome

· Santa Pudenziana (c.380)
· San Clemente (c. 380)
· Santa Sabina (422-432)
· Santa Maria Maggiore (432-440)
· Santi Cosma e Damiano (520s.)
· Santa Maria Antiqua(565)

■ Conclusion

· "Late antiquity" is the age of decline?
· Continuity of tradition
· Continuity of aristocratic power
· Growth of the Church power