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88 p., ill. From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Lower corner slightly bent, otherwise very good and clean. With author dedication and supplementary includes colored overview plans of baths. / Untere Ecke leicht gebogen, sonst sehr gut und sauber. Mit Verfasserwidmung und beiliegend farbige Übersichtspläne über Bäder. - Introduction: The Baths of the emperor Trajan Decius, constructed between A.D. 249 and 251, were probably the largest single structure on the Aventine in Rome, covering over 3,000 m2 on the central portion of the hill (see frontispiece, no.6). The chief importance of these Baths lies in their documentation of imperial taste, architectural models, and artistic trends in a period of Roman history that is still poorly known. During the 50-year period (235-284) known as the 'Age of the Soldier Emperors', over 20 pretenders vied for the throne. Those who succeeded in gaining the purple were short-lived emperors who spent most of their time away from Rome, fighting barbarians on the frontiers or putting down insurrections. "Beset on every side by revolts and by incursions from beyond the frontiers, their treasuries strained to the utmost by the requirements of their troops, [these] emperors had neither the time nor the resources to indulge in ambitious building projects." "The art of the period is very much obscured by the lack of surviving monuments. Many of the cities of the Empire suffered severe setbacks and few of them undertook ambitious building programmes." Such comments are typical; according to most modem authorities, the 3rd c. was a period of unmitigated disasters, in which little or nothing of significance was built even in Rome; the embellishment of the city or even the maintenance of her infrastructure apparently was the last thing on the mind of the soldier emperors. Aurelian's Temple of the Sun is usually cited as a momentary and isolated spark of light in an otherwise dark and depressed epoch. Recent work has suggested that Rome in the 3rd c. may not have been quite that bleak. It is clear that not all 3rd-c. emperors abandoned their responsibilities in the capital. Building continued, albeit on a reduced scale.3 The problem seems rather that imperial commissions of the period are less obvious involving repairs, reuse, and alterations more than new building, or relating to smaller or single structures rather than an elaborate array of grand public spaces. It is hoped that this study will contribute in a small way to a reassessment of the 3rd c. in Rome. The Baths of Decius show what a soldier emperor could and did commission in mid-3rd c. Rome. These Baths illuminate more than the 3rd c., however. The monument sheds light on two later periods. Inscriptions of the 4th and 5th c. document the role played by the senatorial aristocracy in Rome Christian and pagan whose patronage of the baths under the auspices of the urban prefecture ensured the maintenance, embellishment and repair of the complex even after the sack of Alaric in 410. Centuries later, after the grand central spaces of the bath had collapsed and the Baths were abandoned, the monument drew the attention of late-Renaissance antiquarians and architects like Pirro Ligorio and Andrea Palladio. Palladio's plan of the building represents the most important single document for a reconstruction of the Baths, while Ligorio's erroneous identification of the building offers insight into 16th-c. antiquarian method and, most importantly, suggests a date for Palladio's study. Despite their importance for 3rd-c. art and architecture, for the topography of the Aventine, and for our understanding of late-antique Rome and early antiquarian studies the Baths of Decius remain virtually unknown. Sprache: Englisch Gewicht in Gramm: 550 Journal of Roman Archaeology ; Supplementary Series No. 11 (General editor: J. H. Humphrey).
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