THE VIRTUAL LANDSCAPE AND THE TERRAIN OF RECONSTRUCTION: A TOPOGRAPHICAL CASE STUDY IN REPUBLICAN ROME

Chris Johanson, University of California-Los Angeles

Republican Rome was not rebuilt in a day. Rather, its monumental construction evolved over the last 500 years, through treasure hunters, vacationing dilettantes, artists, papal officials, architects, historians, and topographers. Unlike the comparatively large amount of surviving evidence for the monuments of Imperial Rome, the evidence is scant for the earlier, Republican phases. Therefore the topographical questions change: “What did the monument look like?” is secondary to the more fundamental question, “Where exactly was it?” Maps and plans change; a diagrammatic city grows; concomitant theories emerge, but some with little foundation.
The scholarly apparatus used to reconstruct the Republican city was flawed, due to the limitations of the technology of the time. Rather than reconstruct, by thought experiment and two-dimensional plan, the modern scholar must use a GIS-based virtual landscape, which incorporates natural phenomena, where applicable. This visual database approximates the totality of scholarly knowledge for an area and creates a set of evidentiary boundaries to which one must adhere when reconstructing the city. The Republican Comitium-Curia Complex will be adduced as a case study to illustrate the necessity for such tools in advancing our understanding of the past.