Page - 107 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

7 Aquatic Pasts& theWateryPresent:Water andMemory in the Foraof Rome 107 space andmovement are of central importance in conjunctionwith the dimension of time. Humanmemory re- quires spatial concepts: objectsor spacesgainahistoryof their ownonly throughprolonged, continualuse.This is why, in a larger circle of participants, places and their ornamental attributes have a stabilizing effect on the group; they help create a sense of identity.9 Memories are createdby individuals through their repeated interactionwith amonument, and thosememories aremade by their perceptions of the structure. The shared experiences of the samemonuments thenhelp to create identity, in thatmembers of a communityhave somesort of shared senseof connectionwith eachother. Theaquatic landscapeof theForumRomanum, then, it is arguedhere, though themythical,historical, andmytho-historical associationsof the monuments there, provided a context for passers-by to consider themultivalent connotations of the structure, thereby creatinga shared senseof identity predicatedonwater. The ForumRomanum Thecity ofRome is connected towater byvirtueof its landscape.10 ThegreatRiver Tiberdomi- nates the cityscape, carving its course througha surroundingplateau thatwasonce createdby avolcano.11 There is,however, ahydrogeomorphic landscape inRomebeyond theTiber.As the river changed the landscape tocreate the seven famedhills, therewere lower lyingareasof the city, whichwere prone to being swampy, especially after floods of the Tiber (Fig. 2).12 In addi- tion, thecitywasdottedwithanumberofstreamsthat fed into the river, suchas thosedraining the valleys of the Quirinal and Esquiline Hills, that later became the famed Cloaca Maxima drain.13 Springswere also abundant throughout Rome, especially in the city centre, including theFonsCati (Quirinal), theFonsIuturnae(ForumRomanum), theTullianumandAquaeLautu- lae (Capitoline), theLupercal (Palatine), and theFonsCamenarum(Caelian).14Rome, then,was a placewherewater flowed in different contexts: a large river, tributary streams of the Tiber, paludial basins, andnatural springs. Thesiteof theForumRomanumwas the locationofaswampthatpreventedhabitationand building. It hasbeendemonstratedbyAlbertAmmerman that the forumwas transformed from apaludial zone to a space that had the ability to bemonumentalized by the beginning of the Republic and beyond.15 It had been previously thought that the forum area had some early habitation,but then thesitewasconverted toacitycentreby layeringgravelon top,alongwith the insertionof drains to take awayexcesswater. Ammerman’s studyof the forumhas shown, however, that in order to reclaim the land, a significant amount of earthwasmoved into the forum, allowing the surface of the forum to lie above the swampy terrain. John Hopkins has argued that, in the period after the reclamation of the forumarea, three different levels of the citywerepresent: theareason thehillsassociatedwithdomestic spaces; thecivicandcommer- cial space of the forum; and the banks of the Tiber, connected to shipping and industry.16 The new elevation of the Forum, then, allowed it to become the prime nucleus in the urban land- scapeofRome. 9 Egelhaaf-Gaiser 2007, 210. 10 SeeCampbell 2012, 13–21 for thewatery landscapeofRome,which is tied to its origins as a city. 11 Ammerman2013, 169. 12 Corazza–Lombardi 1995. 13 Richardson 1992, 91f. ; LTUR I (1993) 288–290 s.v. Cloaca, CloacaMaxima (H.Bauer). 14 Formoreon thesesprings, see:Lanciani 1975, 215–240;Cifani 2008,307;LTURI (1993) 216s.v.Camenae,Came- narumFons et Lucus (E. Rodríguez-Almeida); LTUR I (1993) 237–239 s.v. Carcer Tullianus (G. De Spirito); LTUR II (1995) 257f. s.v. FonsCati (F. Coarelli); LTUR III (1996) 168–170 s.v. Lacus Iuturnae (E.M. Steinby); LTUR III (1996) 186 s.v. Lautolae (C.Morselli); LTUR III (1996) 198f. s.v. Lupercal (F. Coarelli). 15 Ammerman 1990a;Ammerman 1990b;Ammerman2013. 16 Hopkins 2014, 54.