An update on an imperial building complex at the 16th mile of the Via Appia: sources and materials

Abstract

The paper focuses on an area of the Ager Aricinus at the 16th mile of the Via Appia in the urban area of Ariccia between the Via Appia and the inhabited center, delimited to the west and north by the cell of the so-called temple of Diana. Inside the aforementioned area, now almost entirely urbanized, are still preserved some structures from the mid-2nd century AD for which extensive documentation can be found in the 18th century antiquarian sources and in the cartographic reproductions between the 19th and the 20th centuries. So far, their interpretation has gone through a plurality of hypotheses (amphitheatre, thermal building, statio) for which there is a need to undertake an analytical study in order to understand its function in antiquity and its impact in the landscape context of modern age. The study will take place in two phases: examination of the historical cartography to identify the ownership of the fund on which the structures insisted through the consultation of the Collections of drawings and maps at the State Archive of Rome and the realization of a graphic restitution of the plan, integrating what has been preserved and what has been handed down from past documentation and proposing a vector reconstruction (CAD) of the building.

Keywords

• Ager Aricinus
• Roman amphitheatres
• historical cartography