This volume collects the proceedings of a conference held at Nepi (Viterbo) in 2017 — an event that celebrated the restitution from Belgium to Italy of a marble head of Augustus capite velato, which had been smuggled from this town in the 1970s. On this occasion, a group of (Italian) scholars gathered to discuss the importance and impact of the Augustan period in Latium and southern Etruria, a territory which had not been the subject of a detailed study during the events organised for the bimillennium of Augustus’ death in 2014, as pointed out in the editors’ short introduction. The volume engages in particular with settlement patterns and the organisation of landscape, the urban and architectural development of some local centres and the use of imperial sculptures in this area.
Francesca Letizia Rizzo provides a thorough assessment of the topography of the territory to the north of Falerii Novi from the second century b.c. to the Augustan age, which shows an active intervention by Augustus in this region in terms of the organisation of local infrastructure and land division. Similarly, Maria Clara Aloisi pays close attention to population dynamics and the establishment of a system of villas in the ager Sabatinus, which reveal the presence of various social groups, from senatorial families to homines novi, thus attesting to the complex politics of the Augustan period. In contrast, Gianfranco Gazzetti's account of the centuriation and landscape around Lucus Feroniae is so brief that it only manages to draw a superficial sketch of the subject (it is rather surprising that the editors decided to include it in the publication as it stands).
Moving to urban centres, Carlo Pavolini offers a summary of recent research that has improved our understanding of Ostia in the Augustan era. Focusing on public monuments such as the theatre, the Grandi Horrea, the Temple of Roma and Augustus and the building that preceded the Severan-period Round Temple to the west of the forum, the author outlines advances as well as unresolved matters. For instance, the date of the Temple of Roma and Augustus — a late Augustan or, perhaps more realistically, early Tiberian project — is still open to debate, as implied in the study by R. Geremia Nucci, Il tempio di Roma e di Augusto a Ostia (2012). Zaccaria Mari looks at Augustan building projects at Tivoli (ancient Tibur) through a joint examination of literary sources and archaeological evidence. Besides edifices such as the ponderarium and the Augusteum, he takes into account the buildings annexed to the Sanctuary of Hercules Victor and argues for the identification as a library of the so-called ‘basilica’, a rectangular structure of 36 by 23 m that is now almost entirely reburied. This intriguing hypothesis will surely stimulate scholarly debate.
The next two essays deal with statuary. Germana Vatta — the archaeologist who was able to identify the provenance of the looted head of Augustus from Nepi — looks at portraits of Augustus from some centres of southern Etruria: Cerveteri, Lucus Feroniae, Nepi, Tuscania, Veii and Volsinii. This review of the evidence shows that the princeps was actively involved in this region, which might challenge previous suggestions that the monumentalisation of these centres did not take place before the reign of Claudius. Augustan themes can also be recognised in some statues that were recovered during past and recent excavations in the Sanctuary of Hercules at Tivoli, as described by Serafina Giannetti.
Architectural decoration in northern Latium and Umbria is the subject of three papers, which provide a useful supplement to the data from some coastal centres of southern Latium published by G. Mesolella, La decorazione architettonica di Minturnae, Formiae, Tarracina: l'età augustea e giulio-claudia (2012). Patrizio Pensabene opens with observations on a dedication found around Mount Soratte (north of Lucus Feroniae), which was set up by an imperial slave — a magister ab marmoribus — who probably worked at the statio marmorum in Rome. This inscription gives the opportunity to investigate the circulation of ‘imperial marbles’ in this area during the Augustan and Julio-Claudian period, most of which are represented by disiecta membra reused in later buildings. Stefano De Angeli examines a series of twelve marble reliefs from Falerii Novi, which are recycled on the Porta Borgiana of Civita Castellana. Their decoration with acanthus leaves, scrolls, garlands and bucrania suggests identification as a (funerary?) monument that was clearly inspired by the iconographic themes of the Ara Pacis, but the more rigid carving style of these reliefs leads the author to suggest a later date around the reign of Claudius. This may be plausible, although perhaps one should note that the carving of the acanthus leaves on relief no. 2 (fig. 6) is essentially identical to those that appear on the entablature of the Temple of Concordia in the Roman forum (a large fragment is now on display in the Tabularium), which was rebuilt and dedicated by Tiberius in a.d. 10 (cf. H. von Hesberg, Konsolengeisa des Hellenismus und der frühen Kaiserzeit (1980), 209, pl. 33). The third essay in this section, by Alessandra Bravi, looks at the extant ornamentation from public and private buildings in the Roman town of Ameria (modern Amelia, Terni), which attests to the local elite's participation in the architectural and artistic trends of the Augustan era.
The conclusion by Mario Mazza summarises the contents of the volume and points out some of the missing elements, in particular the paucity of contributions by ancient historians. Indeed, there is only the single essay by Arnaldo Marcone on the strategies around Augustus’ complicated succession, while papers delivered at the conference by Felice Costabile and Attilio Mastrocinque were not submitted for the subsequent publication. This is regrettable, as the absence of more interventions by ancient historians is badly felt. This gap and other unconvincing editorial choices raise some problems for the volume as a whole, but fortunately most of the papers are individually important and will prompt broader discussion. Thanks to this and other recent initiatives, a wealth of new data is now available on Augustan politics and culture in central Italy. It would be useful to start thinking of a way to create a synthesis of all these studies, which would be particularly appealing to an international audience within and beyond academia.
