Du vestige à l'empereur : sur les traces d'Hadrien à Ostie

Details

Supervisors

Cavalieri, Marco ; Richard, Julian

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en histoire de l'art et archéologie, orientation générale, à finalité spécialisée: théories, gestion et sciences de l'archéologie

Abstract

enOstia was the first colony of Rome. This city was established at the site where the ancient Tiber River ended in the Tyrrhenian waters and thus constituted an access route to the sea for the Urbs since the earliest Antiquity. With the development of Trajan's hexagonal basin at Portus, Ostia supplanted Pozzuoli and became the main port of the imperial capital. As a result, the urban landscape underwent profound changes. Brick became the most widely used building material. The domus gave way to multi-storey buildings. Porticoes lined the streets, whereas public fountains decorated every corner of the city. Thermal baths were erected all over the place. New constructions followed one another at a frantic pace. In short, more than half of the city was entirely rebuilt over a period of about twenty years, the duration of one principate, that of Hadrian. Besides, the interventions of the emperor in the urban planning of Ostia are evidenced by inscriptions. Since the written sources helped maintain the image of Hadrian as a princeps builder, some scholars do not hesitate to impute the planning of all the works to the imperial power. But what was the real investment of the public authorities of Rome in the profound transformations that Ostia underwent? Over the last twenty years, research has made a real leap forward. Various archaeologists have approached the question from different angles. Nevertheless, no synthesis has yet been carried out to date. This study attempts to take up all the theories that have been elaborated so far in order to put them into perspective and to flesh them out as far as possible. The final objective is to cross-reference the data in order to explore new avenues of research. From the vestige to the emperor, this thesis follows in Hadrian's footsteps in Ostia.