Antiquity Reviews: Machado December 2011

Book Review

HENDRIK W. DEY. The Aurelian Wall and the refashioning of Imperial Rome AD 271–855. xvi+360 pages, 63 illustrations. 2011. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 978-0-521-76365-3 hardback £65.

Review by Carlos Machado
São Paulo, Brazil
(Email: carmachado@gmail.com)

The Aurelian Wall is one of the most impressive structures built in Antiquity. Stretching for approximately 12 miles, the Wall has come to define what scholars still identify as 'ancient Rome'. The construction of the Wall required enormous resources, both human and material, and it left a permanent mark on the city's urbanism and history. And yet, the Wall has been curiously left out of historical accounts of ancient and medieval Rome. Its impact on the topography of the city and its development, the relationship between urban centre and suburb, and the very identity of the Urbs are crucial issues for our understanding of the period. This is the subject of Hendrik Dey's book, a much needed history of the physical, symbolic and political dimensions of the Wall.

The book is divided into six chapters with an introduction and conclusion, and four appendices that discuss the more specific issues of dating, topography, and the measurements of the Wall. After a brief introduction discussing past and current approaches, as well as making the case for a more holistic view of the subject, chapter one is a useful survey of the physical history of the Wall. Recent scholarship (especially by L. Cozza and R. Coates-Stephens) has redefined our understanding of the Wall, especially its chronology and building techniques. Dey's account is clear, and it will be much appreciated by historians and archaeologists alike. He convincingly argues for a series of fourth-century restorations, against the notion of a single Maxentian phase. His discussion of Byzantine works on the Wall is particularly welcome, a thorny issue only illuminated by sparse references in Procopius' History of the Wars (sixth century AD) and other sources. Chapter two provides a useful discussion of the logistical and organisational problems involved in the construction and maintenance of the Wall. Chapter three considers the motives for building and restoring such a vast structure: defence, in the first place, but social control and the very image of the late antique city also played an important role here. If building the Wall was an acknowledgement of military threats, the enceinte soon became a symbol of imperial might, shaping contemporary conceptions of earthly Rome and celestial Jerusalem.

The fourth chapter marks a change of approach, moving the focus from the Wall to its impact on the city and its inhabitants. The building of the Wall profoundly changed the city's topography, by blocking streets and causing the demolition of public and private buildings, as well as by contributing to a new conception of urban space. The Aurelian Wall soon became a defining element in city-life, a fact that is most clearly perceived in the definition of sacred space. This is the topic of chapter five, which moves us further into the history of the city: as Dey argues, the Wall was a key element in late antique distinctions between intra and extra urbem, marking the transition between the city of the living and the city of the holy dead, the martyrs. The Wall played a crucial role again in the eighth century, when, under the threat of thieves and invaders, relics were transferred to churches inside the city. The sixth and final chapter discusses the involvement of popes with the preservation and restoration of the Wall, showing how, in spite of its importance, it was only in the eighth century that popes Hadrian I and Leo IV really took over the monument. The Wall was then seen as a symbol of Rome's greatness and, by extension, of the pope's eminent position in western Christendom. At the same time, works on the Wall secured papal dominance in the city, employing men, building materials and the loyalty of a Christian population.

The book is well illustrated, with maps and photographs that make the argument and the descriptions clear even to non-specialists. Unsurprisingly, the argument for the centrality of the Wall is more successful whenever Dey is discussing its 'practical' issues (chapters 1–3 and 6): construction, organisation of labour and impact on topography, for example. One feels that Dey might be overstating his case in his discussion of the conceptual impact of the Wall, but this does not mean that he is wrong. Even if the Wall was not 'a sacred monument unto itself, a macrocosm of the restored churches inside' (p. 238), it is clear that the very presence of the Wall contributed to the redefinition of the city's sacred geography. Perhaps more importantly, the book makes a powerful case for seeing the Wall as much more than bricks, tufa and mortar. As Dey convincingly shows, the Aurelian Wall was, from its very inception, connected to different aspects of city-life, consuming human and physical resources, involving building corporations and officials of the ecclesiastic and civil administration, as well as redefining the relationship between Romans, their own city, and the world that surrounded them.