The Pantheon: From Antiquity to the Present Page 11

  39 For similar conclusions, see Tortorici 1990, pp. 40, 42; Loerke 1990; C. J. Simpson, “The Northern Orientation of Agrippa’s Pantheon: Additional Considerations,” L’antiquité classique 66, 1997; Thomas 1997; Wilson Jones 2000, p. 182.

  40 Gruben and Gruben 1997.

  41 A. Maiuri, “Restauro di una sala termale a Baia,” Bolletino d’arte 36, 1930, pp. 359–364; Licht 1968, pp. 205 ff., 214, 216, Figs. 206–207; Friedrich Rakob, “Römische Kuppelbauten in Baiae. Die Gewölbeprofile,” Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Römische Abteilung 95, 1988, pp. 257–301, Figs. 1–9, Plates 102, 1, 4; 103–107. Friedrich Rakob, “The Vaults of Baia,” in Civiltà dei Campi Flegrei, Atti del Convegno Internazionale, ed. Marcello Gigante, Naples 1992, pp. 229–258; pp. 237 ff., Plates 5–10. The rotunda at the Sanctuary of Fortuna at Palestrina, undoubtedly older (end of the second century BC), was much smaller, although it did have a dome decorated with coffers and a central oculus. See Friedrich Rakob, “La rotunda a Palestrina,” Urbanistica ed architettura dell’antica Praeneste: Atti del convegno di studi archeologici, Palestrina 1989, pp. 87–113; Friedrich Rakob, “Die Rotunde in Palestrine: mit einer Bauaufnahme und Rekonstruktion von Mertin Kleibrink,” Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Römische Abteilung 97, 1990, pp. 61–92.

  42 The roof of the Diribitorium, a building that measured ca. 43 meters in width externally, and which was ca. 120 meters long, was constructed with larch beams 100 feet long and 1.5 feet thick. An evident marvel, one of the unused beams was placed in the Saepta. See M. Torelli, s.v. “Diribitorium” in Steinby 1995–1999, vol. 3, Rome 1997, p. 18; Tortorici 1990, p. 40; M. Pia Muzzioli, “I lavori per la via Nazionale e il Diribitorium,” Rivista dell’Istituto Nazionale di Archeologia e Storia dell’Arte 18, 1995, pp. 139–167; Coarelli 1997, pp. 155 ff. The central hall of the Basilica Giulia, 30 meters high, measured 75 x 16 meters in the plan and carried a roof made of wooden trusses. See H. Lauter, “Zwei Bemerkungen zur Basilica Julia,” Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Römische Abteilung 89, 1982, pp. 447 ff.; C. F. Giuliani and P. Verduchi, s.v. “Basilica Julia,” in Steinby 1995–1999, vol. 1, Rome 1995, pp. 177–179.

  43 Valentin Kockel, s.v. “Forum Augustum,” in Steinby 1995–1999, vol. 1, Rome 1995, pp. 289–295.

  44 The outer diameter of the circular foundation is ca. 20.30 meters, and the width of the foundation walls is 2.44 meters. See J. R. McCredie, G. Roux, S. M. Shaw, and J. Kurtich, Samothrace 7: The Rotunda of Arsinoe, Princeton 1992; Wolfram Hoepfner, “Zum Arsinoeion auf Samothrake,” Archäologische Anzeiger, 2001, pp. 467–480. On the wooden roofs of Greek tholoi, see H. Pomtow, Die grosse Tholos zu Delphi und die Bestimmung der delphischen Rundbauten: eine architekturgeschichtliche Studie, Leipzig 1912, pp. 216 ff.; H. Thiersch, “Antike Bauten für Musik,” Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Architektur 2, 1909, pp. 33 ff.; J. Charbonneaux, Fouilles de Delphes II: Topographie et architecture: le sanctuaire d’Athèna Pronaia, Paris 1925; J. Charbonneaux, “Tholos et prytanée,” Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 49, 1925; K. Lehmann, “The Dome of Heaven,” Art Bulletin 27, 1945, pp. 1–27; p. 20.

  45 Lehmann 1945.

  46 Cicero, De Natura Deorum, 88 (ed. and trans. H. Rackham, Cambridge 1933).

  47 August Mau, Pompeji in Leben und Kunst, Liepzig 1908, p. 196, Fig. 96; Licht 1968, p. 212, Fig. 214; Hans Eschebach, Die stabianer Thermen in Pompeji, Berlin 1979, pp. 11, 58 ff., Plates 7 b, 8 a, 41; E. La Rocca and M. and A. de Vos, Pompeii, Milan 1994, pp. 308–310 and Fig. a.

  48 F. Niccolini, Le case e i monumenti di Pompeii disegnati e descritti, Naples 1854–1896, Plates VI–VII; Lehmann 1945, p. 21, Fig. 59; Ida Baldassare, Pompeii. Pitture e mosaici: la documentazione nell’opera di disegnatori e pittori dei secoli XVIII e XIX, Rome 1995, p. 418, Fig. 245; M. and A. de Vos, in Eschebach 1979, pp. 85 ff., Plates 66 a–c, 67 a.

  49 Lehmann 1945, p. 20, Fig. 58.

  50 Robert Eisler, Weltmantel und Himmelszelt. Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zur Urgeschichte des antiken Weltbildes, Munich 1910, passim; Lehmann 1945; E. Baldwin Smith, The Dome: A Study in the History of Ideas, Princeton 1950, especially pp. 79 ff.

  51 Servius, Commentarii in Vergilii Aeneidos libros, I, 505; Eisler 1910, p. 614.

  52 David J. P. Mason, Excavations at Chester, The Elliptical Building: An Image of the Roman World? Excavations in 1939 and 1963–1969, Chester 2000.

  53 Mason 2000, pp. 76 ff.

  54 Giangiacomo Martines, “Argomenti di geometria antica a proposito della cupola del Pantheon,” Quaderni dell’Istituto di Storia dell’Architettura 13, 1989, pp. 3–10; Thomas 1997, pp. 178 ff., Fig. 8; Gerd Sperling, Das Pantheon in Rom, Neuried 1999, pp. 25 ff.

  55 Frank Granger, “Julius Africanus and the Library of the Pantheon,” Journal of Theological Studies 34, 1933, pp. 157–161.

  56 William Lloyd MacDonald, The Architecture of the Roman Empire, vol. 1: An Introductory Study, London 1965 (2nd ed. rev. New Haven 1982, p. 120). It was MacDonald who first suggested a reference to heliocentric theories of the universe in the structural conception of the Pantheon (p. 118: “... as the earth rotates, Hadrian’s sun-show spins on”), a theory expanded by Sperling 1999, pp. 169 ff. For skepticism, however, see Thomas 1997, pp. 181 ff.

  57 Baldwin Smith 1950, p. 91 and note 139.

  58 Guglielmo De Angelis d’Ossat, “La forma e la costruzione delle cupole nell’architettura romana,” Rome 1938, repr. Realtà dell’architettura. Apporti alla sua storia 1933–1978, ed. L. Marcucci et al., Rome 1982, Plate XIX. For more on this theme, see Chapter Four by Martines.

  59 The hypothesis, on which Mommsen never wrote anything beyond a citation (Archäologischen Zeitung, Berlin 1867, p. 55), was referred to by Heinrich Nissen (Antiquarische Untersuchungen, Berlin 1869, p. 224), and H. Jordan (Topographie der Stadt Rom im Alterthum, Berlin 1907, pp. 581 ff., note 61). Cf. S. B. Platner, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, ed. Thomas Ashby, Oxford 1929, pp. 382 ff.

  60 Nissen 1869, p. 224.

  61 The choice of 28 for the coffers may also have a compositional logic, as pointed out by Wilson Jones 2000, pp. 191 ff., in order to set up a dynamic interaction with the 16-part radial partition of the ground plan.

  62 Nissen’s interpretation is stimulating, despite its inaccuracy: “the last and most complete form of the templum is the circle, so also the name urbs is strictly related to orbis and so the building, that visibly represents the order of the world, the Roman Pantheon, will be built as a centrally-planned temple and constructed with a cupola.” See Nissen 1869, pp. 150, 219 ff., and 181 ff. for the subdivision of the templum in 16 regions.

  63 Nissen 1869, pp. 223–226; Nissen 1910, vol. 3, pp. 339 ff.

  64 Thomas 1997, p. 174.

  65 Georg Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer, Munich 1912, pp. 77 ff., note 7. The inscription is in Friedrich Jacobi, Pantes Theoi, Halle 1930, p. 48.

  66 The distinction between the cult of the 12 gods and the cult of all the gods was not clear-cut. See G. Ziegler, “Pantheon,” Realencyclopädie der Klassischen Altertumswissenschaft 18, no. 3, 1949; E. Will, “Dodekathéon et Panthéon,” Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 75, 1951, pp. 233–246. On the cult of all the gods at Pergamum, see Jacobi 1930, pp. 18, 31, 36, 48 ff., 66 ff., 96, 98, 103, 105, 108, 110, 117; E. Ohlemutz, Die Kulte und Heiligtumer der Gotter in Pergamum, Darmstadt 1940, pp. 219 ff., 281 ff. On the inscriptions in the sanctuary of Demeter: Jacobi 1930, p. 36, 9 a, b (“basi”); pp. 48 ff., e, f (“are”). Altars dedicated to all of the gods and all of the goddesses were found also in other places in the city, while an important precedent is offered by the case of Philip II and Alexander the Great, each of which was honored as a thirteenth god: Charlotte R. Long, The Twelve Gods of Greece and Rome, New York 1987, pp. 207 ff. In a nocturnal procession to Aigai [present-day Vergina], the statue of the living Philip II, similar to that of a god, was carried together with that of the 12 gods (Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica XVI, 92, 5).
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br />   67 Edmund Thomas, “From the Pantheon of the Gods to the Pantheon of Rome,” Pantheons: Transformations of a Monumental Idea, ed. Richard Wrigley, Aldershot 2004. Cf. Donald H. Sanders, ed., Nemrud Dagi: The Hierothesion of Antiochus I of Commagene: Results of the American Excavations Directed by Theresa B. Goell, Winona Lake, Ind., 1996.

  68 Sanders 1996, pp. 208–214.

  69 Sanders 1996, pp. 133 ff.

  70 Will (1951) has also shown to be a fallacy the hypothesis that the cult of the 12 gods (and, by extension, of all the gods) was celebrated nearly exclusively in circular buildings (cf. Ziegler 1949, col. 741 ff.).

  71 Grüner 2004, esp. pp. 506 ff.

  72 La Rocca 1999, p. 283.

  73 Giacomo Lumbroso, “Cenni sull’antica Alessandria tratti dal Pseudo-Callistene,” Annali dell’Istituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica 47, 1875, pp. 5 ff.; G. Botti, Plan de la ville d’Alexandrie à l’époque ptolémaïque, Alexandria 1898, pp. 37 ff.; A. Ausfeld, “Zur Topographie von Alexandria und Pseudokallisthenes,” Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 55, 1900, p. 367; Aristide Calderini, Dizionario dei nomi geografici e topografici dell’Egitto greco-romano, Cairo 1935, p. 155, s.v. “Tychaion”; Achille Adriani, s.v. “Tychaion,” Repertorio d’arte dell’Egitto greco-romano, Palermo 1966, Serie C, 1–2, pp. 258 ff.; P. Goukowsky, Essai sur les origins du mythe d’Alexandre (336–270 av. J.C.), Nancy 1978, p. 150; Barbara Tkaczow, “Remarques sur la topographie et l’architecture de l’ancienne Alexandrie dans les texts antiques,” Archeologia 35, 1984, p. 15; P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria, Oxford 1972, vol. 1, p. 242, 2, p. 392, note 417; Long 1987, pp. 84 ff., T 24. A., pp. 212 ff., 307 ff.; Andrew Stewart, Faces of Power: Alexander’s Image and Hellenistic Politics, Berkeley and Oxford 1993, pp. 243 ff., 383 ff.; Gunter Grimm, Alexandria: Die erste Königsstadt der hellenistischen Welt, Mainz 1998, p. 70; Elena Ghisellini, Atene e la corte tolemaica. L’ara con dodekatheon nel Museo Greco-Romano di Alessandria, Alexandria 1999, pp. 97 ff.

  74 Pseudo-Callisthenes I, 31, 4. However, Thomas (2004) opts instead for a location in Antioch, erroneously in my view.

  75 Libanius, Progymnasmata 12, Ekphraseis 25, in R. Foerster, ed., Libanii Opera VIII, Leipzig 1915, pp. 438 ff., 529 ff.; Bernhard Hebert, Spätantike Beschreibung von Kunstwerken. Archäologischer Kommentar zu den Ekphraseis des Libanios und Nikolaus (Diss. Universität Graz), Graz 1983, pp. 8 ff.

  76 My thanks to Emanuele Dettori for his help in the translation and explanation of the text. The building is also mentioned apropos the dramatic events that led to the killing of the Byzantine Emperor Maurice in AD 602. In his account, Simocatta relates that a famous calligrapher, “reaching the zone of the city called Tychaion ... saw the most famous images sliding down from their bases.” See Theophylactus Simocatta, Historia, ed. Carolus de Boor, Leipzig 1887, vol. 8, 13, 342 B.

  77 Besides the event of 602 described by Simocatta, a sixth-century text could refer to the sanctuary: T. D. Néroutsos-Bey, “Inscriptions grecques et latines recueilles dans la ville d’Alexandrie et aux ses environs,” Revue archéologique 3, no. 9, 1887, p. 203, n. 8. See also Christopher Haas, Alexandria in Late Antiquity: Topography and Social Conflict, Baltimore and London 1997, p. 167.

  78 On the 12 gods in Alexandria, see E. Ghisellini 1999, esp. pp. 100 ff. for the sculptures of the Tychaion.

  79 As to the precise identity of this ruler, the progenitor of the Ptolemaic dynasty, Ptolemy I, seems more likely than the lackluster Ptolemy X Philometor Soter II.

  80 This is the preferred configuration as described by Libanus, and not that offered by Thomas (2004), who thinks that Alexander is crowned by Tyche, who in her turn was crowned by Gaia.

  81 Only Stewart 1993, pp. 243 ff., 383 ff., T 95, proposes a building on a square plan. It has also been argued that the structure was an open square with two opposing hemicycles and niches in the walls. Simocatta also refers to a site called Tychaion, a term that could indicate either a building or an open-air sacred precinct (just as at Samos, the term Heraion could denote the whole sanctuary of Hera or her temple).

  82 Coarelli 1983, pp. 41 ff., esp. p. 45. Cf. Roddaz 1984, pp. 275 ff.; Thomas 1997, pp. 163 ff.; Thomas 2004.

  83 For sources see n. 9; Filippo Coarelli, s.v. “Caprae palus,” in Steinby 1995–1999, vol. 1, 1993, p. 234. For objections, see Ziolkowski 1994.

  84 Statius, Silvae 4.5.2; Martialis (Martial) 2.14.5; 57.2; 9.59.1; 10.80.4.

  85 On formal and typological affinities between the Pantheon and later mausolea see Wilson Jones 1989b, 108 ff.

  86 Coarelli 1997, pp. 591 ff.

  87 Angelo Brelich, “Quirinus: una divinità romana alla luce della comparazione storica,” Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni 31, 1960, pp. 63–119; Andrea Carandini, Remo e Romolo. Dai rioni dei Quiriti alla città dei Romani (775/750–700/675 a.C.), Turin 2006, pp. 299 ff., 467 ff.

  88 Licht 1968, pp. 45 ff. (based on the observations of Lucos Cozza); Roddaz 1984, p. 274.

  89 Penelope Davies, Death and the Emperors: Roman Imperial Funerary Monuments from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius, Cambridge 2000.

  90 Nissen 1869, 226. Cf. Ferdinando Castagnoli, “Il Campo Marzio nell’antichità,” Atti dell’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1948, pp. 148 ff.; Loerke 1982, p. 51; Loerke 1990, p. 42 and note 47; Thomas 1997, pp. 174 ff., Fig. 6.

  91 On the general significance of round dimensions in Roman architecture, see Wilson Jones 1989b.

  92 One clue is offered by the information that the college of the fratres Arvales assembled in the Pantheon on AD January 11, 58 and January 12, 59 (see note 8). As this priesthood was concerned with the celebration of the imperial family, it can be deduced that the Pantheon had found service in this connection, at least in the Neronian period.

  93 Dio Cassius, 53.27. 2–3.

  94 Ammianus Marcellinus, Rerum gestarum libri, 4th century AD, ed. J. C. Rolfe, Cambridge 1956, pp. 16, 10, 14: “... velut regionem teretem speciosa celsitudinem fornicatam; elatosque vertices qui scansili suggestu consurgunt, priorum principum imitamenta portantes.” The text is, unfortunately, not without interpretive difficulty.

  Three New Perspectives on the Dating of the Pantheon

  Lise M. Hetland

  The correct date is the first half of Hadrian’s reign. The building was not begun before 117, and probably dedicated about 126–8.... In the body of the Pantheon there is a preponderance of brickstamps of the 120’s, and it is upon this fact, more than any other, that the dating of the building is based.

  — William L. MacDonald, The Pantheon, 19761

  1. Problems with Dating the Pantheon

  In the opening quotation from one of the most authoritative scholars on Roman architecture, William MacDonald, the Hadrianic dating of the Pantheon is presented as a proven fact. Yet this became the established view only late in the nineteenth century, when scholars turned away from variations on the previously accepted Augustan date.2 This took at face value the main inscription fronting the portico: M. AGRIPPA. L. F. COS. TERTIVM. FECIT (Fig. 3.1), which seems to claim the building to have been erected by Agrippa in his third consulship (probably in 27 BC).3 Dio Cassius presumably took the inscription literally when he described the building in the second decade of the third century AD:

  ... in addition [Agrippa] concluded the construction of the building called the Pantheon. ... Agrippa ... wanted then to place there also [a statue of] Augustus and to bestow upon him the honour of having the work named after him; but since the prince did not accept either of these two honours, he had placed in the temple a statue of [Julius] Caesar pater, while in the porch he put statues of Augustus and himself.4

  3.1. View of entablature and tympanum at night. (Courtesy of Fulvio Santus)

  In effect, this text harks back to Agrippa’s creation of the first Pantheon on the same spot as the present structure. In AD 80, while the emperor Titus was absent in Campania, a fire damaged the whole region around and including the Pantheon. Again it is the Roman consul Dio Cassius who describes the devastation
s:

  It consumed the temple of Serapis, the temple of Isis, the Saepta, the temple of Neptune, the Baths of Agrippa, the Pantheon, the Diribitorium, the theatre of Balbus, the stage building of Pompey’s theatre, the Octavian buildings together with their books, and the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus with its surrounding temples.5

  The term “consumed” may exaggerate the damage done to the Pantheon itself, in the sense that scant trace has been found of repairs that may be attributed to the reign of the emperor Domitian (see Chapter Two).6 Another fire, caused by lightning, devastated the building in 110; an ancient source states simply that “The Pantheon was struck by lightning and burned.”7 This time a total rebuilding was required, resulting in the edifice that survives today.

  The emperor Hadrian’s involvement with the Pantheon is briefly noted in two ancient sources. The first of these, once again by Dio Cassius, informs us: