Il Tempio di Venere e Roma, una citta, un impero, II, 2, gen 2011. 6-25 p.

Alberto Danti 2011.

For the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the March on Rome, already in July 1931, it was
decided, with a striking project that well reflected the political doctrines of the Fascist era, to
create a road that reached the Colosseum from the Altare delle Patria: the via dell'Impero. From
an ideological point of view, two important symbols of the history of Rome and Italy came
together: the one referable to the values of the Risorgimento, strongly emphasized in the new
urban planning of the city by the construction of the Altare della Patria, and that of the ancient
Empire Roman, still very present in the centrality of the Colosseum. The connection between
these two monuments, through the Via dell'Impero, therefore constituted, for Fascism, a natural
completion, considering itself heir and continuer of those two historical realities and thus
achieving a consistent scenographic impact for the capital, aimed at celebrating its political ideas
and thus legitimizing its ambitions of greatness. The only obstacle to the completion of this
urban planning program was that hill, called Velia, which stood between the Palatine Hill and
Colle Oppio and on which the sixteenth-century Villa Rivaldi still rose to the north. Very ancient
and connected with the most ancient events linked to the birth of Rome, the Velia already
appears, in close connection with the Palatine, in the oldest list of montes dell'Urbe, the
Septimontium, dating back to the time of the Kings. in the Republican era, private homes of
considerable value are attested, among which the residence of that Valerio Publicola who held
the position of consul together with Giunio Bruto in the first year of the foundation of the
Republic (509 BC), and above all, among the buildings of worship, the temple of the Penate
gods, mentioned several times by ancient writers. The appearance of a residential area lasted for
many centuries if we consider that Domizio Calvino, at the beginning of the Augustan age,
destroyed the chapel of Mutinus Titinus (an ancient phallic deity, similar to the god Priapus), to
build in that area the bathing house of his house.
But to return to the destruction of the Velia, it is necessary to remember that these interventions
were not foreseen by the 1931 master plan, and even in the first project relating to the
development of the Via dell'Impero, the road had to undergo a detour near the hill, so that it was
overcome by a climb, thus saving both the gardens of the Villa Rivaldi and the pre-existing
archaeological sites emerging in different areas. But the rush of the works and the heated
ideological enthusiasms of the regime, gave ample space to the bulldozers that carried out deep
demolitions, redefining the aspect of the area in a completely new and artificial way. In this
regard, large manpower forces were used and in conditions of total lack of security, as evidenced
by the little-known statistics relating to the numerous accidents at work. The result was the
removal of about 300,000 square meters of land which led to the excavation of the Velia for a
length of about 200 m, after savage expropriations were carried out to the detriment of numerous
families and artisans who also constituted one of the fabrics in this area most characteristic and
original of the city. The archaeological finds were very noteworthy, collected and stored in crates
to be deposited in the municipal warehouses, while with great care the wall structures that
gradually emerged and which often referred to luxurious homes of the early imperial period were
documented with great care. Among all these finds, two in particular deserve to be remembered.
The first refers to the luxurious domus found under the garden of Villa Rivaldi, and which has
returned environments frescoed with encaustic paintings and an important complex of marble
works including portraits of emperors and illustrious characters of the time, as well as copies or
statuary reworkings of Greek originals, among which the statue of Icarus and a head of Apollo
stand out, copy of the original attributed to Phidias. The works in question are currently kept at
the Centrale Montemartini. The second nucleus was found close to the colonnade of the temple
of Venus and Rome, along the west side, in front of the former convent of Santa Francesca
Romana. For the latter it was an octagonal room, exquisitely decorated with marble slab
coverings, from which four cryptoporticos branched off and were incorporated in the subsequent
stages of foundation of the Neronian and Hadrianic periods. The size and orientation of these
rooms have led to the hypothesis of their relevance to the residential remains found in the area of
Villa Rivaldi. Recently, moreover, a more accurate analysis of the marble decorations has made
it possible to propose, for these structures, a dating to the second half of the 1st century AD, also
hypothesizing that the whole complex may have been owned by the noble family of the Domizi
Enobarbi, of the which included the important figure of Cneo Domizio Enobarbus, husband of
Agrippina Minore and father Nero. The excavation of the Velia also highlighted, on the north
side, the concrete foundation and terracing structures of the hill which were carried out after the
fire of 64 AD, when Nero, taking advantage of the disastrous event, started that urban project
which led to the construction of his colossal palace: the Domus Aurea. The emperor's architects
had foreseen and built the monumental entrance on the Velia, consisting of arcades and inside
which the colossal bronze statue of Nero, 120 Roman feet high (about 35 m), was to rise. Upon
Nero's death, the Velia was also part of the program that the Flavians implemented in returning
to the public function all the areas that their predecessor had improperly destined for the uses of
his hegemonic policy and in particular the colossal statue, while remaining in its original
position, was transformed into an image of the sun god. A few years after his election as emperor
in 117 AD, Hadrian decided to erect a temple to the two main protector deities of the empire:
Venus Felix, as ancestor of Aeneas, and Roma Aeterna. Fortuna atque Aeternitas, therefore, two
concepts well rooted in this period of maturation of the Roman Empire, full of symbolism, and in
which Hadrian also wanted to enclose the union between the origins of Rome and its future, as a
guide of the world, as well as a fusion between East and West that the empire itself had brought
about. The choice of the Velia as the site of what was preparing to be the largest temple ever
built in Rome, was undoubtedly dictated by scenographic reasons: if on the one hand, in fact, the
temple constituted a magnificent perspective view on the eastern side of the Forum, it could also
be admired in all its grandeur from the different floors of the Flavian Amphitheater. To carry out
this project it was therefore necessary to partially demolish the previous Neronian phase,
maintaining and expanding the terracing on the Velia. The Colossus was moved with the force of
24 elephants and once the area was freed the first stone was laid. It was April 21, 121 AD, day of
birth (dies natalis) of Rome.
A cultured man dedicated to studying and practicing all the sciences and arts that were most
followed at the time: medicine, singing, geometry, painting, plastic, Adriano was also an
architect and he was responsible for the executive project of the temple. Dione Cassio (Greek
historian, who lived between the II and III centuries AD), in his Roman History, describes, in a
very precise way, the events or rather the quarrel that arose between the emperor and Apollodoro
of Damascus (author of the great official works of the principality of Trajan), which therefore
met a sad fate. Apollodoro, in fact, was used to discussing every new creation or project being
carried out with Trajan, and he imagined that he also had the same faculties with Adriano who,
otherwise, did not tolerate criticism of others. A first moment of tension between the two
occurred, while Trajan was still alive, when, wanting the young prince to intervene personally on
some projects, he was swiftly dismissed by Apollodorus who addressed him with these words:
"go and paint the pumpkins, since nothing else you you can understand ". Having become
emperor, Hadrian, who had never forgotten the offense, exiled the well-known architect, and
himself carried out the main urban and architectural plans for the city. However, with regard to
the project of the temple of Venus and Rome, the emperor again asked the damascan architect
for advice and approval, who, firm in his ideas, sent further criticisms both in relation to the
limited height of the podium, and in relation to the two cult statues, too high compared to the
niches, so much so that the divinities, even if they wanted to, could not get up. After these
answers Adriano waited even a few years before having Apollodorus killed in his residence in
exile. Once the works began, these lasted for many years and the temple was only finished under
the principality of Antoninus Pius who dedicated it in 138 AD, as evidenced by the coins minted
under the latter emperor. The temple extends over a platform of 145 by 100 m (500 by 300
Roman feet), which rests in part on the high ground of the Velia, in part it extends towards the
valley of the Amphitheater thus bridging the relative jump in altitude. On this platea was placed,
limited to the long sides which were bordered by a high wall structure articulated on the outside
(via Sacra side) in niches, a porticoed area, formed by gray granite columns and characterized in
the center by two receding propylaea , whose columns had greater height and diameter than the
others and a marble of different quality and colors. The short sides were instead open and
occupied, the one towards the Forum by a flight of steps, the one towards the Colosseum by
simple lateral stairways. The area intended for the actual temple was slightly raised above the
porch and surrounded by a double peripteral (dipterus) of Corinthian marble columns (ten on the
front and twenty-two on the long sides). You then entered the heart of the sanctuary which,
unlike what one might expect in a canonical temple, was made up of two cells, each with a
pronaos in front, contiguous and opposite, sharing a single back wall. The respective entrances
were therefore located one towards the Colosseum (goddess Venus) and the other towards the
Forum (goddess Rome). When in 283 AD, under the principality of Carino, the temple was
devastated by a fire, it was thought of its reconstruction only with the coming to power of
Maxentius (306-307 AD). The current appearance of the temple must be attributed to the
interventions of this period. In fact, the two apses with stuccoed coffered ceiling and basin were
built, according to the architectural fashion of the time; the cells were covered with a barrel vault
and finally the walls were decorated with niches with an alternately triangular and arched
tympanum and bounded by porphyry columns on shelves.
The use of interrupting the static nature of the walls by means of niches moved by columns on
shelves is found, for this period, in other monumental structures such as the nearby basilica of
Maxentius, the back wall of the swimming pool of the baths of Diocletian or the Curia in the
Roman Forum (in the diocletian restoration). Even the floor, as it can be admired inside the cell
dedicated to the goddess Rome, was marked by a strong polychromy, through the use of marble
encrustations with geometric motifs, among which porphyry stood out. Returning to the
Hadrianic phase of the Templar layout, it should be emphasized that the shape and plan of the
building manifest themselves in their singularity, in some respects revolutionary. The recall and
partial revival of the great Hellenistic architectures, for which Hadrian had a real passion (not
surprisingly under this emperor the works of the Olympion of Athens ended), joins the rejection
and opposition to the canonical scheme of Roman temples on a high podium. However, a certain
architectural compromise with classical culture can be seen in maintaining various elements of
the Templar buildings, such as the dipterus of columns and the canonical shape of the individual
cells; necessary tribute to that Greco-Roman civilization, reigning for many centuries, to which
even the revolutionary architectural period begun by Hadrian feels obliged to offer. The events
affecting the temple of Venus and Rome did not end with the end of the Roman Empire. As often
happens with the most important and prestigious monuments of Rome, its ruin was caused more
by the looting works than by natural events or by its abandonment. Still in 365 A.D. Ammiano
Marcellino counts the temple among the wonders of Rome. Around the year 640 AD Pope
Honorius I, after receiving a favorable opinion from the emperor of Byzantium Heraclius,
removed the golden tiles of the temple to reuse them on the roof of the new basilica of St. Peter.
The stripping of the tiles continued by the Saracens during the sack of 846 AD. to be completed
by Paolo V Borghese (1605-1621). The construction of the church of S. Maria Nova by Pope
Paul I (757-767) on the site of the stalls and pronaos of the cell dedicated to the goddess Rome
and its subsequent transformation into the church of S. Francesca Romana, will contribute
significantly to the stripping of the decorative structures of the temple of Venus and Rome.
Rodolfo Lanciani still remembers that, at the time of Carlo Fea, Superintendent of Antiquities at
the beginning of the nineteenth century, the work of removing the marble was continuing, to be
used, in this case, for the work undertaken at the basilica of S. Paul outside the walls. Only the
timely intervention of the FEA prevented this latest act of vandalism from being interpreted. The
recovery of the temple of Venus and Rome begins in those initial years of the nineteenth century.
Under the French administration the first systematic excavations were carried out (1810-1814),
to continue by Nibby between 1827 and 1829. A decisive contribution for the protection and
preservation of the monumental remains of the temple was made starting from 1932 thanks to the
MuÀoz. In anticipation of Hitler's visit to Rome in 1938, archaeological investigations were
launched aimed at better understanding the monumental complex in its original aspect. The
thirty-eight year old archaeologist Antonio Maria Colini participated in these works. He, in his
excavation reports, complained from the beginning that it was impossible to document what was
emerging precisely because of the urgency with which it was proceeding, to the point that, in
many cases, he was not allowed to draw up the same reports of excavation. Also in these years,
some columns of the side portico were raised using the numerous fragments of gray granite that
were still in place; The total isolation of the monument was also carried out, as was customary
during the Fascist period, also carrying out excavation tests aimed at investigating the
construction technique of the substructure slab. Finally, the embellishment work was completed
with privet plants that repeated the path of the peristasis of the columns, box hedges along the
steps, and finally laurel to replace the walls of the cell of Venus. In this way, the principle of
integrating the image 'of the ruins, through classical vegetation, advocated by Giacomo Boni at
the beginning of the twentieth century in his experimental project called' Flora delle Ruine 'was
adopted. At the same period we owe other restoration and consolidation interventions carried out
by Alfonso Bartoli (responsible for the part of the temple incorporated in the former Convent of
S. Francesca Romana, transformed into Antiquarium Forense by Giacomo Boni) inside the cell
of the goddess Rome and who even today they can be admired, despite a certain interpretative
forcing adopted in re-clarifying some structural aspects of the monument, both to create new
drainages for the walls. This brings us to our days when, through a new project for the recovery
of the area, it was finally possible to reopen to public use most of the spaces pertaining to the
temple. In fact, a new educational path leads the visitor along the portico, where the panorama
that opens onto the Colosseum valley is admirable and evocative, up to entering the two cells
that still retain, despite the passage of time, an atmosphere of profound sacredness.