Content area
Full text
Diane Favro. The Urban Image of Augustan Rome. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press;, 1996. Pp. xxii + 346. ISBN 0-521-45083-7. $80.00.
Diane Favro, professor of architecture at the University of California at Los Angeles, discusses how and why Augustan Rome came into exist ence. Her work depends on two interacting conditions: archaeological research in the chief city of the Roman empire for the past twenty years or more that has both uncovered much new material and reassessed known monuments and the contemporary interest in urban design. She synthesizes both the data and theory to offer a coherent and illuminating analysis of the entire Augustan city. The introductory chapter reviews current thinking on what constitutes "the urban image." Just how does one "see" or experience a city, even a modern one? What makes a city memorable? Creating an environment that refreshes the spirit is usually not a high priority for the average developer whether ancient or contemporary, and city-planners usually can affect only small areas. Although city planners in both ancient Greece and Rome considered such matters, rarely did they have the opportunity that Augustus had to create a city that expressed a vision. For the classicist this valuable chapter introduces concepts that are not generally part of a classical education.
Chapter two describes an imaginary walk by a father and son through Republican Rome of the year 52 B.C. The strategy of an imaginary walk allows Favro to comment on what the city had and had not achieved by the end of the Republic. It also permits her to discuss...