mail: Bill Thayer

Italiano

Help

Up

Home

 p90  Campi

Collecting all the individual campus entries on pp90‑95 of

Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby):
A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome,
London: Oxford University Press, 1929.

Campus Agrippae: a section of the campus Martius laid out as a sort of park by Agrippa, and finished and dedicated by Augustus in 7 B.C. (Cass. Dio. LV.8; Not. Reg. VII; Chron. p148). It was a favourite promenade of the Romans (Gell. XIV.5.1) extending from about the line of the aqua Virgo on the south at least as far as the present via S. Claudio on the north, and from the via Lata towards the slope of the Quirinal, although its boundaries on the east are uncertain. The Porticus Vipsania was built on the west side of the campus, along the via Lata. The identification of this campus with the ἄλλο πεδίον of Strabo (V.236) seems inadmissible (cf. Eranos, 1923, 53 where it is further identified with Campus Minor (q.v.), the correlative 'maior' being the campus Martius proper, alluded to as circus Flaminius — the name later given to the ninth Augustan region — by Catullus).

Campus Boarius: found on one inscription (CIL VI.9226) and possibly on another (Q. Brutius . . . mercator bova(rius) de campo; NS 1902, 54; BC 1902, 84; CIL I2.1259; ILS 7480), and probably another name for forum Boarium.1

Campus Bruttianus: mentioned in Reg. and Pol. Silv. 545 in Region XIV, but otherwise unknown. (Cf. NS 1902, 54?)

Campus Caelemontanus (sic): mentioned only in one inscription (CIL VI.9475). From analogy with campus Esquilinus and campus Viminalis, this campus is probably to be located on the Caelian, outside the Servian wall and near the porta Caelimontana. It is possible that it may be identical with the Campus Martialis (q.v.).

Campus Codetanus: see Codeta.

Campus Cohortium Praetoriarum: perhaps the official name of the open area, referred to merely as campus (Tac. Ann. XII.36; Cass. Dio LXXIV.1), which lay between the castra Praetoria and the Servian agger. In this area no remains have been found except those of altars, shrines, and dedicatory monuments, such as would naturally be erected on the soldiers' drill ground (HJ 384; BC 1876, 175; 1877, 21 ff.)

Campus Esquilinus: the name in use during the last period of the republic and early empire for that part of the Esquiline plateau that lay outside the porta Esquilina (Cic. Phil. IX.17; Suet. Claud. 25; Strabo V.237). What its exact limits were, either then or earlier, is not known, but it is said to have been situated north of the via Labicana (Strabo, loc. cit.), and it probably included part of the present Piazza Vittorio Emanuele and the district immediately north of it. It formed a part of what had  p91 been the early Esquiline necropolis (Hor. Sat. I.8.8; cf. HJ 265‑271; DE II.2163‑2167), a place of burial for prominent Romans (Cic. loc. cit.) as well as for the poor (Hor. loc. cit.), but it had been reclaimed at the beginning of the Augustan period and was used as a park (Hor. loc. cit. 14‑16). It is referred to as Agri novi by Prop. IV.8.2; cf. Hor. cit.: vetatque novis considere in hortis. Executions also took place here (Suet. loc. cit.).

Campus Flaminius: found only in Varro (LL V.154), and explained by him as the site on which the circus Flaminius was built and from which that structure took its name. The circus was named of course from its builder, but we must admit, probably, that this part of the campus Martius had derived its name from some earlier member of the same family — a strange coincidence. Campus Flaminius was probably synonymous with prata Flaminia (Liv. III. 54, 63; cf. however, HJ 484).

Campus Iovis: mentioned only once (Hist. Aug. Pescenn. 12), with no indication of its location. It has been suggested that it might have been in Region VII, near the Nymphaeum Iovis of Reg., and that this may have been built by Diocletian, who assumed the cognomen of Iovius as a sign of his devotion to the cult of Juppiter (Pr. Reg. 110, 136). It is, however, more likely that it is a mere invention on the analogy of campus Martius (SHA 1916, 7.A, 13).

Campus Ignifer: see Tarentum.

Campus Lanatarius (perhaps Lanarius): mentioned only in the Regionary Catalogue in Region XII. It was probably somewhere between the baths of Caracalla and the present church of S. Saba.

(pp92‑94) Campus Martius: see separate page.

Campus Martialis: an open area on the Caelian hill, where the festival of the Equirria was celebrated when the campus Martius was under water (Ov. Fast. III.519‑523; Fest. 131). It was probably just outside the Servian wall, and perhaps identical with the campus Caelemontanus. (For an unsuccessful attempt to identify it with the campus minor of Catullus (lv.3) and to locate it outside the porta Capena, see BC 1906, 209‑223). Its name may have been preserved by the mediaeval church of S. Gregorio in Martio (HJ 225; HCh 258, 259).

Campus Minor: * mentioned only in Catullus (lv.3). Its location is entirely unknown, although it has been identified with the ἄλλο πεδίον of Strabo (V.236), and with the campus Martialis (HJ 499; Ellis, Catullus ad loc.; BC 1906, 209‑223; Pr. Reg. 159). See Campus Agrippae.

Campus Neronis: a name found, together with the synonymous prata Neronis, in documents of the seventh to eleventh centuries inclusive (Jord. II.430; LP xci. c22), and evidently identical with the πεδίον Ηέρωνος of Procopius (B. G.  I.19,º 28, 29;º II.1 and 2, pass.).º It was the  p95 district on the right bank of the Tiber where Nero's Naumachia (q.v.) and afterwards the moles Hadriani were situated.

Campus Octavius: mentioned only in Reg. app. and Pol. Silv. 545, and otherwise entirely unknown.

Campus Pecuarius: mentioned in Reg. app. and on one inscription (CIL VI.9660). It was perhaps in or near the campus Boarius (but cf. Mitt. 1893, 300).2

Campus Sceleratus: an open area just inside the porta Collina and south of the vicus portae Collinae, where Vestal virgins who had broken their vows were buried alive (Liv. VIII.15; Dionys. II.67; Plut. Numa 10; Fest.333; Serv. ad Aen. XI.206).​a

Campus Tiberinus: another name for the Campus Martius (q.v.) according to Gellius (VII.7.4), who, with Pliny (NH XXXIV.25; cf. Plut. Popl. 8), relates the story of its presentation to the people by a Vestal, Gaia Turacia or Fufetia (RE VII.480483). It has also been explained as that part of the campus Martius that borders the river from the island northward and identified with the Campus Minor (q.v.) of Catullus (lv.3), and the ἄλλο πεδίον of Strabo (V.236; HJ 475; Gilb. II.113; cf. the 'Ager Turax' of Cato ap. Macrob. I.10.16).

Campus Vaticanus: see Vaticanus (2).

Campus Viminalis: found only in Reg. in Region V, where it is followed by the word subager. This may be equivalent to sub aggere and belong to campus Viminalis (and in this case it may be contrasted with super aggerem; see Agger), or it may conceal the name of another monument or locality. In any case the campus Viminalis was probably outside the agger and not far from the porta Viminalis (Pr. Reg. 132; Jord. II.129; HJ 336, 370).

The Authors' Notes:

1 The mention in the first inscription of a 'cancellarius primi loci campi boari ann. XXVI' (i.e. a gatekeeper of a cattle-pen) is against this identification; it was probably the actual cattle-market, the situation of which is unknown.

❦

2 It is often thought to have been near the Emporium and Horrea (BC 1891, 318‑321; Mitt. 1892, 284). On the other hand, the sepulchral inscription CIL VI.33887, which is that of a 'negotiator celeberrimus suariae et pecuariae, might point to a site near the Forum Suarium (q.v.).

Thayer's Note:

a See also Lanciani's dramatic account of the end of an unfaithful Vestal Virgin, in Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries, pp144‑146.

Images with borders lead to more information. The thicker the border, the more information. (Details here.)
The Dictionary's table of bibliographical abbreviations is here; it includes links to those complete works that are online.
UP TO:	Platner & Ashby	Topographia Urbis	Rome	Roman Gazetteer	LacusCurtius	Home
A page or image on this site is in the public domain ONLY if its URL has a total of one *asterisk. If the URL has two **asterisks, the item is copyright someone else, and used by permission or fair use. If the URL has none the item is © Bill Thayer. See my copyright page for details and contact information.