Mapping the perception of the Polytheistic heritage in the city fabric of Ostrogothic/Byzantine Rome (500-750 ca.)

Nicola Luciani

Starting from the last decade of the 5th century, the city of Rome was part of an Ostrogothic kingdom established with the formal consent of the Empire, that consequently maintained strong diplomatic and administrative links with the Italian peninsula. What is more, Byzantium was able to again impose direct imperial rule over the city from the mid-6th century, following Justinian’s wars in the West. From then on, for about two hundred years Rome was under the direct rule of the Emperor’s government, until the gradual waning of Imperial authority in the 8th century.
During such period, despite its peripheral position in respect to the political core of the Empire, the city of Rome was still regarded as a prime ideological centre of the Mediterranean oecumene. A crucial expression of such status within the urban fabric was represented by the Classical monumental panorama. Indeed, under Ostrogothic and Byzantine rule, Rome’s pre-Christian sacred structures were still actively employed to host
important public activities and to transmit civic symbolisms directed to the people inhabiting or visiting the metropolis.
As a central tenet of the project “PagByzRome – administration and perception of the Pagan heritage in the urban fabric of Byzantine Rome”, the city’s Polytheistic heritage is therefore employed to explore the relationship between the city-space and its inhabitants during the entire chronology of Ostrogothic and Byzantine Italy.
Accordingly, data regarding Polytheistic scared structures and sculptures are collected within a map of Early Medieval Rome, with the possibility of accessing information regarding the interested contexts. The map is structured according to a diachronic perspective, presenting layers corresponding to different main phases (Rome at the beginning of the 6th century, under Ostrogothic rule – Rome during the second half of the 6th century, after the Imperial conquest – Rome in the mid-7th century, under Eastern Imperial rule – Rome in the mid-8th century, around the end of Imperial direct control).
The mapped contexts are also presented in relation to prominent ritual routes winding through the city, including processions promoted by secular and religious authorities, such as Imperial adventus or Papal litanies.
The mapped Polytheistic religious heritage within the city fabric is indeed explored in light of its roles in the interactions among the city’s different social groups (including Church hierarchies, Gothic élites, Eastern government authorities, Latin-speaking inhabitants), each characterized by distinctive cultural roots that impacted their understanding of Rome’s Classical structures.