www.quondam.com/16/1554.htm

Campo Marzio - the triumphal way
1997.09.05

I just found an article in Ritual on the story/meaning of the Triumphal Way in ancient Rome. I am in the midst of reading it now, so I cannot make any final conclusion. I do now know, however, that the route that Piranesi delineated starts at the alter of Mars and continues until it enters the city [proper] at the Porta Triumphant. Thus I have to reconsider the "profane to sacred" architectural promenade, although I will still mention it as an inversion. (Just now--9.11.97--I realize that the realm of the profane and the sacred did indeed invert itself in Rome with the conversion to Christianity from Paganism. Perhaps Piranesi is making a very real commentary on the reversal in ancient Rome's history and its meaning as a city. I am especially now thinking of how the temple of Janus sits at one of the ends (beginning?) of Piranesi's Triumphal Way, and this also gives ground to the backward/forward reversal notion. I think I have a full thesis here now.) Perhaps the whole notion of inversion becomes a/the dominant theme that I have to present overall. (We shall see.)

There are many references throughout the article to Rykwert's The Idea of a Town, and this reinforces my need to read that book. I am glad to have found all this new information, and it will undoubtedly add to the credibility of what I ultimately write. I only hope I don't continue to find more data that needs to be considered because it seems that I am never going to achieve a sense of completion.

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