Janiculum
Janiculum | |
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Janus |
The Janiculum (
Sights
The Janiculum is one of the best locations in Rome for a scenic view of central Rome with its
The
History
Ancient history and mythology
The Janiculum was a center for the cult of the god
In Roman mythology, Janiculum is the name of an ancient town founded by the god Janus (the two-faced god of beginnings). In Book VIII of the Aeneid by Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro), King Evander shows Aeneas (the Trojan hero of this epic poem) the ruins of Saturnia and Janiculum on the Capitoline Hill near the Arcadian city of Pallanteum (the future site of Rome) (see line 54, Bk. 8). Virgil uses these ruins to stress the significance of the Capitoline Hill as the religious center of Rome.
According to Livy, the Janiculum was incorporated into ancient Rome during the time of king Ancus Marcius to prevent an enemy from occupying it. It was fortified by a wall, and a bridge was built across the Tiber to join it to the rest of the city.[1]
During the
The water mills
During the third century AD, a complex of water-mills was built here to grind grain to provide bread flour for the city. As revealed by excavations in the 1990s under the present American Academy in Rome,[3] they sat astride the aqueduct Aqua Traiana and were in brick-faced concrete with a cocciopesto floor. In the limited excavated area, two mill races branched obliquely off the Aqua Traiana, turned to run parallel to the aqueduct for some distance, and then turned back to feed into the aqueduct again. It appeared that the northern mill race had 3 or 4 millwheels of 2.30 m diameter and width about 1.65 m to provide a sufficiently large working area, but only 2.6 m between their axle centres, which must have reduced efficiency due to turbulence between them. The southern race had one a larger wheel.
The site resembles
The
The mills were already known from observations by R. Lanciani in the 1880s.
19th century to present
The Janiculum is the site of a battle in 1849 between the forces of
Daily at noon, a cannon fires once from the Janiculum in the direction of the Tiber as a time signal. This tradition goes back to December 1847, when the cannon of the Castel Sant'Angelo gave the sign to the surrounding belltowers to start ringing at midday. In 1904, the ritual was transferred to the Janiculum and continued until 1939. On 21 April 1959, popular appeal convinced the Commune of Rome to resume the tradition after a twenty-year interruption.
The hill is featured in the third section of
Monuments
The crest of the Janiculum is dominated by the 1895 equestrian
The hill also features a number of statues and monuments of prominent Italians. A 2011 guide published by the local Associazione Amilcare Cipriani group, after an extensive restoration of these monuments, lists a total of 84 busts on the hill.[7]
See also
- Seven hills of Rome
- Aventine Hill (Aventino)
- Caelian Hill (Celio)
- Capitoline Hill (Capitolino)
- Cispian Hill (Cispio)
- Esquiline Hill (Esquilino)
- Monte Mario
- Mons Sacer
- Oppian Hill (Oppio)
- Palatine Hill (Palatino)
- Palazzolo
- Pincian Hill (Pincio)
- Quirinal Hill (Quirinale)
- Vatican Hill (Vaticano)
- Velian Hill (Velia)
- Viminal Hill (Viminale)
References
- Ab urbe condita, 1:33
- Ab urbe condita, 2.9–15
- ^ Janiculum Mills Excavations, Roman water-mills on the Janiculum Hill, Rome https://users.ox.ac.uk/~corp0057/JaniculumMills.html
- ^ Procopius, De Bello Gothico I.XIX
- ^ Örjan Wikander, 'Water-mills in Ancient Rome' Opuscula Romana XII (1979), 13–36.
- ^ The Architecture of Modern Italy: Vol. 1: The Challenge of Tradition, 1750-1900, by Terry Kirk, 2005, page 239
- ^ http://www.appasseggio.it/getFile.php?id=306 (Italian-language; pdf file)