Via Cornelia

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Via Cornelia is an ancient

Via Triumphalis.[1]

History

There is some belief amongst archeologists that the Via Cornelia did not exist and that the name is a mutilation of the name, Via Aurelia. This conjecture stems from the fact that the Via Cornelia is only mentioned in the itineraries and witnesses of the seventh and eighth centuries; for in those centuries the population of Rome decreased from approximately one and a half million to sixty thousand and, the people were impoverished and could hardly speak Latin well. These citizens also would have had no idea of the topography of the Imperial period. Contrary to these likely unfounded notations, well-authenticated documents from the fourth century state that Saint Peter was buried along the Via Triumphalis.[2]

An excavation in 1924 at the site of

Constantine. The inscription on the stone mentions a commander of the eighth Augustinian legion under Vespasian and Titus who had been a supervisor of the Via Aurelia and the Via Cornelia.[3]

Location

Nero's Circus
on this plan are known to be inaccurate

Formerly, it was erroneously, but generally accepted, that the southern walls of

Piazza San Pietro
discovered traces of a road that may be the post-Constantinian Via Cornelia. A fragment of pre-Constantinian paved road along the same alignment also was found at the southwest corner of the basilica.

It is now believed that the Via Cornelia came from the east and ran west, gently rising near the present southernmost fountain in

Saint Peter's Square. Slightly before this point the Via Aurelia forked off from it and headed southwest, while the Via Cornelia continued westward just south of façade of the basilica and eventual on toward Caere
.

Via Triumphalis is believed to have come from

Saint Peter's Square, and then to have veered northwest toward the business section of Vatican City. The present day Via della Conciliazione follows approximately the same path as the Via Cornelia did.[4] In recent years the Vatican authorities reopened excavations of the Via Triumphalis necropolis
that was first partially uncovered during the 1950s. The excavations have revealed an extensive ancient Roman cemetery.

Function

It is possible that the Via Cornelia may have been built by

mausoleums.[5]

References

  1. ^ O'Callaghan, Roger T. "Recent Excavations under the Vatican Crypts." The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 12, No.1.(Feb., 1949)
  2. ^ L. E. Hudec "Recent Excavations under St. Peter's Basilica in Rome." Journal of Bible and Religion, Vol. 20, No. 1. (Jan., 1952)
  3. ^ Robinson, David M. "A New Latin Economic Edict from Pisidian Antioch" Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 55. (1924)
  4. ^ Townend, Gavind "Archaeological Notes: The Circus of Nero and the Vatican Excavations" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 62, No. 2. (Apr., 1958)
  5. ^ J. M. C. Toynbee "The Shrine of St. Peter and Its Setting" Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 43. (1953)
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