Les collines dans la représentation et l’organisation du pouvoir à Rome

At the heart of the legend, Rome’s hills are articulated to the story of its founding, but also of the first dissensions that characterise the history of the city to come. The hills, seven and more, undeniably mark the topography and have a role in the construction of the urban space of the city. Born on the Palatine, to the detriment of the Aventine, the Vrbs does however only truly establish itself by getting a civic centre at the bottom of the hills, on the forum, as early as during the royal era. The forum and the field of Mars, where the census takes place and the centuriate voting assembly meet, become the central places of the political life in the republican era, and the hill can inspire mistrust or allow the affirmation of an alternative power. The symbolism and functionality of Rome’s hills are the result of a complex and moving history, where historical facts and exegeses meet and gradually create stereotypes, carried up to contemporary ages, on the City of Seven Hills.

This book on the hills and power in Rome is a prologue to a synthesis on the Palatine, from Augustus’ death to the reign of Vespasian, which will be proposed in Neronia’s next volume. It allows us to put into perspective the palatine ascension of the imperial power as well as to highlight its stakes by questioning the structuring role of landform in Roman political life and imagination.