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| Aventine | |
|---|---|
| Name | Aventine |
| Country | Rome |
| Region | Latium |
Aventine is one of the famous seven hills of Rome in Latium, forming a prominent ridge on the southern bank of the Tiber River. The hill has long been associated with religious foundations, aristocratic residences, and city defenses from the era of the Roman Kingdom through the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire into medieval and modern Italy. Aventine’s topography, ritual uses, and urban fabric have been referenced in sources ranging from Livy and Ovid to modern studies by Giovanni Battista Piranesi and Rodney Stark.
The Aventine occupies a ridge south of the Tiber opposite the Campus Martius and adjoins the Testaccio and Palatine sectors; its slopes descend toward the Porta San Paolo and the mouth of the river near Ostia Antica and Portus. Geographers and cartographers from Strabo to Giovanni Battista Nolli mapped the hill’s terraces, groves, and basalt outcrops alongside aqueducts like the Aqua Appia and the Aqua Marcia. The hill’s highest points afforded sightlines to the Forum Romanum, Palatine Hill, and Circus Maximus, shaping military uses during the Siege of Rome (537–538) and later urban planning by the papal authorities such as Pope Sixtus V.
Early legends link the Aventine to episodes in the foundational narratives of Romulus and Remus, the expulsion of the King of Rome and to the occupation by immigrant groups like the Sabines and Etruscans. Antiquarian writers such as Varro and Pliny the Elder record cultic sites to deities including Ceres, Diana, and Minerva, while poetic witnesses like Virgil and Ovid allude to Aventine groves and rites. The hill figures in the story of the Sacrement of the Aventine in medieval chronicles and was associated with plebeian assemblies recorded by Titus Livius during the conflict of the orders with leaders like Lucius Sicinius Dentatus and Gaius Gracchus.
During the Roman Republic the Aventine hosted plebeian shrines such as the temples of Ceres, Libertas, and Ceres, Liber, and Libera and became a residential quarter for notable gentes including the Claudii and Fabii. The hill served as a locus for the secession of the plebs to the Aventine Mount documented by Livy and the tribunes of the plebs like Tiberius Gracchus exercised influence tied to its sanctuaries. In the Roman Empire imperial benefactors such as Augustus and Hadrian sponsored restorations while building activity connected the Aventine to the Aurelian Walls and the Porta Ostiensis. Inscriptions cataloged by Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum attest to guilds, collegia, and freedmen associations active on the hill.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire the Aventine’s temples were repurposed under authorities such as the Byzantine Empire and medieval Roman nobility including the houses of Farnese and Colonna. Churches including Santa Sabina and Santa Maria in Cosmedin emerged on ancient footprints, while medieval chroniclers such as Sergius of Ostia described monastic endowments and pilgrim routes. During the Renaissance patrons like Pope Julius II and architects such as Leon Battista Alberti and Donato Bramante influenced reworking of plots and vistas, and antiquarians such as Pietro Bembo and Flavio Biondo studied Aventine ruins within broader efforts to recover Classical antiquity.
In modern times the Aventine became incorporated into the municipal fabric of Rome and the Kingdom of Italy after the Capture of Rome (1870), with urban interventions by engineers associated with figures like Giuseppe Valadier and planners influenced by Camillo Boito. The 20th century saw conservation campaigns involving the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and archaeological investigations by scholars from institutions such as the Sovrintendenza Capitolina and the Università di Roma La Sapienza. The neighborhood today blends residential blocks with diplomatic enclaves linked to modern embassies and institutions including UNESCO events and cultural programming by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.
Prominent buildings include the 5th-century basilica of Santa Sabina with a bell tower overlooking the Tiber, the medieval church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin housing the Bocca della Verità, and the classical remains near the Baths of Caracalla and Porta San Paolo. Other sites include the Giardino degli Aranci (Parco Savello), viewpoints over the Palatine, and the Aurelia-era segments of the Aurelian Walls. Architectural studies reference interventions by Piranesi, restoration projects under Ettore Marchiafava, and documented finds archived in museums such as the Museo Nazionale Romano and the Capitoline Museums.
The Aventine appears in works by Dante Alighieri, Goethe, and Henry James and features in modern filmic and literary portrayals tied to the image of Rome in European imagination. Its sacred sites have informed scholarship by Ernst Kähler and Mary Beard and entered civic rituals recorded in Vatican records of Papal processions. The hill’s blend of archaeology, liturgy, and residential life continues to attract researchers from centers like École française de Rome and contributors to journals such as Journal of Roman Studies.