Porticus Aemilia, navalia o horrea? Ancora sui frammenti 23 e 24 b-d della Forma Urbis
In: Archeologia Classica: 62, 2011
Permalink: http://digital.casalini.it/2634552
Thanks to close examination of FUR fragments 23 and 24 b-d the presence of other epigraphic traces preceding the letters in rustic capitals I A already known to us can be finally ruled out. On this evidence we cannot, therefore, reject the reading [ PORTICUS AEMI ] LIA among the various interpretative hypotheses for the monument extra portam trigeminam. Thus remains perfectly valid the overall topographic reconstruction of the emporium district extending around the building mentioned by Livy, represented in the FUR and in part conserved in the area to the west of via Marmorata, which has found increasingly closer definition as from the interpretation by G. Gatti. It seems, therefore, the case to reject the recent interpretation proposed for the monument as navalia, unsupported by the architectural-structural, topographic and historical evidence. On the other hand, taking a broad urbanistic view of the area, it will be seen how the building can perfectly well have functioned at the level of infrastructure, serving the river port and the emporium as a place to carry out inspections, also for customs, and to redirect goods towards their final destinations.