Hello all, I studied ancient history years ago in highschool and have kept up an interest in it through my adult life. One facet we covered was rome in the time of the Gracchi, Gaius Marius and Sulla, the wars with Carthage in which hannibal marched towards Rome, then moving on to the time of Caesar, Crassus dying in the east and finally Octavian ruling. (so 300bc to 35bc? If memory serves me - not including much of the period of augustus)
I want to finally get over to Rome this year and what I really want to be able to do is picture Rome from these different periods. I had hoped to be able to find some means of getting a map of Rome and how it was laid out between all of these periods. And to maybe recognise where the 7 hills are in each map (in order to get a good idea for the changes etc).
Do any historians know of any sources for such maps where I could see and lay them along side one another? If they can be sources - as I'm a web developer if no side by side notion exists I'd be happy to set up an interactive site for such a purpose.
Anyway on from maps, because the modern period has changed it so vastly, are there particular items of this period I should look out for? Or that I would expect not to see? For instance I believe where Caesar died in the theatre of Pompeii no longer exists?
Just finished a History of Art thesis in early modern Roman maps, and while I studied Ancient Rome academically and can pull up some maps for you once I find out what you are looking for exactly, mine was specifically for 15-18th century.
Firstly, the issue of what kind of maps you are looking for. Ancient Rome really best survives through the Forma Urbis (And the wall that it was originally put on still survives), but it is incomplete, and while there are many fragments it was put up just after 200 CE, and the surveying likely took some time, so its likely a second century CE map. This already puts you at a later period than what you are looking for, but luckily there are many modern and renaissance reconstructions.
When serious study of ancient monuments began, the need for distinction between the religious, secular, and pagan became more important. During his reign from 1513-1521, Pope Leo X actively encouraged research and the surveying of ancient ruins in detail, going as far as reassigning an entire atelier of draftsmen from working on the new design of St Peters and placing them under sponsorship of the Camera Apostolica to complete the surveys.
My writing, but citing work from (Jacks, Philip Joshua. 1993. The Antiquarian and the Myth of Antiquity Cambridge University Press: page 183). Since there was so much focus on Christianity in Rome, the ruins were still a very much 'pagan' (I'm using this loosely to refer to something far worse than just being secular), and not always included in maps. Its really the 19th century, when you start to get plans of the City of Rome that have orthogonal projections of what Ancient Rome looked like based off of excavations and surviving monuments. Put those together with modern archaeological finds, literary evidence, and you can start to get maps of Ancient Rome for different periods of time. Unfortunately when interest was shown with these early monuments in the 17th century, people were not recording architectural/orthagonal views of these buildings, it was mostly pictorial perspective and are more useful for identifying what they valued as opposed to what was really there.
[...] because the modern period has changed it so vastly, are there particular items of this period I should look out for?
Rome has changed a lot, but much of what actually shaped the city into its current form happened during the Quattrocento and Cinquecento. There are scores of books out there which deal with the urban planning at this time (I would recommend Allan Ceen (1986) Urban Planning in Rome in the First Half of the Cinquecento, and ). Much of this has to do with increased Papal involvement with the City of Rome, the streets were never really 'public' in the modern sense of the word -- Maestri delle Strade were appointed by the Pope and had the authority to do almost anything they wanted with the city. They used this power to demolish buildings to create new roads; particularly straight roads to connect monuments, the Vatican, and Piazza del Popolo.
That for me is incredibly interesting, but I realize you were looking for 300 BC ~35CE, so there are still monuments that you can see or visit, but the walls of Rome may succeed in helping you 'picture Rome from those different periods'. The size of the city, expansion, and circulation information can be gathered from these maps.
I have many maps gathered from lots of sources, but are you interested reconstructions of Ancient Rome, during those time periods, overlays, or more schematic information?
15th century Rome, from 1923. and a Zoom in. Would you be interested in maps like these but for Ancient Rome? Rome with no modern reconstructions?
Are you looking for something like this?
You may be interested in the Digital Augustan Rome project. It's a comprehensive mapping project that aims "to create a visual synopsis of what is known about the city of Rome c.A.D. 14."
There are ~350 areas of interest documented in the map and each one is well described and referenced. You have the ability to switch between the reconstructed map, terrain and satellite base layers which may help provide a modern context for the various sites of interest.
While different in its objectives, you may also find Rome Reborn of interest.
