THE URBAN SET OF THE PANTHEON AND THE MAUSOLEUM OF AUGUSTUS IN ROME, BETWEEN ARCHITECTURAL AND ASTRONOMICAL SYMBOLISM

Abstract

Until 1995, it was thought that the Pantheon of Augustus had the entrance on the south side in contrast to that of the next scheduled time of Hadrian, which has placed it in the north. The archaeological excavation executed by the Sovrintendenza Capitolina di Roma, under the supervision of P. Virgili, during 1995-97, have shown that the Pantheon of Augustus had almost the same plan that Hadrian had rebuilt later and that we can see today. Even the surveys, conducted during 2007-2009 on the Mausoleum of Augustus, inside and on the forecourt, allowed to advance new hypotheses about the ground plan of the monument and its rearrangement made by a successor of Augustus. In 1990, N. Lanciano published a reading of the Hadrian’s Pantheon as a solar calendar that use the light entering from the oculus and scans the interior space, at solar noon, on Equinoxes and Solstices days, in addition to the April 21 birthday of Rome. These researches show the two buildings, Pantheon and Augustus’ Mausoleum, have more formal and symbolic links than was supposed. With atten tion to contemporary written sources, issues arise: the orientation of the axes of the buildings and their distance; the organization of the squares on which they open; the geometry of the inner dome and hall of the Pantheon. The urban complex of Augustus includes also the monumental sundial, mentioned by Plinius and partially excavated by Buchner in 1979, and the Ara Pacis location and its function: the most recent researches lead to exclude some hypotheses still present in articles and in the web. In the modern reuse (1990) this obelisk is a gnomon in the above horizontal sundial.