Framing public life: The portico in Roman Gaul (France).

摘要

This dissertation examines an important aspect of provincial Romanization in the three Gallic provinces of Narbonensis, Lugdunensis, and Aquitania, primarily between the dates of 100 BCE and 275 CE. By focusing on the colonnade as it was installed and maintained, I seek to understand how intersubjective identities were shaped and sustained by a pervasive architectural form. The intercolumnar space provided a repeating framework for the activities of daily life, not only in cities but also in rural sanctuaries. As the foundation for this project, I have assembled a catalogue of 193 Gallic porticoes and submitted them to typological, chronological and topographical analysis. Adopting a phenomenological perspective, I seek to restore an understanding of the portico as a space that was encountered simultaneously on physical, symbolic and ideological levels. I summarize textual references to colonnades in ancient literature with an eye toward extracting patterns of Roman understanding of the space: in their praise of moral public figures, and their condemnation of those who flouted accepted social standards, writers feature the portico as a moralizing framework that alternately put public worth on display for all or that sheltered the unsavory activities of the corrupt. Visual materials also bear on the discussion, and Gallic ceramics, mosaics and funerary monuments that depict columnar architecture are brought in as evidence for the interpretive responses to actual porticoes on the part of the Gauls. The analysis of the Gallic porticoes themselves divides into a discussion of forum complexes as the implements of imperial policy, of sanctuary porticoes as local adoptions of an imperial form that put worshippers into new relationships with deity, and of non-forum urban plazas given housing economic or religious activities. Finally, I conclude with a brief assessment of portico architecture from other western provinces, including Gallia Belgica, the Hispaniae and Africa Proconsularis.