Head of a statue menhir in Tuscany’s Lunigiana The pomerium cippus can now be admired in the Sala Paladino of the Ara Pacis Museum, where the cast of the statue of emperor Claudius is also on display. Under Claudius, the fourth Roman emperor who ruled from 41 to 54 AD, the Empire underwent its first major expansion since the reign of Augustus. He also extended Rome’s city limits to incorporate the Aventine Hill, one of Rome’s seven hills.Īccording to legend, Romulus, the founder and first king of Rome, created the city’s first pomerium - and killed his brother Remus when Remus jumped over the ‘border’ in defiance to prove the walls were inadequate against invaders. The discovery was even more exceptional because only ten other boundary stones from the time of Claudius have been found over time and the most recent was discovered more than 100 years ago, in 1909. ![]() The inscription says that Claudius “extended and redefined the pomerium because he had increased the boundaries of the Roman people.” The stone was one of around 140 installed by Claudius to mark Rome’s pomerium, the sacred limit that separated the city ( urbs) from external territory ( ager) inside the pomerium, construction, farming and fighting were banned. Thanks to the inscription, the stone can be traced back to 49 AD, when the emperor Claudius redrew and expanded the city’s outer limits. Rare 2,000-year-old boundary stone in Rome A rare pomerium cippus found near the Mausoleum of Augustus is now on display at the Ara Pacis Museum.Ī rare pomerium cippus, an engraved travertine stone used to mark the outer limits of ancient Rome, resurfaced in the summer of 2021 during redevelopment work in Piazza Augusto Imperatore, where the Mausoleum of Augustus is located. Read on for the most significant archaeological discoveries of 2021 in Italy. ![]() ![]() We have selected a few that particularly stood out, from a statue menhir found in Tuscany to an ancient Roman boundary stone, to the never-ending discoveries that continue to amaze archaeologists at Pompeii, where excavation work is ongoing at Pompeii's overshadowed neighbor, Herculaneum, two-and-a-half year excavations at the ancient beach have revealed the remains of a man trying to escape the destructive Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD. 2021 was an exciting ‘archeological year’ in Italy, with many finds that helped shed light on the country’s ancient history.
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