Translating the Notitia Regionum XIV (or how to fail at being a lazy historian)
I’m introducing students to the Forma Urbis Romae (aka the Severan Roman Plan) and the Notitia Regionum XIV (Notitia of the 14 Regions). I feel old when I realise I made my own copies of these more than 20 years ago. I also probably haven’t looked at them for that long as well. The opening of a new museum in Rome devoted to the Marble Plan was my inspiration. Sure, I can’t safely travel to see it, but maybe I can make sure some students include it in future itineraries.
As is often the case, I had started preparing with the intention to be lazy. I saw that Roger Pearse had posted a translation online, so I copied and pasted it and then typed out the Latin from my 20+ year old photocopy of Jordan’s 1871 edition in Topographie der Stadt Rom im Alterthum which I had gotten via inter-library loan maybe in 2002/3. It’s now available online. Both the Latin text and the digitised book. (I don’t know that students realise how much easier they have. I am also aware that my professors probably said the same of me 20+ years ago too). As I compared the Latin to the translation as I typed, I realised that I had significant problems with this translation. I am not trying to throw shade at Pearse’s work, but it became obvious that this translation was the work of a Latinist with little understanding of the topography of Rome, and his translation was not of the Notitia, but an amalgamation of it and it’s slightly later textual sibling, the Curiosum Urbis Regionum XIV. This translation was not fit for my purpose. Well, there went my lazy intentions out the window. I needed to, well, mostly retranslate the whole thing. “It’s just a series of lists - it can’t be that time consuming.” Famous last words.
Some of my issues included how certain terms should be translated. I will outline some below here.
Vicus: while vicus can mean a “street”, it can also mean so much more than this. Some have even suggested “ward.” I have again chosen not to translate this, as a vicus is more than a street, but a council ward is just too anachronistic. In addition to the “regions” of Rome, the city was further broken down into neighbourhoods which were organised around small local shrines (compita) devoted to the neighbourhood’s Lares (local minor deities). These vici existed in Republican times and had become politically inconvenient during the Republic’s last century, so when Augustus rearranged the regions of Rome, he set up a new way to organise and to some extent exert control over them. Looking at the Notitia, I know that these neighbourhoods were meant, not streets, because their numbers exactly matched the number of shrines (aediculae) in the list. I think it is interesting that the author called them aediculae instead of compita. There used to be an annual festival devoted to these shrines after Saturnalia called the Compitalia. I do wonder whether the choice of terminology means that the Compitalia was no longer celebrated. *No, Yvette, do not chase this research rabbit down a rabbit hole!* When Augustus’ reforms took place, each vicus and compitum had two responsible magistrates (vicomagistri) responsible, but by the time the Notitia was written each Region had a set number of 48, which suggests that the magistrates were removed from their assigned vici by the time it was written. This separation had to at least post date 136 CE, because an inscription (CIL VI.975) outlines vici (some or all, the numbers don’t always match those recorded in the Notitia) and their vicomagistri for regions I, X, XII, XIII, and XIV. *I had already looked at this so this doesn’t count as a rabbit hole.*
Insula: While the Latin word insula can be read as a “tenement, appartments block” or as Pearse chose “block of flats”, topographical research conducted Glenn R. Storey (2002) makes a compelling argument that this should be read as a residential or architectural unit. This understanding of insula completely changes our understanding of this text, and as a result, I chose to leave insulae untranslated throughout as an acknowledgement that this term is open to interpretation. While I find Storey’s argument compelling, it is still just a theory.
Lacus: well, a lacus is meant to be a cistern (or a basin), but some of the features in the Notitia called laci are described elsewhere as fountains, so sometimes I leave this word untranslated or hedge my bets.
Pistrinum: I also hedge my bets with this one. While they are most likely bakeries, a pistor can also be a “miller”. When we look at bakeries and representations of bakeries (a famous example is from the Tomb of Eurysaches the baker), many bakeries milled their own grain. However, it is odd that the Notitia includes in Region XIV the molina, public mills which were powered by water (I had no idea that water-powered mills went back this far, and yes I have stopped myself from investigating the history of water-powered mills) powered by water from the Aqua Traiana. So, on reflection, maybe bakeries had stopped grinding their own grain by the early fourth century. Given that by this time the public food donation was being given as bread instead of grain to prevent hoarding, maybe the state was providing flour to the bakeries instead of grain. Not having donkeys or horses beside you as knead bread just seems like a win to my modern food standards.
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| Close up of the frieze on the tomb of Eurysaches the baker, taken in 2003. |
Horti: while hortus most commonly means “garden,” this translation does not always fit for the Notitia. I have been reading about the “gardens of Maecenas,” which oddly are not included in the catalogue, for years and had been assuming that this was an open public space given as act of a euergatism. Shame on me for my modern understanding of botanical gardens making me biased. When I looked at Richardson’s 1992 New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome entry for Horti Sallustiani, much was made of the archaeological remains, so when I looked up horti (p. 112) it was a villa-style house within or close to the city. For that reason, those horti about which this can be determined I have translated as “estate”.
Area: while this might denote a park, it’s more an open space (perhaps a square). If I weren’t so sick of this whole thing, I would go “space or square” and remove “park” altogether.
Pearse’s translation is problematic because he just hasn’t understood what the text is trying to say, but for the most part it is still technically correct. A prime example, and my favourite, is his translation of malum punicum as “the wicked Carthaginian”. This is a correct Latin translation. But it can also mean “pomegranate” which was literally called the Punic Apple. I’m not sure what it says that the Latin noun for “apple” is the same as the adjective for “bad,” but the idea of an area of Rome being called “the wicked Carthaginian” just amuses me. Topographical studies assign this as “Pomegranate,” and likely is named for something related to the fruit, likely some form of public art. To avoid the same errors that Pearse made, I spent considerable time looking at works devoted to the topography of Rome and specialist papers and books discussing Rome’s urban development and administration. I have given the details for the most useful in the bibliography below, but this isn’t an exhaustive list. I am indeed a failure at being lazy sometimes.
My translation, which I must warn likely is not perfect, can be found here. Pace Roger Pearse. Your work has been very helpful to me in the past and I appreciate it.
Bibliography
Flower, Harriet I. The Dancing Lares and the Seroent in the Garden: Religion Street Corner, 2017. Princeton University Press. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/56277.
Platner, Samuel Ball and Thomas Ashby. A Topographical Dictionary of Rome, 1929. Oxford University Press. This is accessible both through Perseus Project and Lacus Curtius.
Storey, Glenn R. “Regionaries-Type Insulae 2: Architectural/Resident Units at Rome,” American Journal of Archaeology, July, 2002, vol. 106, no. 3, pp. 411-434 (Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4126281)
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