Dal trionfo pagano all’adventus cristiano: percorsi della Roma Imperiale

Abstract

During the most part of the imperial period the itinerary of the roman triumph passes over the via Lata, then to the south and to the east of the Palatine, crosses the Roman Forum and reach the Capitolium. After Constantine the target of the procession is not more religious – the Temple of Jupiter – but civil: the Curia and the Rostra. The lack of religious dimension, on the other hand, requires to be filled: gradually the imperial visit to the basilica of S. Peter in the Vatican acquires more and more importance. Honorius is the first emperor for whom a pilgrimage to the basilica is surely attested in 403. Since the visit of the king Theodoric (500) the ancient triumphal procession along the via Lata has lost his importance in favour of the itinerary between S. Peter’s and the Roman Forum, starting from the basilica. The same ritual will remain alive also with the visits of Charlemagne in 774 and in 800.