<Article>“Cernes urbem et promissa Lavini moenia.” City Walls as a Symbol of the City in Imperial Rome（Latin West）

Abstract

The city walls were distinctive and monumental building objects throughout Greek - Roman antiquity, which, in addition to their practical defensive function, implied several layers of meanings. Based on the historical interpretation of literary references, artistic objects, decoration, architectural disposition I argue, it is possible to identify these meanings as they were perceived during the period of Imperial Rome in the first five centuries AD. Various kinds of historical sources indicate that the walls in the socio-cultural environment of Imperial Rome represented the city as such. They symbolized its safety, culture, order, beauty, sanctity, wealth, monumentality, and civilizational superiority. In this study, the most expressive cases in the literature, art and architecture of the walls will be analyzed, leading to an understanding of the cultural perception of monumental defensive architecture in the first five centuries of the Roman Empire in the Imperial period, with an emphasis on the Latin West.