THE FRESCOES AND THE FLOOR LEVELS

IN ADDITION TO THE major remodelings carried out during the course of the seventeenth century (see Chapter 18), there are several medieval architectural and decorative phases that deserve consideration – not only because they help us understand the original appearance of the great hall and of the rotunda, but also for their liturgical and ideological implications.

Since the middle of the ninth century, the imperial forums began to be occupied by houses. Yet, the Templum Pacis was used in part as a dumping ground for slaughter remains and in part for agricultural purposes, with huge fillings of earth retained by walls mostly built with ancient architectural elements from the Templum Pacis itself, including a few fragments of the Forma Urbis. This use of the site continued until the seventeenth century, when the area was finally urbanized (cfr. Chapter 17.1). In the meantime, outside the Basilica of SS. Cosma e Damiano, the ground level became higher not somuch before themain entrance opening onto the Via Sacra, but along the Clivus and in the hall of the Forma Urbis.

During the course of the Middle Ages, the floor of the basilica was raised 113 cm; this modification goes with some interventions of great importance but is too often overlooked. Around 1880, the floor of the rotunda was lowered to its original level with the supervision of Lanciani, destroying all the evidence; there are no reports about any intermediate layers, and we do not even know what the higher floor looked like before Lanciani's restoration (cfr. Fig. 334, bottom). According to Biasiotti and Whitehead, between the seventh and eighth centuries, the floor of the rotunda was at +41 cm above the original (lost) floor, as suggested by the base of the marble monument on the left-hand side of the passageway to the lower basilica. Eventually, toward the middle of the twelfth century, there would have been a final raising, after which the floor reached +110 cm (in fact, +113 cm) above the original level, as in the lower basilica. However, this sequence can be easily dismissed (more on this later in the chapter.).