Rome away from home? Changing views of the Tiber's opposite bank

Abstract

Ancient Rome was a complicated place. Cluttered, noisy and unplanned, it was the exact opposite of the grid-plan ideal Romans favoured in their provinces. This all changed in 64 AD, though, when, as Nero fiddled, much of Rome burned down. This enabled the capital to be reordered and regularised. However, one district escaped all that. Transtiberim (meaning 'across the river') was the only part of Rome on the other side of the river, and, spared from the destruction, it evolved in a very different, more chaotic way to the rest of the city. My poster illustrates how, both part of and apart from the ancient metropolis, this understudied region went from bucolic idyll to criminal hotbed; from home of the Senatorial elite to centre for diaspora communities and the destitute. Here, at the epicentre of classical civilisation, we find therefore an all too recognisable tale of urban development and decline.