Aventine Hill

For other uses, see Aventinus (disambiguation) and Maior, and the part of Regio XII known as Aventinus
Aventine Renewable Energy.
Minor.[2]
The Aventine Hill is one of the seven hills on which
Tiber River
(Tiberis)

2 Etymology and mythology

Vatican

Quirinal Hill
(Collis Quirinalis)

Most Roman sources trace the name of the hill to a legendary king Aventinus. Servius identies two kings of
that name, one ancient Italic, and one Alban, both said to
have been buried on the hill in remote antiquity. The hill,
he says, was named after the rst, Italic Aventinus or after
the birds (aves) of ill omen that rising from the Tiber
nested there. The Alban king would have been named after the hill. He cites and rejects Varros proposition that
the Sabines named the hill after the nearby Aventus river;
likewise, he believes, the Aventinus fathered by Hercules
on Rhea Silvia was likely named after the Aventine hill,
not vice versa.[3]

Viminal Hill
(Collis Viminalis)

Field of Mars
(Campus Martius)

Capitoline Hill
(Collis Capitolinus)
Tiber Island
(Insula Tiberina)

Palatine Hill
(Collis Palatinus)

Aventine Hill
(Collis Aventinus)

Esquiline Hill
(Collis Esquilinus)

Caelian Hill
(Collis Caelius)

Servian Wall
(Murus Servii Tullii)

The Aventine was a signicant site in Roman mythology.

In Virgil's Aeneid, a cave on the Aventines rocky slope
Schematic map of Rome showing the seven hills and Servian next the river is home to the monstrous Cacus, killed by
Wall.
Hercules for stealing Geryons cattle.[4] In Romes founding myth, the divinely fathered twins Romulus and Remus
ancient Rome was built. It belongs to Ripa, the twelfth hold a contest of augury, whose outcome determines the
rione, or ward, of Rome.
right to found, name and lead a new city, and to determine its site. In most versions of the story, Remus sets
up his augural tent on the Aventine; Romulus sets his up
on the Palatine.[5]
Each sees a number of auspicious birds (aves) that signify
divine approval but Remus sees fewer than Romulus. Romulus goes on to found the city of Rome at the site of his
successful augury. An earlier variant, found in Ennius
and some later sources, has Romulus perform his augury
on one of the Aventine hills. Remus performs his elsewhere, perhaps on the southeastern height, the lesser of
the Aventines two hills, which has been tentatively identied with Ennius Mons Murcus.[6]

Aventine Hill panorama

Location and boundaries

The Aventine hill (in Latin, Collis Aventinus) is the southernmost of Romes seven hills. It comprises two distinct
heights, one greater to the northwest and one lesser to the
southeast, divided by a steep cleft that provides the base
for an ancient roadway between the heights. During the
Republican era the two hills may have been recognized as
a single entity.[1]

Skutsch (1961) regards Ennius variant as the most likely,

with Romuluss Palatine augury as a later development,
after common usage had extended the Aventines name
formerly used for only the greater, northeastern height
to include its lesser neighbour. Augural rules and the
mythos itself required that each twin take his auspices at
a dierent place; therefore Romulus, who won the contest and founded the city, was repositioned to the more
fortunate Palatine, the traditional site of Romes foundation. The less fortunate Remus, who lost not only the contest but later, his life, remained on the Aventine: Servius

The Augustan reforms of Romes urban neighbourhoods

(vici) recognised the ancient road between the two heights
(the modern Viale Aventino) as a common boundary between the new Regio XIII, which absorbed Aventinus
1

5 SEE ALSO

notes the Aventines reputation as a haunt of inauspicious 3.2

birds.[7][8]

3
3.1

Modern

History
Roman

According to Roman tradition, the Aventine was not included within Romes original foundation, and lay outside
the citys ancient sacred boundary (pomerium). The Roman historian Livy reports that Ancus Marcius, Romes
fourth king, defeated the Latins of Politorium, and resettled them there.[9] The Roman geographer Strabo credits
Ancus with the building of a city wall to incorporate the
Aventine.[10] Others credit the same wall to Romes sixth
king, Servius Tullius. The remains known as the Servian
Wall used stone quarried at Veii, which was not conquered by Rome until c.393 BC, so the Aventine might
have been part-walled, or an extramural suburb.

Basilica Santa Sabina

During the Fascist period, many deputies of the opposition retired on this hill after the murder of Giacomo Matteotti, here ending - by the so-called extquotedblAventine
Secession extquotedbl - their presence at the Parliament
The Aventine appears to have functioned as some kind of
and, as a consequence, their political activity.
staging post for the legitimate ingress of foreign peoples
and foreign cults into the Roman ambit. During the late The hill is now an elegant residential part of Rome
regal era, Servius Tullius built a temple to Diana on the with a wealth of architectural interest, including palaces,
Aventine, as a Roman focus for the new-founded Latin churches, and gardens, for example, the basilica of Santa
League. The Aventines outlying position, its longstand- Sabina and the Rome Rose Garden.
ing association with Latins and plebeians and its extrapomerial position reect its early marginal status. At
some time around 493 BC, soon after the expulsion of 4 Popular culture references
Romes last King and the establishment of the Roman
Republic, the Roman senate provided a temple for the soThe Aventine Hill is portrayed as a rough working-class
called Aventine Triad of Ceres, Liber and Libera, patron
area of ancient Rome in the popular Falco series of
deities of the Roman commoners or plebs; the dedication
historical novels written by Lindsey Davis about Marcus
followed one of the rst in a long series of threatened or
Didius Falco, a 'private informer' who occasionally works
actual plebeian secessions. The temple overlooked the
for the Emperor Vespasian and lives in the Aventine.
Circus Maximus and the Temple of Vesta, and faced the
Palatine Hill. It became an important repository for ple- The same image is portrayed in much of the series Rome,
in which the Aventine is the home of Lucius Vorenus. In
beian and senatorial records.[11]
season two, Vorenus and his friend legionary Titus Pullo
It is presumed that the Aventine was state-owned public
seek to maintain order over the various collegia competland; in c.456 BC a Lex Icilia allowed or granted the plebs
ing there for power.
property rights there. By c.391 BC, the citys overspill
had overtaken the Aventine and the Campus Martius, and
left the city vulnerable to attack; around that year, the
Gauls overran and temporarily held the city. After this, 5 See also
the walls were rebuilt or extended to properly incorporate the Aventine; this is more or less coincident with Seven hills:
the increasing power and inuence of the Aventine-based
plebeian aediles and tribunes in Roman public aairs, and
Seven hills of Rome
the rise of a plebeian nobility.[12]
Caelian Hill (Celio)
Rome absorbed many more foreign deities via the Aventine: No other location approaches [its] concentration of
Capitoline Hill (Capitolino)
foreign cults. In 392 BC, Camillus established a temple there to Juno Regina. Later introductions include
Esquiline Hill (Esquilino)
Summanus, c. 278, Vortumnus c. 264, and at some time
before the end of the 3rd century, Minerva.[13]
Palatine Hill (Palatino)

3
Quirinal Hill (Quirinale)
Viminal Hill (Viminale)
Other Roman hills:
Janiculum Hill (Gianicolo)
Monte Mario
Cispian Hill (Cispio)
Oppian Hill (Oppio)
Pincian Hill (Pincio)
Vatican Hill (Vaticano)
Velian Hill (Velia)

References

[1] Lawrence Richardson, A new topographical dictionary of

ancient Rome, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992, p.47
googlebooks preview. Richardson asserts the single identity of the two heights as Aventine during the Republican era as commonly accepted in modern scholarship. O.
Skutsch, Enniana IV: Condendae urbis auspicia, The
Classical Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Nov.,
1961), pp. 252-267, argues that they were originally considered and named as separate hills: the Aventine was the
northwestern height only, and the slightly lower southeastern height was Mons Murca.
[2] Lawrence Richardson, A new topographical dictionary of
ancient Rome, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992, p.47
googlebooks preview. Richardson asserts the single identity of the two heights as Aventine during the Republican era as commonly accepted in modern scholarship. O.
Skutsch, Enniana IV: Condendae urbis auspicia, The
Classical Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Nov.,
1961), pp. 252-267, argues that they were originally considered and named as separate hills: the Aventine was the
northwestern height only, and the slightly lower southeastern height was Mons Murca.
[3] Maurus Servius Honoratus, Commentary on the Aeneid
of Vergil, 7. 657.
[4] Brills New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World.
Cacus, 2002. Retrieved on May 4, 2007.
[5] For discussion of Remus in Roman founder-myth, see
T.P. Wiseman, Remus: a Roman myth, Cambridge University Press, 1995, p.7 . For discussion of Ennius much
copied, corrupted and problematic text, and particularly
his Mons Murca as the lesser Aventine hill, see O. Skutsch,
Enniana IV: Condendae urbis auspicia, The Classical
Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Nov., 1961), pp.
255-259.

[6] For discussion of Remus in Roman founder-myth, see

T.P. Wiseman, Remus: a Roman myth, Cambridge University Press, 1995, p.7 . For discussion of Ennius much
copied, corrupted and problematic text, and particularly
his Mons Murca as the lesser Aventine hill, see O. Skutsch,
Enniana IV: Condendae urbis auspicia, The Classical
Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Nov., 1961), pp.
255-259.
[7] Otto Skutsch, Enniana IV: Condendae urbis auspicia,
The Classical Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Nov.,
1961), pp. 252-267.
[8] Maurus Servius Honoratus, Commentary on the Aeneid
of Vergil, 7. 657.
[9] Livy, Ab urbe condita, 1.33.
[10] Strabo. Geography, November 6, 2006. Retrieved on
May 8, 2007.
[11] Cornell, T., The beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from
the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c.1000264 BC), Routledge, 1995, p. 264.
[12] Carter, Jesse Benedict. The Evolution of the City of
Rome from Its Origin to the Gallic Catastrophe extquotedbl], Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society,
September 2, 1909, pp. 132 - 140. googlebooks preview
(link updated 27 November 2010).
[13] Orlin, Eric M., Foreign Cults in Republican Rome: Rethinking the Pomerial Rule, Memoirs of the American
Academy in Rome, Vol. 47 (2002), pp. 4-5. For Camillus
and Juno, see Stephen Benko, The virgin goddess: studies in the pagan and Christian roots of mariology, BRILL,
2004, p.27.

Coordinates: 4153N 1229E / 41.883N 12.483E

7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

Text

Aventine Hill Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aventine_Hill?oldid=606996496 Contributors: AxelBoldt, Andre Engels, Gianfranco,

Michael Hardy, Paul Barlow, Ellywa, , Reddi, Robbot, Mervyn, GreatWhiteNortherner, Snowdog, Broux, Naufana, Kb3edk,
Infocidal, Cmapm, Deror avi, Palica, DePiep, FlaBot, M7bot, Roboto de Ajvol, YurikBot, Brandmeister (old), RussBot, Briaboru,
Wknight94, Italian boy, Attilios, SmackBot, Momirt, Sadads, Drphilharmonic, SashatoBot, Luiclemens, Frokor, Korovio, Neddyseagoon, Alessandro57, Joseph Solis in Australia, Thijs!bot, James086, Igorwindsor, .anacondabot, The Anomebot2, Just H, Pax:Vobiscum,
R'n'B, Nev1, Lt. penguin, Stratfordonguy, 83d40m, TXiKiBoT, Ask123, Broadbot, SieBot, Philipsteven, France3470, MoulinChokshi,
NGupta07, ClueBot, IceUnshattered, TIY, Jusdafax, Estirabot, Nukeless, Addbot, Tcncv, Favonian, Numbo3-bot, Lightbot, Luckas-bot,
Yobot, ArthurBot, Xqbot, TechBot, Locobot, Shadowjams, Haploidavey, RedBot, Urg writer, TjBot, EmausBot, TyA, ClueBot NG, Chester
Markel, Frietjes, Haymouse, Dnalor 01, Ghs7h, Abhimore23 and Anonymous: 39

7.2

Images

File:Aventine_Hill_panorama.JPG Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Aventine_Hill_panorama.JPG License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist:
File:Rom,_Basilika_Santa_Sabina,_Auenansicht.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Rom%2C_
Basilika_Santa_Sabina%2C_Au%C3%9Fenansicht.jpg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Dnalor 01
File:SPQRomani.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/SPQRomani.svg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work Original artist: Piotr Micha Jaworski (<a href='//pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedysta:Piom' class='extiw' title='pl:
Wikipedysta:Piom'>PioM</a> EN DE PL)
File:Seven_Hills_of_Rome.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Seven_Hills_of_Rome.svg License: CCBY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 Contributors: Self-made using Inkscape. Based on a map by Orangeowl from German Wikipedia (File:Die sieben
Hgel Roms de.png). Original artist: Renata3

7.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0