Sacralità e inviolabilità del pomerium dai Gracchi a Silla: una nuova prospettiva

Osvaldo Varieschi

Abstract:

Some obscure aspects of the configuration of the pomerium have long led scholars to set aside further analysis of the meaning of this boundary.
Some interesting ideas emerge when the debate on the physiognomy of the pomerium becomes a necessary preamble to a precise choice of method, aimed at highlighting, through an anthropological point of view, the importance that the Romans attributed to this boundary.
In this work we will see how, starting from 133 B.C., violence gradually entered in the city, changing the perception of the sacred border in Rome, up to its actual violation with weapons and a transformation in the value of the pomerium.
The loss of a perspective of sacrality about the pomerium, previously shared at all levels of society, will be revealed as a key factor in the fall of a form of government that had stood for nearly five hundred years.