Regia

The historical tradition

The Regia according to its name would be in the beginning a royal residence (of rex, governed , king in Latin). The tradition locates its date of construction under Numa Pompilius, which made there arrange the crowned Boucliers ( ancilia ).

At the time of the Roman Monarchy, the Regia was the official residence of the king, distinct from his private dwelling (Servius Tullius and Tarquin Superb the lived on the Esquilin).

It became under the Roman République the residence of the Rex sacrorum , king symbolic system for the religious ceremonies, and the meeting room of the Pontife S and the major Flamine S. One preserved at it the files of the pontiffs, of which the consular and triumphal Fastes.

The contribution of archeology

The excavations carried out at the 20th century on this site identified several layers of constructions. On the basis of deepest, therefore older level, one reconstitutes the following chronology:

of the remainders of eleven huts dated from the VIII {{E}} and from first half of the VII E, close to tombs of child in old bottom (the burials of children were tolerated inside the Pomœrium ). Towards 625, these huts are destroyed what makes it possible to arrange the ground and to install a furnace bridge in Cippe with an enclosure.
a little later is built first Regia, building with a base in blocks of Tuf, raw brick walls and a cover in tiles. Its two parts are preceded by a gantry opening on a court in trapezoid. This building was destroyed by a fire.
a construction towards 580, with polychrome terra cotta decorations: antéfixes with Gorgone, painted planks of coating, with in particular the drawing of an armed rider. This building was also destroyed by a fire.
a construction dated from the third quarter of the VI E (towards 550/525). The building is moved and reorganized in a succession of three parts on the east coast of the court. It is decorated with architectural terra cotta of ionic style.
at the end of the Life century, therefore at the beginning of the Roman Republic, Regia is completely rebuilt for the Rex sacrorum , with three parts on the southern part, and others in north with a gantry
a rebuilding of the end of the III E.
a marble rebuilding, gone back to -36 under Auguste

Archeology thus notes a construction under the Roman Monarchie, but roughly locates it at the end of the reign of Ancus Marcius or at the beginning of that of Tarquin Old the, according to the traditional chronology.

Among the objects collected in the excavations of Regia, a fragment of a great black cut of Etruscan style and beautiful quality (Bucchero) carried on the bottom inscription REX engraved in 2 height cm letters. According to the antiquated shape of the E and the resemblance of the R to a Greek rho found in Syracuse, Mr. Guarducci dates the cut between -530 and -510. According to F.E. Brown ( News soundings in the Regia , 1966), it would date from the beginning of the republic and could have belonged to the rex sacrorum . Other archeologists more roughly date it from second half of the Life century, which leaves uncertainty on its use between an Etruscan king and a rex sacrorum .

Sources

Massimo Pallotino and Giovanni Colonna, Birth of Rome, catalogs exposure to the Petit Palais in Paris, 1977
Joachim Losehand, Häuser für die Herrscher Roms und Athens? Überlegungen zu Funktion und Bedeutung von Gebäude F auf der Athener Agora und der Regia auf dem Romanum Forum, 2007.

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