What is the location of Roma quadrata?
Roma quadrata was located on the Palatine Hill above the Tiber River in ancient Rome. This area covers roughly 25 hectares of elevated ground including the Palatium and Cermalus peaks.
Roma quadrata was located on the Palatine Hill above the Tiber River in ancient Rome. This area covers roughly 25 hectares of elevated ground including the Palatium and Cermalus peaks.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus wrote about the structure in his work Roman Antiquities during the second book chapter sixty-five. Plutarch recorded details in Parallel Lives under the section titled Romulus chapter nine while Tacitus mentioned the site in Annals chapter twelve paragraph twenty-four.
Andrea Carandini led digs at the Cermalus peak between 1975 and 2006. His team uncovered remains of small circular huts dating back to 775 BC which measured only three meters across each one.
By the late Roman Republic period around the second century BC historians could no longer explain the term clearly. Latin and Greek scholars debated whether it referred to a physical square or a ritual boundary because descriptions vary significantly from one another yet agree on its central importance.
Carbon dating confirmed organic material found within the hut floors belonged to that era. These structures sat directly on the slope where legend places Romulus's first settlement and likely formed a simple earthwork barrier known as the Murus Romuli.