Crolli e ricostruzioni nelle Mura Aureliane di Roma

Collapses and Reconstructions in the Aurelian Walls of Rome The factors that led to the collapse of the towers and the curtains of the Aurelian Walls in Rome are different from each other and it is not always possible to reconstruct them today. There are many possible causes of collapse of the walls: material degradation, disconnections due to the growth of vegetation, changes in urban contexts and the occurrence of events of different nature, such as floods of the Tiber, lightnings, but also impetuous winds can trigger dangerous phenomena if the structures are not solid. The main purpose of this article is to create some hypotheses by observing the remains of the ancient city walls and by verifying the biblio- graphical sources to outline the degradation of the building during the centuries and to understand what happened in their context, in order to identify some possible causes. The collapses that took place during their history have made it possible to deepen the knowledge of the materials used in the structural core and to highlight some prerogatives of the third and fifth century construction sites, the two main phases of construction of the walls.