Talk:Agger (ancient Rome)

Latest comment: 1 year ago by Viator ab Eboraciensis in topic This article is confusing

Requested move

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The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Not moved. At least, not moved as requested: The user who requested the move subsequently moved the article to "Agger (ancient Rome)" thereby solving the issue. The original request would have been improper due to there being no WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. -- Hadal (talk) 08:05, 3 June 2011 (UTC)Reply



Agger (Roman word)Agger – It is not a Roman word, it is an English word which comes from Latin and is found in ordinary English dictionaries. The existing hatnote is sufficient for disambiguation. I was unable to make the move over the redirect. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 16:36, 27 May 2011 (UTC)Reply

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

This article is confusing

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The bulk of the article is about some sort of road embankment but then the photograph and the 'well-known example' of the wall of Servius are clearly defensive structures, nothing to do with roads. I looked up the agger of Ardea in Google Maps (which has nice 3D coverage and a street view photos) and it's atop a rather tall promontory and clearly not a road foundation. I looked up Ardea in the Oxford Classical Dictionary and it mentions 'its elaborate defences', and in the entry for the wall of Servius:

"The most detailed sources (esp. Strab. 5. 3. 7, p. 234 C) tell us that Servius Tullius fortified the vulnerable section between the Viminal and the Esquiline with a large earthwork. This is a clear reference to the so-called agger, the remains of which certainly date from the archaic period, perhaps from the 6th cent ... The agger is a typical promontory defence, as at Ardea."

The only other mention of an 'agger' in the OCD is in the article for Larinum which states:

"Later, in the 7th or 6th century bce, a defensive earthwork agger and fossa may have been built at the site."

So what is it? A road embankment or an ancient defensive work? This article is a bit confusing.Victoriosissimus (talk) 17:21, 9 September 2019 (UTC)Reply

It can be either - in the Roman period the word was used more commonly for raised defensive structures, but in modern usage it is most often used in archaeology to describe the mound of a Roman road. The article has been re-written and is hopefully a bit clearer. Viator ab Eboraciensis (talk) 21:59, 4 March 2023 (UTC)Reply