One of the
most important buildings of the Palatine Hill, inaugurated in 28 BC with a
solemn ceremony
The
building was constructed entirely with white marble from Carrara and its doors
were covered with gold and ivory
It had a
portico of columns in yellow marble from Tunisia embellished with fifty statues
of the Danaides in black marble placed between the columns whereas the cult
statues of Apollo, Artemis and Leto (respectively by Scopas,
Timotheos and Kephisodotos)
were brought from Greece
In the base
of the statue of Apollo were kept in golden reliquaries the Sibylline Books
that Augustus wanted to move here from the Temple of Jupiter on Capitoline Hill
The nine Sibylline
Books, according to Roman tradition, contained the destiny of Rome and had
been offered to the king, Tarquin the Proud from a Sibyl at a price that the
king thought too high
The Sibyl
then burned three books and offered the remaining six but at the same previous
price and the king refused again
The Sibyl
then burned three more books and this time the king, on the advice of the
priests, bought the remaining three always at the same price
They were
kept in the Temple of Jupiter until the fire of 83 BC burned them
They were
rewritten from copies and put by Augustus in the Temple of Apollo
Now it
remains only the core of the podium in concrete (44 x 24 m - 145 x 79 feet)
Of the rich
marble decorations remain only a few fragments with religious and mythical
subjects connected with the cult of Apollo, part of the face and a foot of the
statue of Apollo and three herms in black marble representing the Danaides now
in the Palatine
Museum
Augustus
(27 BC/14) lived here for about 40 years from about 30 BC
He chose to
live on the Palatine Hill because that's where he was born, and because he
wanted to make a clear juxtaposition between his political image and that of
Romulus, who had founded the city and lived here
His
decision was followed by the other emperors who lived on the hill as well and
also extended the imperial seat, the PALATIUM, the palace par excellence
The house
consists of a series of rooms on two terraces
In the
lower terrace, the rooms excavated, built in square blocks of tufa, are based
on two files and huddled up in a massive concrete wall that was used to hold
the ground above
The house
was restored by Augustus after the fire of AD 3 and is divided into a PRIVATE
WING with some small, simple rooms and a PUBLIC WING, near the temple of
Apollo, with large and lavish rooms, stucco ceilings and marble floors
The house
was buried at the time of Nero (54/68) and replaced by a large rectangular
enclosure, within which were placed at least three major bases for colossal
statues and maybe a temple, probably a shrine of the imperial cult, the Aedes
Caesarum in Palatio
In the PRIVATE
WING there are two adjacent rooms:
The “Room of the Masks” maybe the bedroom of Augustus with a rich
architectural decoration inspired by the theater scenes with, in the center of
each wall, a representation of a rural sanctuary
The “Room of Festoons Pine” maybe Livia's bedroom, with a
decorative pattern consisting of pine garlands placed between the wooden
pillars of a porch located on a podium
In the PUBLIC
WING there is a decoration with paintings of more sophisticated
architectures:
The “Black-walled
Room” is divided into panels by pilasters in bright red and yellow bands at the
corners
In the “Western
Library” the decoration is divided into two parts: in the atrium large yellow
panels stand out on a red background and, on the inside, the red background is
limited by green and yellow bands
The rooms
defined by the numbers 8 and 9 have a decoration of a simple type
In the “Room of Perspective” is the representation of a
two-story building projected forward creating an effect of perspective
The following rooms are accessible to the
public:
“Ramp” that used to lead from the house to the temple
of Apollo with alternation between light and dark colors
Great “Pillared
Hall” with inlaid marble floors and vaulted stucco
Small “Square
Room” with inlaid marble floor and decorative painting on the walls divided
into purple panels open outwards
“Study of Augustus” very interesting for the variety and
sophistication of the paintings: the decorative scheme is the usual one,
consisting of the podium, ortostati (clay slabs leaning or hanging on a
wall for decoration) and upper area where the prevailing colors are red, yellow
and black
On the
ceiling there is a refined alternating of stucco and painted panels
Traces of
three huts, built on the tufa stone of the hill, discovered in 1907 and studied
in 1948
The huts
dated back to around the eighth century BC and are considered by the Roman
tradition the home of Romulus, the first king and the founder of Rome
The largest
hut was measuring 4.9 x 3.6 m (16 x 12 feet) and had seven holes along the
perimeter (three intermediate and four at the corners) corresponding to the
support poles. The door was on the short side to the south, preceded by a small
portico based on two poles
The sloping
roof was thatched with reeds, and the walls were covered with clay
At the
center there was a fireplace and on the outside a channel for rainwater
Several
structures built in peperino blocks and in opus latericium (concrete
covered with bricks) maybe part of multi-storey residential buildings
The Cataloghi
Regionari, a document of the beginning of the fourth century AD, reports
that in Rome there were 89 domus (houses) and 2742 insulae
(apartment blocks)
Rome was therefore
much more like modern Rome, made up of apartment buildings, than a city that
consisted mainly of villas like Pompeii
It has been
identified as the remains of the so-called fortification walls of the Palatine
Hill built in square and rectangular interlocking blocks, made out of gray tufa
from the quarries in Fidenae with carbonaceous fragments and of tufa from
Grotta Oscura
It is
maybe, however, just a terrace wall of the hill
One of the
ancient entrances to Palatine Hill
They were the
stairs that were climbed, according to Virgil, by Aeneas with King Evander
They derive
their name from the giant Cacus, foe of Hercules and consisted of alternating
steps and ramps located on the hillside by the side of the Circus Maximus
Temple
dedicated to the worship of the Great Mother Cybele introduced in 204 BC after
consulting the Sibylline Books
It was
venerated in Pessinus in Turkey under the appearance of an elongated conical
black stone, probably a meteorite
The statue
was brought to Rome and placed temporarily in the Temple of Victory on the
Palatine
The temple
was Corinthian and hexastyle on high stairs as well as prostyle, i.e. without
columns on the sides
The
construction ended in 191 BC and at the dedication on April 11 the Ludi
Megalensi (games in honor of the goddess) began for which Plautus and
Terence wrote some of their best works
The statue
of the goddess discovered near the temple is now in the Palatine
Museum
The current
base of the temple is certainly original. The restorations in opus
reticulatum (reticulated work) are subsequent to the fire in 111 BC and
some fragments of columns and pediment are subsequent to the fire of AD 3
On a marble
base there is a dedication to the Great Mother of Gods Idea “M(ater) D(eum)
M(agna) I(daea)”
Recent
excavations have identified, to the east of the temple, the foundations and the
remains of the podium of a temple identified as the TEMPLE OF VICTORY,
built in 294 BC by the consul Lucius Postumius Megello
