Friday, September 20, 2013

AUDITORIUM OF MAECENAS

AUDITORIUM DI MECENATE
End of the first century BC. It was discovered in 1874
Vestibule and rectangular hall with an apse, erroneously considered an auditorium
It was perhaps a summer nympheum-triclinium, a sort of fresh room with a fountain to be used in the hot summer months, as part of the complex of the HORTI MAECENATIANI belonging to Maecenas (68/8 BC), adviser of Augustus
Wealthy supporter of intellectuals and poets, including Horace, Virgil and Propertius. Dio Cassius reports that he invented a system of shorthand
The Auditorium was built in opus reticulatum on the inner embankment of the Servian Wall
"Mosaic floor" in white tiles on which a marble floor was superimposed
Remains of painted decoration with "Landscapes and Gardens" of the first century AD in the third style similar to those of the Villa ad Gallinas Albas now in Palazzo Massimo

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