Built for Domitian (81/96) between 81 and 96 by the architect Rabirius, occupying the whole central part of the Palatine Hill
It was
built entirely in concrete covered with bricks and fronted on the west side by
a colonnade of cipolin marble, later replaced by brick pillars, which also had
to continue on the north side where the main entrance was
It was the
public and representative wing of the Imperial Palace, the private wing was the
Domus
Augustana
Three
series of rooms arranged on three sides of a rectangular peristyle, surrounded
by a portico with columns of Numidian marble and with a central octagonal
fountain
At the
center of the north side there is a huge room known as AULA REGIA (royal hall) where the emperor, seated on a
throne in the semicircular apse at the opposite side of the entrance, used to
receive and give audience
The room
(30.5 x 38.7 m - 100 x 127 feet) had also marble columns covered with colored
marble and with niches for statues
The roof
was probably slanted (i.e. inclined towards the outside, sending rain water
toward the outer walls) with wooden coffered ceiling
On the
sides of the Aula Regia there were two smaller rooms:
The west
one known as BASILICA, built on the former Aula Isiaca (House of Isis),
rectangular, with apse and divided into three naves by a double row of columns
in yellow marble from Tunisia and maybe an auditorium for meetings of the
Imperial Board
The one on
the east, called erroneously LARARIUM, built on the House of the Griffins, was
perhaps the seat of the Praetorian Guard
On the west
side of the peristyle there is a wing of connection between the two main areas
of the palace, formed by an octagonal room with four apses and two side rooms
symmetrical and elliptical
To the
south there is a large hall with an apse at the center paved with polychrome
and set on a “vespaio” (crawl space) where in the cold months hot air was
circulating, identified as the TRICLINIUM and cited in sources with the name of
COENATIO JOVIS
The room
had a semicircular apse elevated on a step and had the sides opened with large
windows over two symmetrical nymphea with monumental oval fountains
Located under the so-called BASILICA in the
west part of the Domus Flavia
Rectangular
room only partially preserved with the short apsidal added later on, relevant
to a stately home of the Republican period
Its name
derives from the many decorative motifs referring to the Egyptian cult of Isis
and Serapis, as the garland of roses on the net, the lotus, the serpent with
flat body
The
paintings date to about 30/25 BC and are considered to be an example of advanced
second Pompeian style
The
paintings are now kept in a room in the Loggia Mattei in the
Domus Augustana area
Under the
so-called LARARIUM in the east of the Domus Flavia is the most interesting
republican house found in Rome, called “of the Griffins” for the stucco
decoration of one lunette
The
paintings are dated to late second or early first century BC (the house was
older) and are the oldest of the second Pompeian style extant in the
world with illusionistic representation of columns that are detached from the
walls even if they don't open to prospective backgrounds as in the second
advanced style
It is
present here again the structure of a wall in blocks that in the first style
was made of stucco
The more
complete paintings are now in a deposit adjacent to the Palatine
Museum and in-situ there are less complete walls, the lunette
with griffins and some mosaics
One of
these mosaics has a small central square area with stones and colorful marbles:
it's the floor known as scutulatum which is also to be found in the
Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in Rome and in the House of the Faun in Pompeii
At the side
of the complex of S. Bonaventure are the remains of a construction in concrete
covered with bricks: it might be a nympheum (fountain) or a building for the
water distribution system
