Tag: Nero

Heavy Rain in Rome Causes Major Damage to Domus Aurea and Trajan’s Baths

Sad news today for Italy: part of the complex archaeological structure surrounding Nero’s ‘Golden House’ in Rome his extravagant palace between 64-68 AD has collapsed following heavy rain.

The Domus Aurea, as it is known, is one of the treasures of the ancient Roman world. Although it has been mainly closed to the public in recent years due to efforts to fend off encroaching damp and decay, it is a unique archaeological site and an important part of Italy’s heritage.

The site is structurally complex and includes important buildings from the reigns of Nero and Trajan. When Nero committed suicide in 68 AD, his imperial residence was largely gutted and precious materials taken for use elsewhere in ancient Rome. Some of the building itself was filled with earth and buried. Today the Domus Aurea lies mainly underneath Colle Oppio, although it originally extended as far as the Palatine and Caelian hills on the other side of the Colosseum.

In 69 AD, Vespasian took power and built the Flavian amphitheatre (i.e., the Colosseum named after the bronze statue of Nero as Colossus Colossus Neronis which stood in the Domus Aurea) which is about 100 metres or so from the entrance to the Domus Aurea. The emperor Trajan came to power in 98 AD and it was during his rule that an elaborate bathing complex was built right on top of Nero’s buried golden palace.

Luciano Marchetti described the situation as one of extreme alarm

The area damaged is about 60 square metres of the ceiling of one of the halls of Trajan’s baths, known as the fifteenth room, according to La Repubblica. The roof fell through at about 10am on Tuesday morning. Pictures of the collapse as seen from the top of Colle Oppio were published on the paper’s website.

Further collapses are possible according to the special commissioner for the site Luciano Marchetti. He described the situation as one of extreme alarm. He said there is an immediate risk of further damage, and to mitigate this they need to begin conservation work straight away for which secure funding is needed. Work done on the site so far has cost EUR 2 million. According to Marchetti, a further EUR 10 million is needed to completely secure and preserve the site.

According to La Repubblica, archaeological excavations were underway at the site but officers at the scene don’t believe that anyone has been trapped or injured. Officials are now working to make the area safe and to prevent further rain from damaging the area that has been exposed.

Rome’s Third Metro Line Delayed Again By Archaeological Discoveries

While London’s tube had much of its 12 lines and 250 miles of track in place well before the mid 20th century, Rome is still struggling to add its third metro line. The problem is an age-old one: the metro runs deep underground and is deep enough so that the tunnels themselves do not interfere too much with Rome’s layers of buried civilisations. The stations and air vents, however, need to come to the surface and, much to the frustration of the construction company, they more often than not strike valuable archaeological areas.

The first line (the unchronologically-named line B) was completed in the 1950s, and the second (line A) followed in the 1980s after 20 slow years of archaeological digs. But what hope is there for a new line C? With a completion date set for 2015, the president of the company building the new metro line, Giovanni Ascarelli, admits that the infrastructure project is already way behind schedule.

Archaeological Finds on Line C

Several recent finds from the metro works are of great importance they were announced today at Palazzo Massimo by three archaeologists working on the project: Roberto Egidi, Mirella Serlorenzi and Fedora Filippi. They include:

an auditorium believed to have been from the age of Hadrian in piazza Venezia about five metres in front of the monument to Vittorio Emanuele;
Nero‘s Greek gymnasium near Nero’s thermal baths on Corso Vittorio Emanuele (in front of the church Sant Andrea della Valle);
traces of a canal that drained the marshy ground of the Campus Martius;
parts of the Aurelian wall built in 271 AD;
traces of machinery and equipment used in building the Colosseum;
remains of human habitation from the Eneolithic and Bronze Ages (from the fourth to the third millennia BC) near the site of Gabii.

According to Filippi, there is now enough evidence to redraw part of the map of the Campus Martius (Field of Mars the large flat area of ancient Rome between the Capitoline Hill, the Tiber and the Quirinal Hill, used at times for military training).

Work on line C began in 2006, but if the works for line A are anything to go by, Romans may not be travelling underground between Grottarossa and Pantano for quite some time yet. Line C is planned to have stations at Ottaviano (north of St Peter’s), at the Colosseum, Piazza Venezia and San Giovanni. By 2011 work is planned to begin for a fourth line D so Romans can expect to see quite a few more holes in the ground cordoned off with orange plastic nets on the route between piazza Venezia and EUR.

According to this article by Ann Wise in abcnews, the area of Largo Argentina was one of the planned metro stations for line C but these were scrapped when archaeological excavations couldn’t find a suitable space that wouldn’t damage the Roman temples currently being excavated in the area (also in the vicinity are Crypta Balbi and Pompey’s theatre).

The most important discovery in the current line C project is Hadrian’s auditorium, dating from around 135 AD and also referred to by ancient writers. During excavation work probing for space for the piazza Venezia metro station, archaeologists came across two sets of yellow marble steps. They now believe these are of the small theatre built at the emperor’s own expense.

Photos by the Superindency of Archaeological Heritage of Rome.

Could Fishbourne Villa Statue Actually Be Emperor Nero?

Experts think that the head of a marble statue depicting a young boy, found at Fishbourne Roman Palace in Sussex 45 years ago, might actually be the emperor Nero. This theory has yet to be proven and a 3D laser scan of the marble head on 15 October may provide further evidence.

The curator of archaeology at Fishbourne Roman Palace, Dr Rob Symmons, and archaeology experts from Bournemouth University, Dr Miles Russell and Harry Manley are working on this project. They noticed during the past year that there are several factors that suggest the marble portrait could be Nero. The marble head is ‘extremely well made’ in a rare and expensive marble indicating that it was made of or for someone very important.

Portrait of an Emperor

Dr Russell told me earlier today that the statue was found in the rubble of a Roman palace at Fishbourne during an excavation in 1964, but is likely to be associated with a previous Neronian-era palace.

Several things are already known about the statue: it is an import from Italy; although only the right-hand side of the face remains, it shows a very realistic and life-like portrait. The remaining part matches up with two other known portraits of nero as a young boy – held in the Musee du Louvre and in Museo Nazionale d’Antichita in Parma. There is also a small remaining fragment of a laurel wreath at the back of the head. Just two leaves are visible – but this too suggests that the statue has an imperial connection, according to Russell.

The statue was found in the foundations of a Roman palace being excavated by Sir Barry Cunliffe at Fishbourne – the fragment had been used as part of the rubble. It is a very high-quality statue, finely crafted of expensive Italian marble. The fact that it has been destroyed and thrown into the foundations of a Roman palace is also in keeping with the ‘damnatio memoriae’ – the condemnation of Nero by the senate following his death. During this period images and monuments to Nero were destroyed – including many marble portraits, and much of his Domus Aurea.

According to Dr Russell, he and his colleagues will be taking the fragment out of its case on 15 October for a laser scan. Because first century AD imperial portraits were so realistic, the team hopes to be able to establish a facial likeness to other known statues of Nero from that period. As part of the project a bronze portrait of Claudius from the British Museum will also be scanned. The team thinks this statue also bears more resemblance to Nero than to his uncle.

Nero committed suicide in 68 AD and was deeply unpopular in Rome. After 14 years of tyrannical reign, he was ousted by Galba, who had the support of the Pretorian Guard.

We have always assumed he was related to the Royal family who lived here but it may be that it is even more special and is a rare depiction of Nero

The statue head at Fishbourne was until recently thought to have represented King Cogidubnus or one of his relatives. Cogidubnus was a first century AD king in Roman Britain, believed to have lived in Fishbourne Villa.

Dr Symmons is quoted in the Telegraph as saying: “This is very exciting as the scan will allow us to see for the first time what the boy really looked like and may also reveal his identity. We have always assumed he was related to the Royal family who lived here but it may be that it is even more special and is a rare depiction of Nero.”

Photos by Dr Miles Russell, Senior Lecturer in Prehistoric and Roman Archaeology at Bournemouth University.

Race to Preserve Nero’s Golden House

The Domus Aurea, also known as the Golden House, was the emperor Nero‘s grand palace, with more than 150 rooms gilded, frescoed and clad in marble. Spanning an area of eight hectares, it was built over the Oppio, Celio, Palatine and Esquiline hills in Rome in 65 AD, following the great fire that destroyed 10 of the city’s 14 neighbourhoods. When Nero killed himself just three years after its construction, the Domus Aurea was opened as a public park. Some of it was destroyed immediately and the giant lake, known as the Stagnis Neronis, was filled so that the foundations for another grand building could be laid: the Flavian amphitheatre, or Colosseum.

It wasn’t until Trajan took power between 98-117 AD that the Golden House was finally filled with earth and Trajan’s baths built on top. But this destructive act was also the palace’s saving grace. The earth-filled rooms survived intact and untouched between 104 AD until they were rediscovered at the end of the 15th century.

Renaissance artists such as Raffaello and Ghirlandaio visited the underground rooms and made copies of some of the frescoes at that time their sketches, giving rise to the grotesque artistic movement, provide important evidence of the Domus Aurea’s interior as the paintings in many of the rooms have been ruined by water seeping through the walls.

These days the structure is closed (despite brief periods when it has been open to academics and specialists). But Rome’s heritage ministry is hoping to breath a new lease of life into the site. Restoration work, costing more than 3 million Euro, began at the start of June and they hope to reopen the site by 2011. The works will include several projects for protecting the structure from water, including a complete excavation of the area above the Domus Aurea and a drainage system to divert rainwater away from the site. The site referred to today as the Domus Aurea is in fact the first floor of the original palace. The ground floor was stripped of its marble and precious adornments in the years following Nero’s death and the walls were reinforced to provide a sturdier foundation for Trajan‘s baths to be built on top. The second floor of the palace was largely destroyed to make way for the baths.

Photo by Leon Reed.