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All images © by Roberto Piperno, owner of the domain. Write to romapip@quipo.it. Text edited by Rosamie Moore.

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Roman Inscriptions on the Palatine Hill - page two

During the XVIIIth century the Farnese promoted excavations at Domus Flavia which led to the discovery of gigantic statues of Bacchus and Hercules and of several columns of pavonazzetto, which they used to embellish their other properties.

Lintels
Lintels and a fragment of a marble foot


By the time (after 1870) the Italian government acquired the property of the whole hill and undertook a systematic plan of excavations, most of the decorations, inscriptions, statues and columns of the palaces were gone. The most interesting findings are on display in a small museum inside the archaeological area: by walking through the ruins here and there one can still see fragments of lintels or of statues.

Marbles at Domus Flavia
Marbles at Domus Flavia

The walls and the floors of the peristyles of Domus Flavia were decorated with coloured marbles: it is said that in the last years of his life Emperor Domitian became so wary of a plot to kill him that he had the marbles continuously polished with beeswax so that he could detect anyone approaching him from behind; eventually this did not prevent his assassination.

Columns at Domus Flavia
Columns at Domus Flavia: (left) cipollino; (right) African yellow marble

The presence of some (reconstructed) cipollino columns are an indication that either Hadrian or one of his successors introduced some changes in Domus Flavia: the columns seem to frame and support St. Peter's dome, the home of the lords of Rome who came after the emperors.


Stadium
(left) Stadium; (right) Amazons' Fountain

Domus Flavia had also a small stadium or rather a racecourse: in the last years of the Vth century Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, built in a section of the stadium an oval manège: this indicates that the palaces were still in use after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
The fountains often were reminders of mythological tales: the Amazons' fountain has a design based on the sections of four pelta, the small round shields these female warriors used (you may wish to see a pelta in a relief in the Museum of Corinth).

Pedagogium
(left) Paedagogium; (right) a forica near Domus Tiberiana


The ruins of the Palatine do not speak only about the emperors: the running of the palaces required many servants: at the foot of the hill (on the side towards Circus Maximus), archaeologists have found evidence of a school (Paedagogium) for their children. Remains of a forica (men's room) are another indication of the facilities designed for them.

The trees
Trees (1)


What should we do with a monument or a work of art of the past which is greatly damaged? Italians have had to deal with this question since the XVth century when they started discovering ancient statues. For at least three centuries the answer was: let's try to complete them. Based on this assumption heads of emperors were placed on torsos of athletes and the best sculptors were asked to add arms, legs, hands, feet and fingers to statues which had lost them: a famous example of this approach is the restoration of the Laocoon group: Pope Julius II, based on the advice of Raphael, approved the addition of an outstretched arm (in 1957 the missing arm was found: it was not outstretched, but bent down as suggested by Michelangelo). In the early XIXth century a more cautious view was developed: the reconstruction of the missing parts of Arco di Tito was made using a different stone and without imitating the original decoration. The XXth century brought a conservative approach which was aimed at the sole conservation of the findings. While other countries have followed different paths, on the Palatine archaeologists have chosen to plant a tree to indicate the site of a monument. A lonely pine on a mound indicates the site of a small temple which stood at the centre of a pool.
The planting of Mediterranean cypresses, in addition to making the area very evocative of its past, have a wind breaking effect.

The trees
Trees (2)


In 1217 Pope Honorius III approved the Order of the Preachers, founded by St. Dominic. The pope lived in Rocca Savella and St. Dominic brought from Spain some orange trees which were planted in the cloister of nearby S. Sabina. Orange trees became an ornamental plant which at first embellished cloisters and later on also gardens: so they were planted in Orti Farnesiani on the site of Domus Tiberiana. The fruits are not edible, but seeing them on a sunny day gives the feeling that winter is not so cold.

View towards Colosseo
Trees (3)


Villa Adriana was turned into an olive-grove by its XVIIIth century owners and the view of its monuments gained by being surrounded by these trees. Based on this experience archaeologists similarly embellished the slopes of the Palatine.

S. Bonaventura
(left) S. Bonaventura; (right) Arco di Costantino (detail)


A visit to the emperors' palaces has the added value of allowing views of some other monuments: from small S. Bonaventura to imposing Colosseo.

View towards Colosseo
A Grand Tour view of Colosseo


Return to page one.