http://issuu.com/certosino/docs/folder-it-2010-194?e=1968226/1737557 LATEST ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE in museum.
Summary (English)
The excavation involved a new sector of the Horti Lamiani, gardens of exceptional historic-topographical importance. Originally the property of the
consul L.
Aelius Lamia, they became imperial property perhaps as early as the reign of
Tiberius (14-37 A.D.) and were then acquired by
Caligula who established
his residence there.
In the past the site has been the theatre of important archaeological and antiquarian discoveries (for example the Esquiline
Venus, the
bust of
Commodus and the Ephedrismòs in the Capitoline Museum, the Lancellotti Discobolus in the Museo Nazionale Romano, the
statues from the bath complex in via Ariosto at the Centrale Montemartini), most of which came to light at the end of the 19th century during
work on the construction of the new Esquiline residential quarter. A number of nuclei belonging to the imperial property were hastily documented but then sacrificed to the need to build.
The excavation uncovered an
area of the Horti Lamiani unknown to date, close to the
area where Lanciani (Fascino di
Roma Antica: 155-157)
had documented a long cryptoporticus with an alabaster floor and precious wall decorations, divided by columns of giallo antico with gilded stucco bases, decoration which finds confirmation in the ancient sources (PHILO. IUD.,
Leg. Ad Gaium 351 ss.). Further finds were registered during
work on the modernisation of the Metro A in the south quadrant of the gardens in Piazza Vittorio, between January 2005 and November 2006 (Barrano, Colli, Martines in
www.fastionline.org/docs/FOLDER-it-2007-87.pdf).
The new sector found below the ENPAM building was centred around a reception hall (400 m2), originally faced with sectilia, with service rooms and a fountain (shown in the FUR fig. 24 together with two of the three connected rooms). The complex comprised garden-terraces contained by opus reticulatum structures, with a stretch of basalt paved road connected to the via Labicana, perhaps the property’s boundary.
The hall can be attributed to interventions by
Severus Alexander (222-235 A.D.), also attested on the Esquiline by the construction of the “Trophies of
Marius” and a number of fistulae aquariae (e.g.
CIL XV, 7333) proving the existence of a complex belonging to the emperor’s personal patrimony. Hundreds of fragments of refined painted wall plaster and other precious decorative materials, datable from the start of the construction of the imperial residence onwards, were recovered during the excavation. The discovery of decorative marble elements identical to those found in the 19th century (now in the Capitoline Museum) suggests that the new sector may link to the complex discovered by Lanciani.
The earliest levels are those of the villa’s construction and, even earlier, the Esquiline necropolis,
still to be investigated, but attested by the literary sources and in the modern era by G. Pinza.
Summary Author: Mariarosaria Barbera - Soprintendenza Speciale
per i Beni Archeologici di
Roma THE GARDENS WERE BOUGHT AND ADDED TO THE IMPERIAL GARDENS AROUND THE TIME OF
TIBERIUS AND
CALIGULA. THE GARDENS WERE BASED ON THE
CONSUL FRIEND OF
TIBERIUS -
AELIUS LAMIA.
Horti Lamiani
From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Commodus as
Hercules, well-known
sculpture from the Horti Lamiani
The Lamian Gardens (Latin - Horti Lamiani) were a set of gardens located on the top of the Esquiline
Hill in
Rome, in the
area around the present Piazza Vittorio Emanuele. They were based on the gardens of the
consul Aelius Lamia, a friend of
Tiberius, and soon (by the time of
Caligula) became subsumed into the imperial property.
HISTORICAL LOOK HOW CALIGULA WAS HASTILY BURNT AFTER HIS MURDER.
He lived twenty-nine years, and reigned three years, ten months and eight days.
His body was carried privately into the
Lamian Gardens,1 where it was half burnt upon a pile hastily raised, and then
had some earth carelessly thrown over it. It was afterwards disinterred by
his sisters, on their return from banishment, burnt to ashes, and buried. Before this was done, it is well-known that the keepers of the gardens were greatly disturbed by apparitions; and that not a night passed without some terrible alarm or other in the house where he was slain, until it was destroyed by fire.
His wife
Caesonia was killed with him, being stabbed by a centurion; and
his daughter
had her
brains knocked out against a wall.
SUETONIUS 59 LIFE OF CALIGULA Agrippina seems to have
had her eye on a villa in the Horti lamiani/ Esquiline
areaThe vastness and splendour of the
home of Statilius
Taurus, an eminent personality in the
Rome of the I century AD, was perhaps at the heart of
his conviction for magic, apparently inspired by
Agrippina so as to seize the property for the Imperial domain.
The
area of the Horti was later broken up into a number of properties and under
Gallienus in the middle of the III century AD went back to being a
part of the Horti Liciniani; it has also been discovered that in late
antiquity the
home of Vettius Agorius Praetextatus (Horti Vettiani) was there.
Caligula seems to have
had a villa here. Some of the artifacts found at the Horti Lamiani
PHOTO 1- GOLD AND IN LAID PEARL. CALIGULAN PERIOD.
PHOTO 2-
HEAD OF A
CENTAUR TIBERIAN PERIOD
PHOTO 3- ESQUILINE
VENUS - EARLY IMPERIAL PERIOD
PHOTO 4- FOUNTAIN IN THE FORM OF A HORN SHAPED DRINKING
CUP (
RHYTON SIGNED BY PONTIOS MARBLE. EARLY AUGUSTAN/ TIBERIAN PERIOD
PHOTO 5- PILASTER FROM
CALIGULA LAMIAN GARDENSPHOTO BY
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Sailko http://en.museicapitolini.org/Flavius Josephus, Death of an Emperor. Translated, with introduction and commentary by T.P. Wiseman. Exeter Studies in
History No. 30. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1991. Pp xviii + 122. ISBN 0-85989-356-1.
Reviewed by Arthur Ferrill, University of Washington.
The title of this
good little book is unfortunately uninformative. Ancient historians and classicists will generally know that the translation is of those passages in Josephus'
Antiquities of the Jews (XIX 1-273) dealing with the death of the Emperor
Caligula; the lay reader, seeing only the title, may be justly mystified. Considering the extent of popular interest in the colorful story of
Rome's third emperor, I cannot imagine why this book was not entitled The Death of
Caligula. Professional ancient historians and classicists should stop pretending that the rest of the world is intimately familiar with their
field.
The book, nevertheless, is useful, because it provides in convenient format the major ancient source for
Caligula's death.
Tacitus' books on
Caligula are lost, Suetonius' Life of
Caligula, though containing much valuable material, is not chronologically organized, and the account of Dio Cassius survives only in summaries and extracts. Wiseman argues convincingly that Josephus' version of the assassination was based on the accounts of two
Roman authors whose works have not survived -- probably Cluvius Rufus, a senator of consular rank and an eye-witness to the murder, and Fabius Rusticus, Seneca's
equestrian friend from
Spain. Although source criticism of authors whose works are no longer extant can often be a torturous process, Wiseman deals cogently and persuasively with Cluvius Rufus in an appendix at the end of the book, and
his treatment is preferable to that of A. Barrett,
Caligula (
London, 1989), pp. 168-169.
Generally Wiseman's translation is quite
good, but the lengthy commentary will be especially useful to scholars of the
Julio-Claudian period. Wiseman was not able to use my own book,
Caligula (
London, 1991), but he refers frequently to the works of Balsdon and Barrett and for the most
part dismisses the sceptical and rationalizing approach they take to the ancient sources on
Caligula. Inexplicably, the translator's commentary on Josephus' opening statement that
Caligula "filled
Rome's dominions with more evil than
history had ever known," was simply to quote Balsdon to the effect that "The administration of Gaius ... in the Empire at large does not appear, when scrutinized, to be lacking either in efficiency or sanity." Why Wiseman let Balsdon's statement stand alone as commentary on Josephus' condemnation of
Caligula's reign is a mystery, since in most of
his other comments Wiseman reveals strong criticism of the Emperor. On a later passage about
Caligula's "cruel and vicious nature (Jos. AJ 19.192)" Wiseman quotes a rationalizing comment by Balsdon which the translator describes as "perhaps too indulgent."
On points of detail Wiseman is usually
very good, but there are a few debatable matters. Josephus wrote that
Caligula died after reigning for "four years less four months (AJ 19.201)," and Wiseman observes that "the true figure is four years less 53 days." But Wiseman dates from the day of
Tiberius' death, and the dies imperii of
Caligula may have been later. (On that point see Barrett's appendix, pp. 71-72.) Josephus also said that
Caligula completed "not one" important construction project (19.205), and Wiseman wrote, "Unfair: Gaius did a great deal of building in
his short reign, and not all of it was self-indulgent" (citing Barrett and Balsdon). The gap between Josephus' "not one" and Wiseman's "a great deal" is simply too big. In fact, Josephus is closer to the truth in this case. (See my
Caligula, pp. 164-165.) Also, on one small detail, Wiseman gave
Caligula's age while he was on Capri with
Tiberius as 19 to 25 (p. 85), but Gaius was only 24 when he became Emperor.
On a rather more important point Wiseman challenges the view that on the day of the assassination Herod Agrippa was responsible for the hasty burial of Caligula's half-cremated body in the Lamian Gardens (p. 94).
His words are that the removal of the body was "clearly not by
Agrippa." But Josephus does not in fact make that clear: "
King Agrippa had been held in honour by Gaius, and did what was proper for him in return. He attended to the corpse, laid it on a bier, and did what he could to cover it. Then he withdrew to find the Praetorians (p.35)." It is possible but not certain that Herod did these things at the palace; he may also have done them at the Lamian Gardens.
But the above points are quibbling ones. Wiseman has performed a useful service by translating and commenting on this extraordinarily significant portion of Josephus'
work.
BRYN MAWR REVIEW
Joe Geranio
JCIA
