July 4th in Rome

Though it was the 4th of July, today was not a holiday for your intrepid travel correspondent.  We had super-exclusive, top-secret access to areas the normal tourist never gets to see, thanks to the American Academy in Rome (whose Classical Summer School I am attending).  

Our first visit was to exclusive areas on the houses on Livia and Augustus on the Palatine Hill.  The Palatine Hill was the most exclusive neighborhood in Rome and from it come the English words "palatial" and "palace."  Livia was the wife of Augustus and their houses are connected.  No one knows whether they really kept separate residences, but one of the houses is designated as Livia's.  Here is a fresco from one of the rooms.

In today's photos you will see a lot of decorative frescoes.  The Romans were very fond of trompe l'oeil way before the French ever claimed to invent it.  The Romans used frescoes to imitate architectural features as you can see in many of the pictures.  In later styles, they mixed architectural features with symbolic artwork, often relating to a mythological theme--sometimes quite racy ones.

There really wasn't much more to see in Livia's house, so we went to Augustus'.  Here we see what is commonly referred to as Augustus' apartment.  Augustus, despite having more power in his hands than any man before in Roman history, was very careful to try to project a "common man" image.  He liked to wear homespun fabric instead of the latest expensive imports, for instance.  Even though his house (and Livia's added to it) made up the biggest piece of property in Rome's most exclusive neighborhood, his apartment presents a more humble image that he played up as much as he could.

Wall frescoes showing garlands, as though they were windows to an outer garden.

Architectural features in this fresco.

Another garden illusion.

  This room is painted to resemble cabinets holding the death masks of his ancestors.  In Roman society, if your father reached the office of consul, upon his death you were allowed to make a wax mask of his face.  These masks were important symbols of family heritage and power and the more you had, the better.

Another room with frescoes mimicking architectural features.

 Part of the ceiling

 and the wall from that same room.

After spending time with Augustus, we were allowed into the remains of the "House of the Griffins."  This house was built at the same time (roughly) as Augustus' and Livia's houses and also features decorative frescoes.  It was buried when the emperor Domitian built his palace on top of it.  This actually served to save and preserve these frescoes for us to see today.

Sorry this picture is blurry (low light and no flash allowed), but I wanted to show you a mosaic with a very modern 3D effect.

 Here is the griffin for which the house is named.

 And here is that 3D effect in fresco, as it was in mosaic before.  These old Romans liked some trippy stuff.  I haven't seen the ancient equivalent of a black velvet Jimi Hendrix poster yet though.

 This fresco is in a restricted area of the Palatine Museum and belonged to a wealthy Republican era Roman named Isiaca. It was discovered in 1912.

Inside the Palatine Museum were some sculptures of several emperors.  Though I'm hot and sweaty and he's not, I thought Claudius Gothicus and I looked enough alike that I took my very first "selfie" with him.

After all those frescoes, it was time to get back to bricks and mortar.  We began to examine the remains of Domitian's Palace.  Domitian, son of the emperor Vespasian and brother of the emperor Titus, has gone down in history as a lousy emperor.  He was so disliked that the Senate issued a decree of Damnatio Memoriae, where all reference to him was erased from the record as much as possible.  Think "un-person" in Orwell's 1984.

Regardless of his failures as an emperor, Domitian sure built an awesome palace.  Here is a view of the formal receiving area.

 A basilica where those waiting to see the emperor would wait.  The tall corner in the background is the true extent of this room, this low wall in the foreground was just a hallway of some type.

In the personal areas of the palace, a nymphareum.  A nymphareum was a monument, usually with a water feature, dedicated to nymphs (female water spirits generally, though the word nymphs also is used to describe Dryads who were tree spirits).

  This was another reflecting pool.  The design is supposedly the shape of the shields used by amazon warriors.

The "Hippodrome": a real hippodrome is a horse-racing track.  This enclosed garden space was thought to be large enough for horse races, but they would have more resembled barrel races at rodeos than the grand chariot races the Romans liked.  You'll notice on one end an ellipse.  This is thought to have been installed after the fall of the Western Roman Empire by the Gothic kings who ruled.  It is thought to have been a private gladitorial arena perhaps.

 A bit of marble floor from Domitian's palace, just lying in the sun.

 The Hippodrome from the end opposite the ellipse.

After Domitian's Palace, we went to see the Arch of Titus.  Though Domitian was a crummy emperor, he did build a temple to his father Vespasian, who was declared a god by the Senate after his death (famous last words spoken by Vespasian: "I think I'm becoming a god.") and the Arch for his brother Titus after the Senate declared Titus a god also.  The inscription, translated, reads: "The Senate and the Roman People, to the Divine Titus Vespasian Augustus, son of the god Vespasian."

Titus was famous for quelling the Jewish revolt in the First Roman-Jewish War and for sacking Jerusalem.  In this relief sculpture you see aspects of Titus' triumphal procession.  Here the sacred Menorah is shown.  Titus removed it from the temple.

 Here is Titus in his triumph.  In Republican era Rome, a slave would stand behind the triumphing general and remind him that he was only a mortal man.  In this image, the goddess Victory stands behind Titus: fitting since the Senate did declare him a god, after all.

We took a break for lunch and reconvened across the road from the Coliseum.  Here we had to put on hard hats to enter the Domus Aurea: the Golden House, built by the emperor Nero (what is it with these lousy emperors building great buildings?).

About this time of year, in 64 AD, a fire broke out in Rome.  It spread quickly and it was six days before it was brought under control.  Roughly half of the city of Rome was destroyed.  Nero did not start the fire: he was out of the city when it began.  He returned quickly and began organizing response teams and relief efforts.  There is the possibility that he did entertain dinner guests one night during the fire by reciting a poem about the fall of Troy and accompanying himself on the lyre.    Given that Nero considered himself a tremendous talent and was vain beyond belief, I find this somewhat plausible.

In land cleared by the fire, Nero decided to build himself a residence equal in grandeur to the might and power of the Emperor of Rome.  He called it the Domus Aurea (Golden House).  After Nero was ordered to commit suicide, his eventual successor,Vespasian, ordered the house to be buried and the land returned to the use of the Roman people.  First his son Titus built a bath complex on top of it, and later Trajan built an even larger bath on top.  By burying the Domus Aurea in the foundations of the baths, it saved it for the future.

It features magnificent vaulted ceilings,

 walls painted with architectural features,

 decorated ceilings with stucco

 and frescoes,

These ruins were discovered by people in the fifteenth century and many famous artists came to see the frescoes (sometimes leaving their names in graffiti).  Raphael was one of those influenced by what he saw in the Domus Aurea.  The artists called the area "le grotte" (the grotto, or cave) and paintings influenced by the frescoes they saw were called "grottesco" or our modern English word, grotesque.

Towards the end of our tour we came upon a large octagonal room.  This was apparently the "summer" dining room.  In addition to the large opening overhead, there were also shafts designed to let the light in as the sun set.

We headed back out, having enjoyed our super exclusive top secret access on July 4th.  To honor 'Murica, I then went in search of a cheeseburger and fries.  Let me tell you, finding a good quality burger and fries in Rome is a real challenge.  Fortunately, I was given a good tip on a restaurant in Trastavere, the hipster neighborhood in Rome.  I got a taste of home.  Happy 4th!  More bloggy goodness next week...