A ZIENDA DI P ROMOZIONE T URISTICA DI R OMA VILLAS OF ANCIENT ROME AZIENDA DI PROMOZIONE TURISTICA DI ROMA Via Parigi, 11 - 00185 Roma HIGH COMMISSIONER: Walter Veltroni DIRECTOR: Guido Improta An editorial realization by the Publishing Department of the APT of Rome TEXT: Romolo Augusto Staccioli TRANSLATION BY: Francesca Caruso PHOTOS: Archivio APT of Rome Archivio Vasari GRAPHICS AND COVER: Valeria Lemmi PRINTED BY: Stilgrafica srl A ZIENDA DI P ROMOZIONE T URISTICA DI R OMA VILLAS OF ANCIENT ROME CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... page 3 THE SUBURBAN VILLAS .................................................................... page 5 The Villa of Livia The Villa of the Vignacce The Villa of the Quintilii The Villa of the Sette Bassi The Villa of the Gordiani The Villa of Maxentius The Villa of the Christian Flavians A SPECIAL VILLA: THE DOMUS AUREA ................................................................................. page 17 THE VILLAS OF THE CITY OUTSKIRTS .......................... page 19 The Villa of the Farnesina The Villa of the Lamia The Villa of Sallust The Villa of Maecenas The Villa of Agrippina The Villa of Domitia Lucilla The Villa of Gallienus The Villa of the Sessorium The Villas of the Pincio GLOSSARY ........................................................................................................... page 33 INFORMATION ............................................................................................... page 34 nitially, in ancient Rome, there was They were the ideal place to spend INTRODUCTION a small domestic garden called a leisure time alternating rest and recre- I“hortus”, confined in a narrow ation with intellectual activities, to space at the back of the house. Then receive friends and cultivate high rank- came the horti, the plural form indicat- ing social connections and to deal with ing a greatly extended garden in which business and political matters in a the house was only a part of an elabo- more relaxed environment. rate, organic complex consist- ing of different elements, that INTRODUCTION we refer to as a “villa”. Owing to their location outside the old city The favoured locations were those that walls, villas were formally considered met various requirements: proximity suburban residences even though they to the “walled” city, availability of were used as town houses or rather as ample space, pleasant surroundings dwellings on the outskirts of the city. and panoramic views, a supply of They became proper urban residences water, possibly spring water, etc. The at the end of the 3rd century AD, when choice initially fell on the high grounds the emperor Aurelian included them in and slopes of hills, such as those of the the circuit of the new city walls. The Quirinal facing the Campus Martius, villas were obviously luxurious resi- the Campus Martius itself, the right dences in which to retreat from the bank of the Tiber and the heights of the concerns of hectic city life and to sleep Janiculum. The Pincio was soon The main soundly far from nocturnal noises. favoured as well, and became known suburban Villas VILLAS OF ANCIENT ROME 3 INTRODUCTION as the “hill of the villas” for the exten- with the prerogative of “unified prop- sion and quality of its buildings.. erty”. Eventually, in fact, and for dif- Subsequently attention was directed ferent reasons (through bequests, towards the external and more periph- acquisition through marriage or con- eric areas of the Caelian and Esquiline fiscation), the villas all became imperi- hills that were already partially inhab- al property. ited and included in the circuit of the Owing to the progressive “saturation” ancient city walls. of available space, most of the new In villa design, open spaces were very buildings had to necessarily be located important and skillfully arranged with beyond the ring of the “peripheric” paths, flowerbeds, bowers, brooks, horti, in the more distant suburbs, fountains and waterworks, and along the arteries of the main roads. In adorned with exedrae, pavilions and the meantime, emperors and members statues. The buildings themselves of the imperial families, the Julio- could be structured differently: as a Claudians, the Severans, the Gordians, compact block, with a main body and Maxentius and Constantine among projecting wings, with a closed or open them, also started building villas. courtyard, or as individual pavilions. These were proper suburban villas Additional constructions could be that accentuated every part of the added to the specifically residential complex, starting from the construct- section and used as baths, libraries, ed areas and with the addition of new theatre cavae and belvederes. All these or previously undeveloped elements. elements were conceived as an organic The perfected structures included the rational system that always main- circus and the hippodrome, an area tained contact with the outside world. equipped for horse-back riding and a Porticoes and cryptoporticus, exedrae, manège and, not infrequently, a mon- open galleries and belvedere terraces umental family tomb. Among the were used as elements of passage and innovations, the most relevant was connection, creating an authentic that of the “rotunda”, a building with a union of nature and the work of man. main cylindrical body and walls sub- The result was a new “landscape”, sep- divided into niches and apses covered arated and isolated, fenced off from the with a dome and a forepart in the surrounding area. shape of a pronaos. The rotunda was The first villas were built by private variously used as a bath, a meeting citizens, members of the great senato- hall, a living quarter, or even as mau- rial families who had accumulated for- soleum. tunes with the spoils of war and the The last villas were built in the first exploitation of conquered territories. decades of the 4th century, that also Building began in the first half of the saw the first instances of abandonment 2nd century BC, but the number of vil- or of incipient decay , even though las increased in the period between the restorations are often documented well decline of the republic and the rise of into the 6th century. The buildings suf- the empire. The trend lasted for the fered further damage during the sack- duration of the empire and is of great ing and devastation of the barbarian importance in the urban development invasions, starting from that of Alaric and history of ancient Rome. In time, in 410. Their fabulous wealth, the luxu- the villas surrounded the whole inhab- rious furnishings and splendid decora- ited area and formed a single, vast and tions naturally made the villas “privi- VILLAS splendid ring of “structured greenery” leged” targets for plunder. OF ANCIENT ROME 4 he ancient Roman villas that had was planted and developed into a THE SUBURBAN better chances of surviving were grove. After Livia’s death, the villa VILLAS Tthose located in the “urban became imperial property and was periphery” and that eventually became probably in use until a late period, part of the Campagna romana - the since the brick stamps indicate that Roman countryside. The area has only recently been threat- THE SUBURBAN VILLAS ened and partially absorbed by the monstrous expansion of the restorations took place in the Severan modern city. Consequently, especially era and again during the reign of in the southeast section traversed by Theodoric. Villa of Livia: Fresco, detail the via Appia, the ancient via Labicana, A massive wall with evident counter- (Museo Nazionale Romano- Via Tuscolana and Via Latina, ruins of forts (still partially identifiable, even at Palazzo Massimo alle Terme) great villas, still stand sometimes reaching many metres in height. They are often situated in the vicinity of the long arched aqueducts, amidst the green fields that have remained virtu- ally untouched by devastating intru- sions. These villas, as their distance from the ancient inhabited area indi- cates, all date from imperial times and when they were not “incorporated” into to the villas of the “urban periph- ery”, they formed a second and wider ring of “structured greenery” around the city. The most important and best preserved among them are the most famous owing to recent research, exca- vations and restoration. They will be described in the chronological order of the main phases of construction and with the names that are currently used. The Villa of Livia The villa belonged to Livia Drusilla, wife of Augustus and was situated at the 9th mile of the via Flaminia (near the modern Prima Porta), on high ground overlooking the Tiber valley. It was commonly known as ad gallinas albas (“the white hens”) because of a a distance) ran along the southern side prodigy which according to tradition of the high ground overlooking the took place there. An eagle dropped a river and supporting the terracing on white hen with a laurel branch in its which the villa was erected and that beak into the empress’s lap. The laurel was accessible through a side lane of VILLAS OF ANCIENT ROME 5 the Flaminia. The rooms including the caldarium, also remains of the provided with two pools. East of the buildings are unfor- baths and connected to them by a tunately in very long corridor, was the first nucleus of poor condition. the residential section as well as the Villa of Livia: The Augustus of Prima Porta Systematic studies main entrance to the villa. On one (Vatican Museums) and excavations side, a series of rooms, including a began in 1863/4 great triclinium, are arranged around with the discov- an atrium with four pilasters. The ery of the famous other side consists of a what might be marble statue of a peristyle, around an open porticoed Augustus (known area with ambulatories and important as the Augustus of rooms. The other residential section Prima Porta), now stood on the opposite side and con- on display in the sisted of semi-subterranean rooms Vatican Museums. including a great rectangular hall The residential sec- (11.70 by 5.20 m) preceded by a tion of the villa was vestibule and with a mosaic floor pat- situated in the terned with rows of white cubes western area.