t Plan of the Palatine Hill
The Palatine, once the residence of emperors and aristocrats, is the most pleasant of Rome’s ancient sites. The ruins range from the simple house in which Augustus is thought to have lived, to the Domus Flavia and Domus Augustana, the public and private wings of a luxurious palace built by Domitian.
Experience Forum and Palatine
t Plan of the Palatine Hill
The remains of elaborate fountains, colourful marble floors, fine stone carvings, columns, stuccoes and frescoes can be seen within the magnificent walls of the Imperial palaces. The Palatine Hill is a green haven, shaded by pines, with wild flowers growing among the ancient ruins. The hill offers fantastic views of the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, the Capitoline Hill and the Circus Maximus. In the 16th century the first private botanical gardens in Europe were built by the Farnese family on the Palatine – the area was dug up during excavations and re-landscaped.
Experience Forum and Palatine
t The Palatine Hill viewed through an arch of the neighbouring Colosseum
Experience Forum and Palatine
A History of the Palatine Hill |
The FoundingAccording to legend, the twins Romulus and Remus were brought up on the Palatine by a wolf. Romulus, having killed his brother, is said to have founded the village that was destined to become Rome. Traces of mud huts dating back to the 8th century BC have been found on the hill, lending archaeological support to the legend. |
The RepublicBy the 1st century BC the Palatine was the most desirable address in Rome and home to the leading citizens of the Republic. Its aristocractic residents were notoriously indulgent and their villas were magnificent dwellings with doors of ivory, floors of bronze and frescoed walls. |
The EmpireThe first emperor, Augustus, was born on the Palatine in 63 BC and lived here in a modest house. Domitian’s house, the Domus Flavia and its private quarters, Domus Augustana, remained the official residence of future emperors (who were referred to as “Augustus”) for over 300 years. |
In AD 81 Domitian, the third of the Flavian dynasty of emperors, decided to build a splendid new palace on the Palatine Hill. The palace had an official wing (Domus Flavia) and a private house (Domus Augustana). It was the main Imperial palace for 300 years.
At the front of the Domus Flavia, the surviving fragments of columns and walls trace the shapes of three adjoining rooms. The Basilica was where the emperor presided over legal cases. The central Aula Regia was a throne room decorated with 12 black basalt statues. The Lararium (now covered with corrugated plastic) contained a shrine for the household gods known as Lares (usually the owner’s ancestors). It may have been used for official ceremonies or by the palace guards.
Fearing assassination, Domitian had the walls of the courtyard covered with shiny marble slabs designed to act as mirrors so that he could see anyone lurking behind him. In the event, he was assassinated in his bedroom, possibly on the orders of his wife, Domitia. The courtyard is now a pleasant place; the flower beds follow the maze pattern of a sunken fountain pool.
t The Domus Flavia, the official wing of what was once a vast emperor’s palace
This part of Domitian’s palace was called the Domus Augustana because it was the private residence of the “august” emperors. On the upper level a high brick wall remains, and you can make out the shape of its two court-yards. The far lower level is closed to the public, though you can look down on its sunken courtyard with the geometric foundations of a fountain in its centre. Sadly, you cannot see the stairs linking the two levels (once lit by sunlight falling on a mirror-paved pool), nor the surrounding rooms, paved with coloured marble.
The Cryptoporticus, a series of underground corridors, was built by Nero to connect his Domus Aurea with the palaces of earlier emperors on the Palatine. Its vaults are decorated with delicate stucco reliefs – copies of originals now kept in the Palatine’s museum.
Insider Tip
This allows fast-track entry into some sights in the Forum-Palatine over two days, including the Houses of Livia and Augustus and the Cryptoporticus.
For a long time from the 19th century it was believed that this structure was a stadium, but it is now thought that it was almost certainly a large sunken garden adjoining the Palace of Domitian.
t Ruins of a bath building in the sunken garden of the Palace of Domitian
Dating from the 1st century BC, this was probably the house in which the Emperor Augustus and his wife Livia lived and is one of the best preserved houses on the Palatine. In comparison with later Imperial palaces, it is a relatively modest home. According to Suetonius, the biographer of Rome’s early emperors, Augustus slept in the same small bedroom for 40 years on a low bed.
A flight of steps leads down to a courtyard off which are three small reception rooms. The frescoes in the central one include a faded scene of Hermes rescuing Zeus’s beloved Io. In the left-hand room are frescoed griffins and other beasts, while the decor in the right-hand room includes landscapes and cityscapes.
is the number of European languages whose word for “palace” derives from the Palatine.
Painted in about 30 BC, the frescoes in the House of Augustus are among the most impressive existing examples of Roman wall paintings, similar in quality to those found in Pompeii and Herculaneum. In vivid shades of red, blue and ochre, they include trompe l’oeil effects, such as a room whose walls are painted to resemble a stage with side doors, and a garden vista.
Although the frescoes are impressive, the house itself is modest. This is where Augustus (or Octavian, as he was then known) lived before assuming supreme power as Rome’s first emperor.
Other than a platform with a few column stumps and capitals, there is little to see of the Temple of Cybele, a popular fertility goddess imported to Rome from Asia. The priests of the cult castrated themselves in the belief that if they sacrificed their own fertility it would guarantee that of the natural world. The annual festival of Cybele, in early spring, culminated with eunuch-priests slashing their bodies to offer up their blood to the goddess, and the ceremonial castration of novice priests.
According to legend, after killing his brother Remus, Romulus founded a village on the Palatine. In the 1940s a series of holes was found, and archaeologists deduced that these must originally have held the supporting poles of three Iron-Age huts – the first foundations of Rome.
Tree-lined avenues, rose gardens and elegant pavilions grace part of what was once an extensive pleasure-garden, designed by the noted architect Vignola and built in the 16th century for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese over the ruins of Tiberius’s palace.