HORTI LAMIANI (1)
gardens near those of Maecenas and the city, i.e. just
outside its limits (Phil. Iud. de leg. ad
Gaium ii. 597). They became
imperial property (
CIL vi. 8668), and Caligula's ashes were deposited
here before they were carried to the mausoleum of Augustus (Suet.
Cal. 59). It is quite probable that they were laid out by L. Aelius Lamia,
consul in 33 A.D., and left by him to Tiberius. There was a house of the
Aelii (v.
DOMUS AELIORUM) on the Esquiline, near the gardens of
Maecenas, and these horti may have had some connection with that.
They seem to have been close to the horti Maiani (
CIL vi. 8668:
proc(urator) hortorum Maianorum et Lamianor(um) ). These horti Maiani
are mentioned in other inscriptions (
CIL vi. 6152, 8669) and in Pliny
(
NH xxxv. 51), who tells of the destruction of a colossal painting of Nero,
120 feet high, which had been placed in some building within their limits.
The fact that its height was the same as that of the
COLOSSUS NERONIS
(q.v.) can hardly be fortuitous, and it may have been a representation
of the latter.
There are no further indications of the exact site of these gardens,
but they are usually located just south-east of the Piazza Vittorio
Emanuele, principally because of the discovery here of numerous works
of art and a few structural remains (LR 408-411 and literature cited;
BC 1907, 34; HJ 347, 354 and literature cited; LS iii. III, 168; Cons.
126 ff.;
RE viii. 2485).
