LATERANI, DOMUS
* under the church of S. John Lateran, to which it gave its
name.
1 The house was presented to T. Sextius Lateranus, consul in
197 A.D., by his friend, the Emperor Septimius Severus (Vict. Epit. 20;
CIL xv. 7536). It is probable, if not certain, that this was the egregiae
Lateranorum aedes (
Juv. x. 17) that belonged to Plautius Lateranus,
who was executed by Nero for complicity in the conspiracy of Piso
(see
L. LUSIUS PETELLINUS, DOMUS), and that it was simply restored
to the Laterani by Severus. The greater part of the remains that
have been found belong to this period, including two rooms with
mosaic pavement found under the pavement of the baptistery in 1924.
Although ordinarily called domus Laterana (Hist. Aug. M. Ant. I), it
must have fallen again into imperial hands, for Constantine presented
it to Pope Miltiades in 313 A.D., after which time it continued to be the
official residence of the popes until it was destroyed by the gradual
enlargement of the Lateran basilica (LR 341-345 ; Ann. d.
Inst. 1877,
332-384; HJ 243;
LS iii. 80; Homo, Aur6lien, 252-3; Lauer, Le
Latran, 1-20; DAP 2. xv. 282-284; Wilpert, Mosaiken und
Malereien
i. 127-148 (for the painting of Roma from this house); YW 1924-5, 86).