AUREA, DOMUS
* a huge palace built by Nero after the fire of 64 A.D. It took the
place of the
DOMUS TRANSITORIA (q.v.), and its grounds extended from
the Palatine to the Esquiline, the central point being an artificial lake
(stagnum) in the valley later occupied by the Colosseum (Suet. Nero,
31, whose description of it is worth quoting in full:
Vestibulum eius
fuit, in quo colossus cxx pedum staret ipsius effigie; tanta laxitas, ut
porticus triplices miliarias haberet; item stagnum maris instar,
circumsaeptum aedificiis ad urbium speciem; rura insuper, arvis
atque vinetis et pascuis silvisque varia, cum multitudine omnis generis
pecudum ac ferarum. In ceteris partibus cuncta auro lita, distincta
gemmis unionumque [large pearl oysters, cf. Plin. NH ix. 112, 113]
conchis erant; cenationes laqueatae tabulis eburneis versatilibus, ut
flores, fistulatis, ut unguenta desuper spargerentur; praecipua cenationum rotunda, quae perpetuo diebus ac noctibus vice mundi circumageretur; balineae marinis et albulis fluentes aquis. eius modi domum
cum absolutam dedicaret, hactenus comprobavit, ut se diceret quasi
hominem tandem habitare coepisse. The landscape gardening of the
great park in which the buildings were set is also emphasised by
Tacitus (
Ann. xv. 42 :
in qua haud perinde gemmae et aurum miraculo
essent ... quam arva et stagna et in modum solitudinum hinc silvae,
inde aperta spatia et prospectus, magistris et machinatoribus Severo
et Celere). Cf. Seneca,
Ep. xiv. 2. 15.
The area occupied is further defined by Martial (de spect. 2), who
is writing in praise of Vespasian
Hic ubi sidereus propius videt astra colossus
(See
COLOSSUS NERONIS:sidereus simply means ' glittering.')
et crescunt media pegmata celsa via,
(perhaps the scaffolding for the erection of the arch of Titus:
1 the
usual explanation of the line-HJ 17-to mean that the machinery
of the amphitheatre was stored in the ruins of the vestibule of the
Golden House is unsatisfactory-why media via?)
invidiosa feri radiabant atria regis
(the atrium stood on the summit of the Velia)
unaque iam tota stabat in urbe domus.
[This is an echo of the epigram quoted by Suetonius, Nero, 39:
Roma domus fiet: Veios migrate, Quirites,
si non et Veios occupat ista domus;
cf. also Plin.
NH xxxiii. 54; xxxvi. III ; Tac.
Ann. xv. 43.]
Hic ubi conspicui venerabilis amphitheatri
erigitur moles, stagna Neronis erant.
Hic ubi miramur velocia munera thermas,
[Titianas, q.v.]
abstulerat miseris tecta superbus ager.
Claudia diffusas ubi porticus explicit umbras,
ultima pars aulae deficientis erat (i.e. the domus Aurea extended no further over the Caelian than the
site of the temple of
CLAUDIUS (q.v.), which was begun by Agrippina,
destroyed by Nero, and built anew by Vespasian ; v. Suet. Vespas. 9).
That it did not extend beyond the Subura on the north is clear from
the fact that the temple of Tellus and the portico of Livia continued
to exist; while on the east the horti Maecenatis, already the property
of the imperial house, formed its natural boundary.
According to Hulsen's estimate the area thus included amounted
to about 125 acres, while that of the Vatican, including the garden and
S. Peter's with its piazza, is about 75 acres. Rivoira, however, puts
the area at 370 acres, that of Hyde Park being 390. It would be still
further increased if we add to it the area of the long lines of lofty
arcades on either side of the Sacra via, which Nero transformed into
a monumental avenue of approach to the vestibule of his -palace.
See Van Deman, AJA, 1923, 383-424; Mem. Am.
Acad. v. 115-126;
the northern arcade began just east of the basilica Aemilia.
It was interrupted by the road leading east of the temple of the
Penates, which passed by an archway (the so-called arcus Latronis)
under the north-west corner of the basilica of Constantine. The
northern end of the portico behind it has been obliterated by the
construction of the basilica. On the south the arcade began at the
Regia, and ran eastward up to the beginning of the
CLIVUS PALATINUS
(q.v.), which thenceforward diverged from the Sacra via at right
angles opposite the centre of the vestibule of the domus Aurea. It
followed the clivus some way beyond the end of the Nova via, as far as
the
ARCUS DOMITIANI (2) (q.v.). On the south the portico behind the
arcade extended as far as the Nova via, on each side of which an
arcade also ran. The remains of these very extensive arcades and
porticoes are comparatively scanty, except for their massive foundation
walls
2 (see
PORTICUS MARGARITARIA). Most of the travertine blocks
of the pillars have been pilfered by searchers for building material
(especially in the time of Alexander VII, according to LR 211), and
very often nothing is left but their impressions in the concrete of the
later brickfaced walls, which were built between them when the porticoes
were used as horrea. The blocks hitherto attributed to the arch of the
Fabii (
NS 1882, 222-225) have turned out to belong to the arcades.
The entrance to the vestibule of the domus Aurea was, no doubt,
opposite to the Sacra via-approximately in the position of the facade
of the church of S. Francesca Romana. It must have had a great
portico or peristyle (for it is also called atrium), in the centre of which
stood the
COLOSSUS (q.v.), a statue of Nero 120 feet high. It is
unnecessary to suppose, however, as Weege does, that the
PORTICUS
TRIPLICES MILIARIAE (q.v.) are to be sought here. Porticoes, a walk
several times along which (or we may even say, round the whole of
which) provided a promenade of a measured mile, were in great
vogue among the Romans (see
PORTICUS MILIARENSIS and
PORTICUS
TRIUMPIII).
The construction of the vestibule forced the
SACRA VIA (q.v.) to
cross the Velia somewhat further south than it had done hitherto (though
the pavement of the Augustan Sacra via has been found under the
steps of the temple of Venus and Rome, we have no knowledge of the
buildings which occupied the site of the vestibule), and this road must
have been closed for ordinary traffic after 64 A.D. We may notice
that the route of Nero's triumph in 68 A.D. did not include it ; and the
arch of Titus was erected at the only possible point on the Velia. That
the vestibule lay in ruins until the construction of the temple of Venus
and Rome by Hadrian (HJ 17) seems unlikely, for we know that the
Colossus stood in its original position until he moved it.
Beyond the vestibule a view opened out over the great park
described above, and down on the lake, on the site of which the
Colosseum was built, which formed the centre of the whole: and in
the park around it, besides the main palace on the north-east, were
various smaller detached buildings, as at Hadrian's Villa.
On the Velia itself, to the north of the temple of Venus and Rome
and to the east of the basilica of Constantine, are remains of buildings
now covered by a garden, in which architects of the sixteenth century
(Fra Giocondo ? and Ligorio) saw two oblong courts surrounded by
porticoes (M6e. 1891, 161-167;
Archaeologia li. 2 (1888) 498;
Mitt. 1892,
289, 291 ;
JRS 1919, 180). To the east a small nymphaeum, adorned
with niches for statues and decorated with sea-shells, was found in
1895 (
NS 1895, 79;
BC 1895, 127; LR 361, 362, who says that it
was in the same Vigna dei Nobili that the excavations of 1668 were
made, in which an interesting painting, perhaps representing the
harbour of Puteoli, was found; cf. HJ 322;
PBS vii. 57, No. 2.
That this painting cannot be earlier than the middle of the second
century A.D. is clear from the occurrence in it of the name
Balineum Faustines). On the Palatine we must attribute to it
the irregular curving concrete foundations which cut through the
remains of the
DOMUS TRANSITORIA (q.v.) under the triclinium of the
Flavian palace. Remains of the buildings round the stagnum were
found on the north of the Colosseum (
NS 1897, 59;
BC 1897, 165),
and foundations of others were recognised in cutting the drain from
S. Clemente to the Colosseum
3 (see
CASTRA MISENATIUM).
But the main palace was situated further to the east, on the mons
Oppius, above the via Labicana, to the south of the porticus Liviae.
It faced almost due south, and occupied a rectangular area of about
400 by 200 yards. The plan (text fig. 17, p. 535) is not one which is
familiar in Rome. The central portion is built in the shape of a TT, the
two sides being inclined to one another so as to enclose a trapezoidal
court. The facades were decorated with colonnades; and in the
centre a large rectangular room (No. 60 in the plans) rose higher,
special emphasis being laid upon it-as in some of the Roman villas
represented in the landscapes painted in Pompeian houses (cf. esp.
Mitt. 1911, 73 sqq., pl. viii. I). Villas with a similar plan have been
found at Val Catena, on the island of Brioni, near Pola (OJ 1907, Beibl.
46; 1915, Beibl. 133; Swoboda, R6misehe und Romanische Palaste,
51 sqq.).
The wings are disproportionately large. Behind the facade of the
west wing is a row of long and comparatively narrow rooms, each
divided into two parts by niches, so as to serve as triclinia either in
summer or in winter. At the back they opened on a garden with a
fountain in the centre; and behind it again is a long, lofty cryptoporticus, at the beginning of which traces of mosaic pavements, belonging to earlier houses on the site, may be seen. The east wing is quite
different in arrangement, and not all the rooms have yet been cleared
(an up-to-date plan of the whole will be found in ZA 136, 137). In
one of them (76) we see the earliest existing example of a groined
cross vault; while another (84) is interesting as being octagonal
in plan, with a circular dome having an opening in the centre. This
room appears never to have been completed.
The remains of this palace, which were damaged by fire in 104 A.D.,
were covered over and filled up by Trajan ((Ill. 16, in which the brick-
work in the middle belongs to Nero, the finer brickwork with opus
reticulatum, on the right, having been added by Trajan). The rough
brickwork on the left is pre-Trajanic, but of uncertain age), who erected
his huge thermae over them; and they have therefore come down
to us in a very fair state of preservation, especially as regards the
paintings, though those of the west wing, which has been more completely opened up, have perished since their discovery in 1811 ; whereas
those of the east wing, though known far earlier, have been far less
exposed to the air. The ruins indeed have been known since the
early Renaissance, and were visited by many of the artists of the time,
and by their successors right onwards till the early nineteenth century.
Many of their signatures are actually preserved, including that of
Giovanni da Udine, the assistant of Raphael in the Loggia of the
Vatican and elsewhere (Jahrb. d.
Inst. 1913, 140-158). The paintings
are all of them on a small scale (III. 21), with little figures painted or in
stucco relief, often with stucco framing, and they must always have
been difficult to see in the lofty rooms of the Golden House, to which,
though well enough suited for ' columbaria,' this style of decoration
seems to us singularly ill adapted; while the execution, except in a
few rooms (that in the centre of the whole building with the ceiling
known as the 'Volta Dorata' (Ill. 22), and that in which the Laocoon
was found-Nos. 60, 80 on the plans), is decidedly inferior to what we
should expect from what Pliny tells us of the artist who was responsible
for them, though no doubt, like Raphael, he had numerous assistants
(
NH xxxv. 120:
fuit et nuper gravis ac severus idemque floridissimus
pictor Famulus (so the MSS.; the editors prefer Amulius or Fabullus)
.. paucis diei horis pingebat, id quoque cum gravitate, quod semper
togatus, quamquam in machinis. carcer eius artis domus aurea fuit,
et ideo non extant exempla alia magnopere).
For reproductions and a careful study of the numerous drawings
and engravings of these paintings, see Weege in Jahrb. d.
Inst. 1913,
127-244, and Ant.
Denk. iii. 14-18; cf. also
BC 1895, 174-81 ; cf.
PBS vii. 4 sqq. (where the legend Palazzo di Tito is very often incorrect);
viii. 35-51;
Mitt. 1911, 145-147;
1927, 66; Mem. Am.
Acad. iv. 39, 40.
The great reservoir known as the Sette Sale, which really consists
of nine great chambers side by side, also belonged originally to the
Golden House, as its construction and orientation show, though it
was later made to serve Trajan's thermae. Apparently rooms were
built on top of it
(' these vaults had buildings over them, for we found
at the top of them mosaick pavement,' Pococke, BM Add. MSS. 22980,
f. 15v, 16v writing about 1730).
As to the internal decoration, we are told that Nero collected
hundreds of works of art from all over the world (cf.
Pausan. v. 25. 9;
26. 3;
ix. 27. 3;
x. 7. I ; 19. 2) for the adornment of the palace (Plin.
HN xxxiv. 84, who, after describing about 365 Greek statues, says that
the best of them had been used for this purpose). For the rest, the
coloured marbles were in great part removed by Trajan; and the
gems and pearls mentioned by Suetonius seem to have shared their
fate. Nor have the dining-rooms as yet come to light, which he describes,
with their ceilings of ivory plaques, through which flowers could be
scattered, or pierced with pipes for spraying perfumes-still less the
circular one which continually revolved day and night. Nor have traces
of either salt or sulphurous water been recognised in the channels and
pipes. Either there is much more yet to be found, or his account is
somewhat exaggerated. But the palace is sufficiently interesting as it is.
At the time of Nero's death the Golden House was not completed
(e.g. the cryptoporticus in the west wing had only its ceiling painted,
the walls having been only roughly plastered, and the pavement not
yet laid), and Otho at once assigned a large sum (50,000,000 sesterces,
or 500,000 Pounds for its completion (Suet. Otho 7). Vitellius and his
wife are said to have ridiculed it as mean and lacking in comfort
(Cass.
Dio lxiv. 4), but this may have been only gossip.
Vespasian and his successors, who knew how unpopular its construction had been, vied with one another in restoring its site to
public uses. Cf. Tac.
Ann. xv. 52:
in illa invisa et spoliis civium
exstructa domo, and the last two lines of Martial's epigram after its
destruction, the rest of which we have already quoted:
Reddita Roma sibi est et sunt te praeside, Caesar,
deliciae populi, quae fuerant domini.
He himself began by draining the lake in the centre of the park and
erecting the Colosseum on its site, thereby restoring the streets of the
whole quarter to public uses onee more. The works of art which Nero
had colleeted in the Golden House were dedicated by Vespasian in the
temple of Peaee and other buildings erected by him (Plin.
NH xxxiv.
84:
ex omnibus quae rettuli elarissima quaeque iam sunt dicata a
Vespasiano principe in templo Pacis aliisque eius operibus, violentia
Neronis in urbem eonveeta et in sellariis domus aureae disposita).
His son Titus ereeted thermae (q.v.) opposite the Colosseum ; but
the main palace must have still remained in use during his reign; for
Pliny saw there in 79 A.D. (the year in whieh Titus eame to the throne
and in whieh he himself died) the Laoeoon, qui est in Titi imperatoris
domo (
NH xxxvi. 37). As in almost the next sentenee he speaks of
the works of art in the Palatinae domus Caesarum, the Golden House
must be meant; though there is some doubt whether the Laocoon was
actually found in Room 80 in 1506 (Jahrb. d.
Inst. 1913, 231-239).
There are also traces of alterations in some of the rooms at this period
(ib. 161). On the Palatine the fire of 80 (Suet. Tit. 8; Hier. a.
Abr. 2096; Stat. Silv. i. I. 33) appears to have destroyed what the
fire of Nero had spared, and Domitian was entirely oeeupied in
rebuilding the imperial palaees. As we have seen it is unlikely that
the vestibule had been destroyed as yet. Trajan had hardly
completed Domitian's work when a fire in 104 A.D. destroyed the
Golden House (Hier. a. Abr. 2120:
Romae aurea domus incendio
Conflagravit; ef. Orosius 7. 12) and hastened his intention of constructing his huge thermae (q.v.) on the site. A number of the
openings of the domus Aurea were walled up with concrete faced
with brickwork and opus reticulatum (see Ill. 20) in order to give
greater stability, and the rooms were filled with rubbish execpt for
the construction of the oratory of S. Felicitas there in the sixth
century A.D. Here was found a very interesting calendar
(RE ii.
A. 1583).
The vestibule was finally destroyed by Hadrian in 121 A.D., and
the temple of Rome erected on its site; and after that the Golden
House has no history. The regio aurea of the Middle Ages has
wrongly been fixed here (
RL 1909, 224-230); see AURA. Owing to
the erroneous identification of the Baths of Trajan with the Baths
of Titus, the ruins were called Palazzo di Tito during the Renaissance
and in the seventeenth century, though De Romanis, Piale and Fea
knew the truth as early as the 'twenties of last eentury. The history
of the excavations is given by Weege (op. eit. 137-140), who also
provides a full bibliography of drawings, plans, engravings, ete. (ib.
151-159). See also LR 361-365;
LS i. 232;
ii. 222-228;
iii. 169;
iv. IO; HJ 273-279;
CRA 1914, 231 ; NA 16th June, 1914, 655-661;
Hermes, 1914, 158-160;
YW 1920, 84; ZA 128-144; RA 73-78.
For the graffiti found in the west wing see
BC 1895, 195-197.
