HORTI MAECENATIS
gardens which Maecenas laid out on the Esquiline,
on the Servian agger and the adjacent necropolis, thus transforming this
unsavoury region into a beautiful promenade (Hor.
Sat. i. 8. 14; Acro,
Porphyrio, and Comm. Cruq. ad loc.). They became imperial property
after the death of Maecenas, and Tiberius lived here after his return to
Rome in 2 A.D. (Suet. Tib. 15). Nero connected them with the Palatine
by his
DOMUS TRANSITORIA (q.v.) (Tac.
Ann. xv. 39), and viewed
the burning of Rome from the turris Maecenatiana (Suet. Nero 38). This
turris was probably the
molem propinquam nubibus arduis of Horace
(
Carm. iii. 29. 10). These gardens were near those of Lamia, but it is
not easy to reconcile the indications of the ancient literature or to determine their exact location. Topographers are not agreed as to whether
they lay on both sides of the agger and both north and south of the
porta Esquilina. Maecenas is said to have been the first to construct
a swimming bath of hot water in Rome (Cass.
Dio lv. 7), which may have
been in the gardens. Whether the horti Maecenatiani of Fronto (
Ep. i. 8）
were the former gardens of Maecenas, or called so for some other reason,
is unknown. The domus Frontoniana mentioned in the twelfth century
by Magister Gregorius may refer to them (
JRS 1919, 35, 53).
1 For the
description of a building, often thought to be within these horti, see
AUDITORIUM MAECENATIS. Many of the puticuli of the ancient necropolis
have been found near the north-west corner of the Piazza Vittorio
Emanuele, that is, outside the porta Esquilina and agger, and north of
the via Tiburtina vetus, and probably the horti extended north from this
gate and road on both sides of the agger (HJ 345-7 ;
BC 1874, 166-17 ;
Richter, 313; LR 411-413; Cons. 155 ff. for works of art found here).
