The archaeological park of the Colosseum, in Rome, has brought to light some rooms of a luxurious domus from the late Republican period, which once existed exactly in the area where, in the time of Augustus, the Horrea Agrippiana were built, the famous warehouses along the vicus Tuscus (commercial route that linked the river port of the Tiber and the Roman Forum) built by Augustus' son-in-law. Marco Vipsanio Agrippa.
Between the storerooms and the slopes of the Palatine Hill, the domus is distributed over several floors, probably divided into terraces and characterized by at least three construction phases, dating from the second half of the second century B.C. to the end of the first century B.C.
The domus is 2,300 years old (Colosseum Archaeological Park / Italy Ministry of Culture).
Distributed around an atrium-garden, the domus presents, as its main environment, the specus aestivus, a banquet hall that imitates a cave, used during the summer season and originally enlivened by spectacular water features. thanks to the passage of lead fistulas (pipes) between the decorated walls.
What makes the discovery exceptional is an extraordinary mosaic wall covering called "rustic", which, due to the complexity of the scenes depicted and the chronology, is unparalleled.
The place belonged to a Roman senator (Colosseum Archaeological Park/Italy Ministry of Culture).
Composed of different types of shells, Egyptian blue tiles, precious crystals, tiny flakes of white marble or other types of stone, tartars (i.e., fragments of spongy travertine), and pozzolana cretonnes held together with mortar and warps, the mosaic, which dates to the last decades of the second century BC, presents a complex sequence of figurative scenes.
The Amazing Decoration
In the four aedicules, defined by pilasters and decorated with vases from which lotus shoots and vine leaves emerge, there are stacks of arms with Celtic-type trumpets (carnyx), ships' prows with tridents, rudders with triremes that allude, perhaps, to a double triumph, land and naval, of the owner of the domus.
The large upper lunette also presents a fascinating representation of a landscape with, in the centre, a city, with a cliff simulated with travertine tartars, which dominates the sea crossed by three large ships, one of them with its sails hoisted; a wall with small towers surrounds the city equipped with porticoes, gates, and a large public building; On one side is a pastoral scene.
The walls have different types of shells, Egyptian blue tiles, precious crystals (Colosseum Archaeological Park / Italy Ministry of Culture).
The depiction of a coastal city could allude to a warlike conquest by the owner of the domus, belonging to an aristocratic figure, presumably of senatorial rank.
An extraordinary discovery that brings to light a real gem (Colosseum Archaeological Park / Italy Ministry of Culture).
In an adjoining reception room, however, careful restoration work has brought to light a white stucco cladding with landscapes within faux architecture and figures of the highest quality.
As a whole, the domus qualifies, therefore, as a residence in which an Asian luxury is precociously expressed, which throughout the late republican period was the cause of polemical and fierce political struggles between the aristocratic factions and which confirms what the sources say about the presence, with extensive residences of members of great Roman senatorial families in the northwestern area of the Palatine Hill.
The depiction of a coastal city could allude to a warlike conquest by the owner (Colosseum Archaeological Park / Italy Ministry of Culture).
An extraordinary discovery that brings to light a real jewel that, after excavations and restorations, joins the new and diversified itineraries of visits opened in recent years and that make up the varied cultural proposal of the Colosseum Archaeological Park.
Source: Colosseum Archaeological Park / Italy Ministry of Culture.
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GML