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Ruins Under Rome
JULY 2006
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In Learn More the National Geographic magazine team shares some of its best sources and other information to expand your knowledge of our featured subjects. Special thanks to the Research Division.
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 Did You Know?
Though Nero probably didn't fiddle while Rome burned (though Roman historian Suetonius reports that he "sang the whole of the 'Sack of Illium' in his regular stage costume"), he did benefit from the great fire of A.D. 64 that destroyed more than half the city. The blaze cleared an entire swath of Rome in the area where Nero had been constructing a relatively modest (for Nero) palace between two of Rome's seven hills.
After the fire, Nero began work on a reconfigured palace complex, this one to cover part to all of three hills of Rome: the Esquiline, Caelian, and Palatine, as well as the great valley in the middle. This new palace and grounds covered 81 hectares, or over 200 acres, in central Rome—the area now occupied by everything from the edge of the Circus Maximus to the Santa Maria Maggiore area, including the valley where the Colosseum sits.
The architecture of the buildings was revolutionary—for the first time, concrete was used with brio, creating massive barrel vaulting, an octagonal room, skylights, and supposedly a banquet hall with a revolving ceiling decorated to match the stars as it followed their progress across the skies. According to Suetonius, "In the rest of the house all parts were overlaid with gold and adorned with gems and mother-of-pearl. There were dining rooms with fretted ceils of ivory, whose panels could turn and shower down flowers and were fitted with pipes for sprinkling the guests with perfumes." The complex was named for its golden walls, Domus Aurea, or Golden House. In the vestibule stood a colossal statue, over a hundred feet (30 meters) tall, of Nero himself.
Nero's excesses did not endear him to the Romans, and this new project topped them all. After his death in 68, the house was abandoned and destroyed, and the colossal statue's head was changed to reflect the emperor of the era. During his reign, Emperor Hadrian moved the statue to the Flavian Amphitheater, which had been built on the drained land where Nero's lake had once stood. That immense stadium eventually became known as the Colosseum, not for its size, but for Nero's colossal statue.
—Elizabeth Snodgrass
For detailed information on the construction of the Domus Aurea, see Larry F. Ball's monograph, The Domus Aurea and the Roman Architectural Revolution, published by Cambridge University Press, 2003.
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Related Links
Aquae Urbis Romae—The Waters of the City of Rome
www.iath.virginia.edu/rome
This study of Roman waterworks from 753 B.C. on will eventually cover the full story of Rome's water development up to the present day. At the moment, only ancient Rome is covered; the medieval section is still under construction. The goal of the study is to determine how Rome's water and Romans' handling of it has shaped the public life of Rome. Maps and time lines show the different layers of Rome's water structures.
Roma Sotterranea
www.underome.com
To learn more about past underground discoveries in Rome, read about urban speleology, and keep up with future developments, visit the Roma Sotterranea website. The "Underground Sites List" drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner has an extensive list of links to detailed information on sites from San Clemente and the Cloaca Maxima to many catacombs, churches, and basilicas.
Topography of Ancient Rome
penelope.uchicago.edu/.../home*.html
Selected articles from Samuel Ball Platner's A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, originally published in 1929, are fun to read and easy to sort through. Heavily cross-linked articles are divided into categories such as Roads and Bridges, Temples, Waterworks and Aqueducts, Basilicas, Baths, and much more. Other sections of Thayer's website include large blocks of translated Roman texts, including Suetonius's Lives of the Twelve Caesars.
Forum Romanum
www.forumromanum.org/index2.html
A scholarly website aimed at readers of Latin literature, Forum Romanum also contains an outline of Roman history, a geneology of Roman gods, and a section on the private life of the Romans.
The Colosseum
www.the-colosseum.net/idx-en.htm
Though put together by an amateur, this is a good clearinghouse of information, much of it visual, on all things related to the ancient Colosseum.
The Imperial Fora
www.capitolium.org/eng/fori
Though the central area of ancient Rome is often referred to in general as the Roman Forum, that particular forum from the Roman republic was really only one of many fora—the others were built later by emperors and carried their names. This website provides information on the fora of Caesar, Trajan, Vespasian, Augustus, and Nerva. A detailed map with highlights helps sort out which one is where.
Basilica San Clemente
www.basilicasanclemente.com/stclement.htm
Visit this website before visiting the basilica—one of the best examples of "architectural layering" in all of Rome—to get information about the archaeological excavations, site tours, directions, and visiting hours.
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Bibliography
Boatwright, Mary T., Daniel J. Gargola, and Richard J. A. Talbert. The Romans From Village to Empire. Oxford University Press, 2004.
Claridge, Amanda. Oxford Archaeological Guides: Rome. Oxford University Press, 1998.
Heiken, Grant, Renato Funiciello, and Donatella De Rita. The Seven Hills of Rome. Princeton University Press, 2005.
Pavia, Carlo. Guide to Underground Rome. Gangemi Editori, 2000.
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NGS Resources
Zwingle, Erla. "Italy Before the Romans." National Geographic (January 2005), 52-77.
Reid, T. R. "The Power and the Glory of the Roman Empire." National Geographic (July 1999), 1-41.
Dunn, Jerry Camarillo, Jr. "Stadium of Life and Death." National Geographic World (March 1998), 11-15.
Reid, T. R., and James Stanfield. "The World According to Rome." National Geographic (August 1997), 54-83.
Barnard, Charles N. "Rome." National Geographic Traveler (November/December 1995), 50-69.
Gore, Rick, James M. Gurney, and O. Louis Mazzatenta. "The Eternal Etruscans." National Geographic (June 1988), 696-743.
Splendors of the Past: Lost Cities of the Ancient World. National Geographic Books, 1981.
Lerici, Carlo. "Periscope on the Etruscan Past." National Geographic (September 1959), 336-50.
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