Roman Debauchery Fun Fact Profile: Nero's Golden House

Days to Volume III Kickstarter Launch: 56

Salvete, Amiculi, from the Eternal City!

A happy July to you all! (July, of course, being named for Julius Caesar, which changed the name of the month from its original name, Quintilis, which was the fifth month of the Roman year, because the Roman calendar originally only had ten months, and stop me I'm getting pedantic.)

I'm writing directly from Rome herself this week to present an especially cool entry in the Roman Debauchery Fun Fact catalogue, about the man who was the platinum standard of Roman debauchery by any measure: the emperor Nero (A.D. 54-68). This entry is extra-special because it will contain photos and video from a seldom-seen part of Roman history, buried for centuries before being rediscovered in the 15th century and still being unearthed today: The Domus Aurea, or Nero's Golden House.

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The Backstory

"The Great Fire of Rome," or, given that Rome was very prone to catching fire, "Every Other Thursday."

"Well, it was either 'Fall of Ilium' or 'Proud Mary.' They're the only songs I know by heart, damnit."

So who doesn't know at least some of this story? 
In July, A.D. 64, a fire broke out in Rome, sweeping the city and burning for six days and nights, ravaging all but a few districts. Nero blamed the Christians for the fire, and the first large-scale persecutions began as a result. The popular version of this story is that Nero sang  "Fall of Ilium" (badly) and played the fiddle (even worse) while also watching the fire and doing nothing about it. It was even rumored that he had ordered the fire to be set. Both of these are unlikely because a) the fiddle didn't exist then, it would have been a lyre, b) Nero was out of town at the time of the fire, and c) a good portion of his own palace was destroyed in the conflagration. It has been suggested that he blamed the Christians to defer blame from himself; unfortunately, we can never know. 
The reason he might have felt the need to defer blame might have been for what he did next: using the burnt-out land to build the largest pleasure palace Rome had ever seen. 

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The House

So, how much of this picture is the Domus Aurea? If you answered "all of it," you would be very close to correct.

Nero's Golden House was a work of enormous extravagance. It was believed to have covered parts of three of Rome's hills, with an area equal to five football fields. It was said to be partially overlaid in gold-leaf (hence "Golden"), inlaid in areas with precious stones, and to have its own woodlands, pastures, vineyards and an artificial lake. Even more outrageous, though it was estimated to have nearly 300 rooms,  it was built with no kitchens, bathrooms or bedrooms. It was meant to be occupied as a place for entertainment, only during the warm months of the year, by one man. Its unpopularity among the Romans, many of whose homes had only just occupied this space, was clear in the poetry and graffiti of the time claiming the Golden House was "swallowing Rome."

Nero, on the other hand, was tickled pink, as he could "finally live like a human being."  At least until...

Overthrow and Death

"What an artist dies with me... tell my groupies I'm sorry."

In A.D. 68, Nero had pissed off enough people with his debauchery, excess, and shitty singing (he would perform hours-long concerts that men and women would fake heart attacks and childbirth to escape, true story) to incite a revolt against his rule. The Senate declared him an enemy of the state and sentenced him to death. Nero fled for his life, was cornered and committed suicide (clumsily) with the assistance of a slave. His name was condemned to damnatio memoriae (damnation of memory), and all traces of him that could be were wiped out. This included his precious Golden House.

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The House Vanishes
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The artificial lake was filled in and the space was used to build Rome's first permanent gladiator day-care, the Colosseum, in A.D. 80.

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The parts of the Domus Aurea that couldn't be dismantled were filled with cement and used as the foundation for Trajan's Baths in A.D. 104 (some imaginative reassembly required).

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1400 Years (or so) Later...

A 16th-century copy of one of the ceilings in the Domus Aurea.

In the late 1400s, while "exploring" (a.k.a. looting) the ruins of Trajan's Baths, a man fell through the roof of the Golden House and discovered its paintings and frescoes were still completely intact. The word got out, and soon mobs of Renaissance artists, including Raphael and Michaelangelo, were flocking to this underground "grotto" to rediscover this amazing lost Roman art. It even inspired a new style of painting, called "Grotesque" after the place it was discovered, that now adorns the ceilings of the finer 16th century palazzos you run across, including  the Vatican. Unfortunately, exposure to the elements and other damage has caused these original paintings to fade, and preservation and reconstruction only began in the 18th century.

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Today

The layout of the excavated portion of the Domus Aurea.

The Domus Aurea is still being excavated in stages, and what has been found is a testament to just how luxurious it was: close to one hundred rooms, with mosaics on the ceilings, enormous vaults, paintings everywhere, and an octagonal domed dining room with a skylight and a rotating platform in the center, powered by water. Because of excavations and the sensitivity of the site, it is only opened for tours on Saturdays and Sundays, by reservation. Below are some of the photos of the tour.

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The last picture in the sequence above (and this one at left) features the main attraction of the Domus Aurea: the octagonal dining room. Lit very successfully by the oculus (skylight), it would have served as a two-in-one meal and entertainment center. Aside from the inevitable spectacular art that once adorned the room, a waterfall once cascaded down one of the walls (the one with the large opening) and drained beneath the floor. But it wasn't just for show. Nero is known to have had a rotating dining room in his palace on the Palatine, which was made of wood and powered by water. While this one isn't as fancy, it is theorized that the octagonal space in the center of the room once held a wooden turntable, also moved by water, on which a statue of the emperor might have slowly rotated to aid the digestion of his guests with its godlike beauty (or so I imagine Nero thinking).

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I have also included video from the most dramatic parts of the tour below:

This is from an area called the Cryptoporticus, a high-vaulted passageway 70 meters (about  230 feet) long. It was once covered from floor-to-ceiling with paintings and frescoes of Greek and Egyptian gods, colorful patterns and trompe l'oeil ("trick of the eye") designs to make the space look even bigger than it was. Originally, the high windows and entrance allowed for copious light to flood this space. Here, the guide draws our attention to a fake window fresco, pointing out a bird resting on the window sill. (It is a dark spot, high up on the wall on the left side.)

So I hope you've enjoyed this foray into the building foibles of Rome's most beloved monster. Keep an eye out soon for an Amiculus photo tour of Rome to learn how the Roman ruin on the left became the comic panel on the right:

Also, coming soon: a video interview with the Amiculus artist-colorist/father-daughter team, Giancarlo and Flavia Caracuzzo!