DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0133
The Roman Empire
105
were flower-beds round the crescent-shaped fountains. It is plain that there was an
open space in the middle, which (like the niches in the wall and afterwards the colon-
nade) was adorned with statues; for this is shown to be so by excavations. On the south
side, where the oval rounds off, there is a building that stands higher than the hippodrome
by some two metres, and has steps leading down from it. It would answer to Pliny's
pavilion but that it has more of a town
character and is not so hidden in green.
It is not known whether or no the great
exedra, on the eastern of the two long sides,
belongs to the Flavian building group; but /""^^-v^ ffZ2*Bi^_ : f~-J aqua Claudia
we do know that an exedra was much liked
in a garden, and perhaps was copied from
gymnasiums, for we are told that Plato's
own private garden had one. In this hippo- —fA.*^ £/ DOMUS
drome on the Palatine it is an organic part
of the ground-plan, rising steeply right in ^^Cc^
the middle of the garden, and so providing
SEPTIMII SEVERI
for the imperial family a good view over the fig. 68. ground-plan of the hippodrome gardens
place itself and also far beyond. The group- 0N THE PALATINE
ing of house and garden here is much less precise than at Pliny's place; the garden is all on
one side of the palace, and can only be reached by a little gate. There is no talk among the
Romans of unity or cohesion between the house and garden, and it seems as though there
cannot be much connection between these loosely-arranged groups. The utmost they attain
is the one composite whole made by the relation of each individual part to the xystus.
We shall presently find a similar garden design at Hadrian's Villa. It is clear that
hippodromes, as well as other places for games, were still used for their original purpose,
because it was just at this period that the Romans were particularly fond of Greek com-
petitive sports. So Martial, after speaking in praise of plane-trees, laurels, and rushing
water, goes on to tell of a hippodrome where "the flying hoof rings, scattering the dust."
Pliny, too, speaks of a room in his second villa, the Laurentinum, which he calls "the
gymnasium of my household." It is in a corner in front of the chief facade of the house
which faces the sea, and is protected by certain parts of the buildings that jut out: it
cannot be anything but a playground or garden site.
Laurentinum is very different from Pliny's Tuscan villa. It is on the sea, and so near
Rome that the owner can get to it in the evening after his day's work in the city. It is a
mixture of villa rustica and villa urbana, the buildings so arranged that everything needed
for farm use is on the land side, but the house to live in is next the sea. Pliny says the
place is very convenient from the point of view of utility, and not expensive to keep up;
and he had no large park or important pleasure-garden here. A xystus he certainly had,
but this he speaks of as "scented with violets," so it was probably a mere lawn with
flowers, enclosed on the sea side by a colonnade. But the colonnade and xystus are not
necessarily joined together; and there were no borders of box, for Pliny says that
only the tree-garden behind the colonnade can have box borders, because they are pro-
tected by buildings, but that where there is exposure to the wind and the sea foam, box
must be replaced by rosemary. Perhaps the beds were enclosed with low interrupted stone
105
were flower-beds round the crescent-shaped fountains. It is plain that there was an
open space in the middle, which (like the niches in the wall and afterwards the colon-
nade) was adorned with statues; for this is shown to be so by excavations. On the south
side, where the oval rounds off, there is a building that stands higher than the hippodrome
by some two metres, and has steps leading down from it. It would answer to Pliny's
pavilion but that it has more of a town
character and is not so hidden in green.
It is not known whether or no the great
exedra, on the eastern of the two long sides,
belongs to the Flavian building group; but /""^^-v^ ffZ2*Bi^_ : f~-J aqua Claudia
we do know that an exedra was much liked
in a garden, and perhaps was copied from
gymnasiums, for we are told that Plato's
own private garden had one. In this hippo- —fA.*^ £/ DOMUS
drome on the Palatine it is an organic part
of the ground-plan, rising steeply right in ^^Cc^
the middle of the garden, and so providing
SEPTIMII SEVERI
for the imperial family a good view over the fig. 68. ground-plan of the hippodrome gardens
place itself and also far beyond. The group- 0N THE PALATINE
ing of house and garden here is much less precise than at Pliny's place; the garden is all on
one side of the palace, and can only be reached by a little gate. There is no talk among the
Romans of unity or cohesion between the house and garden, and it seems as though there
cannot be much connection between these loosely-arranged groups. The utmost they attain
is the one composite whole made by the relation of each individual part to the xystus.
We shall presently find a similar garden design at Hadrian's Villa. It is clear that
hippodromes, as well as other places for games, were still used for their original purpose,
because it was just at this period that the Romans were particularly fond of Greek com-
petitive sports. So Martial, after speaking in praise of plane-trees, laurels, and rushing
water, goes on to tell of a hippodrome where "the flying hoof rings, scattering the dust."
Pliny, too, speaks of a room in his second villa, the Laurentinum, which he calls "the
gymnasium of my household." It is in a corner in front of the chief facade of the house
which faces the sea, and is protected by certain parts of the buildings that jut out: it
cannot be anything but a playground or garden site.
Laurentinum is very different from Pliny's Tuscan villa. It is on the sea, and so near
Rome that the owner can get to it in the evening after his day's work in the city. It is a
mixture of villa rustica and villa urbana, the buildings so arranged that everything needed
for farm use is on the land side, but the house to live in is next the sea. Pliny says the
place is very convenient from the point of view of utility, and not expensive to keep up;
and he had no large park or important pleasure-garden here. A xystus he certainly had,
but this he speaks of as "scented with violets," so it was probably a mere lawn with
flowers, enclosed on the sea side by a colonnade. But the colonnade and xystus are not
necessarily joined together; and there were no borders of box, for Pliny says that
only the tree-garden behind the colonnade can have box borders, because they are pro-
tected by buildings, but that where there is exposure to the wind and the sea foam, box
must be replaced by rosemary. Perhaps the beds were enclosed with low interrupted stone