DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44944#0096
6o ATRIUM VESTAE—AUDITORIUM MAECENATIS
far as the cross street mentioned above ; he also closed in the front
of the largest room (13 on Van Deman’s plans) on the south, and built
new back walls in this and the room next to it. This was continued
under the Antonines, the object being to diminish the damp, due to the
shutting off of the sun’s rays by Hadrian’s additions to the Domus
Tiberiana (q.v.). For the same reason the floor level was raised about
0.70 metre. In this period, too, Hadrian’s additions were linked up
with the rest of the house, and a second and third story were added over
them. Finally, after suffering injury in the fire of Commodus, the
atrium was restored by Julia Domna, and the courtyard lengthened to
69 metres (it was, as before, 24 metres wide) so as to occupy the whole
of the central area. It was then that the arches spanning the Nova via
were built, serving as a support both to the upper stories of the atrium
and to the structures on the lower slopes of the Palatine (Ill. 8).
After this date various minor alterations were made, including the
construction, in the Constantinian period, of an octagonal structure
enclosing a circle in the centre of the peristyle (perhaps the foundation
of a pavilion, or the edging of a garden bed) and of two small piscinae,
one at each end, to replace the large one, which was no longer in
symmetry with the plan (Ill. 6).
After the last restoration the central court was surrounded by a
double colonnade, replaced at a still later period by a brick wall pierced
by arches. Round the court stood numerous statues of Virgines
Vestales Maximae on inscribed pedestals (AJA 1908, 324-342 ; CIL
vi. 32409-32428; HF ii. 1243, 1357-61 ; PT pp. 76-78, Nos. 39, 42).
At the east end was a large hall paved with fine marbles, with three
rooms on each side of it ; on the south of it is a small hall, with a sort of
vaulted cellar (possibly the penus of the household) and to the north
is a room in which an archaic altar, belonging to the Republican house,
has been found. On the south side of the courtyard is a group of rooms
used for household purposes, after which comes a series of finely decorated
rooms. At the west end are some rooms which are cut off from the
courtyard, and may, it is thought, have served for the cult of the Lares
(cf. Lares, aedes) ; and further west still are rooms probably used for
the cult of Vesta in connection with the temple. Two hoards of coins
were found in the house—830 Saxon coins, dating down to the middle
of the tenth century, in 1883 (NS 1883, 487-514), and 397 gold coins
dating from 335 to 467-472 a.d. in 1899 (ib. 1899, 327-330).
A statue of Numa with a head of an ideal Greek type of the fifth
century b.c., with a space for a bronze beard, was found in the house of
the Vestals. As the body shows, it probably belongs to the period
of Trajan (BC 1919, 211-224). The head shows evidence of the rite of
resectio (see Lucus Furrinae).
Auditorium Maecenatis : the modern name of the remains of a building
that stands in the angle between the via Merulana and the via Leopardi.
far as the cross street mentioned above ; he also closed in the front
of the largest room (13 on Van Deman’s plans) on the south, and built
new back walls in this and the room next to it. This was continued
under the Antonines, the object being to diminish the damp, due to the
shutting off of the sun’s rays by Hadrian’s additions to the Domus
Tiberiana (q.v.). For the same reason the floor level was raised about
0.70 metre. In this period, too, Hadrian’s additions were linked up
with the rest of the house, and a second and third story were added over
them. Finally, after suffering injury in the fire of Commodus, the
atrium was restored by Julia Domna, and the courtyard lengthened to
69 metres (it was, as before, 24 metres wide) so as to occupy the whole
of the central area. It was then that the arches spanning the Nova via
were built, serving as a support both to the upper stories of the atrium
and to the structures on the lower slopes of the Palatine (Ill. 8).
After this date various minor alterations were made, including the
construction, in the Constantinian period, of an octagonal structure
enclosing a circle in the centre of the peristyle (perhaps the foundation
of a pavilion, or the edging of a garden bed) and of two small piscinae,
one at each end, to replace the large one, which was no longer in
symmetry with the plan (Ill. 6).
After the last restoration the central court was surrounded by a
double colonnade, replaced at a still later period by a brick wall pierced
by arches. Round the court stood numerous statues of Virgines
Vestales Maximae on inscribed pedestals (AJA 1908, 324-342 ; CIL
vi. 32409-32428; HF ii. 1243, 1357-61 ; PT pp. 76-78, Nos. 39, 42).
At the east end was a large hall paved with fine marbles, with three
rooms on each side of it ; on the south of it is a small hall, with a sort of
vaulted cellar (possibly the penus of the household) and to the north
is a room in which an archaic altar, belonging to the Republican house,
has been found. On the south side of the courtyard is a group of rooms
used for household purposes, after which comes a series of finely decorated
rooms. At the west end are some rooms which are cut off from the
courtyard, and may, it is thought, have served for the cult of the Lares
(cf. Lares, aedes) ; and further west still are rooms probably used for
the cult of Vesta in connection with the temple. Two hoards of coins
were found in the house—830 Saxon coins, dating down to the middle
of the tenth century, in 1883 (NS 1883, 487-514), and 397 gold coins
dating from 335 to 467-472 a.d. in 1899 (ib. 1899, 327-330).
A statue of Numa with a head of an ideal Greek type of the fifth
century b.c., with a space for a bronze beard, was found in the house of
the Vestals. As the body shows, it probably belongs to the period
of Trajan (BC 1919, 211-224). The head shows evidence of the rite of
resectio (see Lucus Furrinae).
Auditorium Maecenatis : the modern name of the remains of a building
that stands in the angle between the via Merulana and the via Leopardi.