Villas of Ancient Rome - IBAM

THE VILLAS
OF THE CITY
OUTSKIRTS
coed with a low frieze representing
Dionysian and genre scenes against a
black background, surmounted by
vermilion red areas adorned with
foliage motifs. The original mosaic
floor had very fine tiles and a double
frame in encaustic painting. In later
times it was substituted with slabs of
marble.
The Villa of Agrippina
The fortuitous discovery of remains of
the Villa of Agrippina (Horti
Agrippinae) in August of 1999, in the
course of the construction of a parking
lot in the Janiculum,
filled the local
newspapers
with heated
polemics on
the eve of
the Jubilee of
the year 2000.
The villa belonged
to Agrippina, the daughter of Agrippa
and Augustus’ daughter Julia, who
married Germanicus and became the
mother of the emperor Caligula. The
complex stretched over various “terraces”
on the right bank of the Tiber,
between the river, the Janiculum and
the Vatican Field. It developed in particular
on the northern extremity of
the high ground known in modern
times as Collina di Santo Spirito- Hill
of the Holy Spirit, now occupied by
the complex of the “De Propaganda
Fide” College (College for the
Propagation of Faith). At his mother’s
death in 33 AD, Caligula inherited the
villa and built a circus, later known as
the “circus of Gaius and Caligula”, on
the northern boundary of the property
(in the area that
today extends
from piazza
San Pietro past
the Vatican
Basilica).
Caligula had an
obelisk brought
from Egypt in 37
AC and placed on the spina of the circus.
It was still standing in 1586 (on
Auditorium of Maecenas:
Interior
Roman coins
with the effigies
of Agrippina and Caligula
VILLAS
OF ANCIENT
2 5
ROME